Beverly City Council Race Gets Expensive

BEVERLY, MA — With just one contested race on last month's preliminary election ballot, just four candidates running for office in Beverly were required to file campaign finance reports from covering contributions and expenditures between Jan. 9 and Sept. 6. But if those Ward 3 campaign reports are a bellwether, this year's races for city council in Beverly could be among the most expensive in Beverly.

In the race for the Ward Three City Council seat, Stacy Ames had raised $13,249.32 between Jan. 1 and Sept. 6, when the pre-preliminary election reports were due. She had spent $8,915.04 of that and also had outstanding liabilities of $1,614.48. The total amount raised by Ames includes $3,759.44 she contributed to her own campaign.

Her opponent, Kris Silverstein, had raised $4,855 and had spent all but $897.44 of that by the Sept. 6 report date. Silverstein had also received in-kind contributions for campaign rack cards valued at $176.65.

Of the two candidates who lost in last month's preliminary election, Eupilo Marciano raised $841.70 and Kirstin Shapiro raised $750.

Candidates in the contested races that did not have enough candidates to warrant a preliminary election do not have to submit reports until after the election. Below is the most recent data available on those candiddates.

Ward Five City Council

Incumbent Ward 5 City Councilor Donald Martin has not submitted a campaign finance report since the 2018 year-end report. At the time, he had $302.71. His challenger in the Nov. 5 election, Kathleen M. Feldman has not submitted campaign finance reports.

At-Large City Council

While Timothy P. Flaherty, Julie Flowers and Paul M. Guanci are running unopposed for reelection, there is still something at stake on Nov. 5: the top vote-getter in the election will become city council president. None of the candidates submitted pre-preliminary election reports. But at the year-end report for 2018, they had the following balances in their campaign accounts, according to the City Clerk's office:

• Flaherty: $700
• Flowers: $40.42, with outstanding liabilities of $2,718.65, stemming from loans Flowers and family members made to her campaign. All of the liabilities stemmed from when she ran for election in 2017.
• Guanci: $1,302.77

Ward Four School Committee

In the only other contested race on the ballot, school committee member John Mullady had no campaign funds when he submitted his 2018 year-end report. His challenger, Jeffrey C. Silva, has not submitted any campaign finance reports.