Information on District 9 City Council Candidates

The preliminary municipal election is scheduled for Tuesday, September 22nd. Polls open at 7 am and close at 8 pm. The Allston-Brighton District 9 City Councilor race is being contested with four candidates; the two top vote-getters will face off during the November municipal election.

Also on the ballot:

• Mayor of Boston, where incumbent Thomas Menino faces three challengers, City Councilors-At-Large Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon, and developer Kevin McCrea; and
• Four City Councilors-At-Large, where incumbents John Connolly and Stephen Murphy face 13 challengers, with the top eight vote-getters moving on to the November municipal election.
  

District 9 City Councilor Candidate Information

All four candidates for Allston-Brighton District 9 City Councilor have websites that include positions on some issues:

• Mark S. Ciommo (incumbent)
• Abigail C. Furey
• Benjamin Ian Narodick
• Alex Selvig

Boston Neighborhood News ran interview shows -- one with Abigail Furey and Alex Selvig, the other with Mark Ciommo and Benjamin Narodick -- some of which can be found on YouTube. The following candidates have YouTube channels set up:

• Abigail Furey
• Benjamin Narodick (also includes BNN interview with Mark Ciommo)
• Alex Selvig

The first candidates forum (9/15/09 at WGBH) is summarized here.

Second candidates forum (9/17/09 at Elks) is summarized here and tweeted here. Emails discussed here and here. Online video is here (alternatively, the same video content is here).

The Allston-Brighton TAB has covered the candidates in the following stories:

• "District 9 candidates make their plea for your vote" (9/17/09)
  
• "District 9 Boston City Council Hopefuls Have Housing, Expansion on Their Minds" (7/15/09)
• "Selvig kicks off campaign for Allston-Brighton's City Council seat" (7/2/09)
  
• "A-B’s district city councilor, Mark Ciommo, could face three challengers" (5/14/09)
  

The Boston Globe has not covered the race to date. The following are searches on the names of the candidates to the Globe's archives (Narodick has no hits):

• Mark Ciommo
  
• Abigail Furey
• Alex Selvig
  

The Boston Herald continues its tradition of not covering the District 9 City Council race as well as virtually ignoring all Allston-Brighton neighborhood issues -- unless they can put a picture of a Harvard rat on the front page.

Campaign finance reports are summarized here, and individual reports posted at Harry Mattison's blog:

• Mark Ciommo
  
• Abigail Furey
  
• Benjamin Narodick
  
• Alex Selvig
  

Some of the candidates have published Op-Ed columns and letters-to-the-editor in local newspapers during 2009:

• Selvig, letter, Allston-Brighton TAB, 8/20/09, "Why the 10-year wait for commuter rail service?"
  
• Ciommo, letter, Allston-Brighton TAB, 5/22/09, "Allston-Brighton's city councilor, Mark Ciommo, supports 5-zone plan for Boston Public Schools"
• Furey, letter, Allston-Brighton TAB, 2/19/09, "Letter: Seeking explanations from Boston College Community Task Force" (co-author: Ram Rao)
• Furey, Op-Ed, Boston Globe, 1/29/09, "BC's mixed blessings" (co-author: Ram Rao)
• Furey, letter, Boston Globe, 1/4/09, "New BC dorm would be in heart of a residential neighborhood"
  

And here at the Brighton Centered Blog you can find a story about any of the candidates using the tag's at the end of the articles or these links:

• Mark Ciommo
• Abigail Furey
• Benjamin Narodick
• Alex Selvig

All the blog posts can also be found by using the "election2009" tag here at Brighton Centered.


Corrections and/or additions? Email me at pahre@comcast.net

Image of question mark in Esbjerg by alexanderdrachman provided through a Creative Commons license.