Newton Councilor-Elect Alicia Bowman: What To Expect

NEWTON, MA — Councilor-elect Alicia Bowman edged out incumbent Greg Schwartz by 30 votes in Ward 6 on Election Day. But in that race there were 150 write-ins, and Schwartz has called for a recount, making the race's outcome a bit unclear. While it's within a candidate's rights to call for a recount, no matter the outcome, significant changes are rare, according to election officials.

Bowman said she understands this is a standard practice in tight elections and is setting her sites on catching up on laundry at home and then forward to January.

"This is democracy," she told Patch. "It would be highly unusual if 30 votes got overturned."

Last Tuesday after the elections were over she was surrounded by about 40 people from her team, her husband and supporters at the home of her treasurer.

She confesses it was a little nerve wracking as supporters were sending pictures of the tallies from each of the wards. Her campaign manager Rhanna Kidwell was putting them into a spreadsheet to add it up. She was behind by 10 votes and then suddenly ahead by 30.

"I was sitting down, luckily, when Rhanna told us," said Bowman. "It was really exciting. It was a closer race than I think we thought it would be."

She took time in the days after to recognize the work of friends and very supportive family, and ask them to stick around a bit more to help with the very involved process that is a recount.

"Now the hard work begins," she said. After running for nine months, knocking on some 2,800 doors herself and having friends knock on another couple hundred doors her campaign message is one that asks the city council to think more broadly.

"I'm not the professional politician, I'm just someone who is growing increasingly frustrated about how we're not thinking broadly about what's going on here," said Bowman. "We're limiting ourselves. That's really why I got into the race."

Her priorities as she prepares to be sworn in should everything with the recount go to plan are housing and transportation, environment, and equity, which, she said, all have common solutions.

"We have a housing crisis, and we're going to have to do something different about the way we approach it here," she told Patch, noting that some took her comments at one of the debates out of context. "We have to keep all the tools in the tool box, you have to be able to think about things differently. People who think I'm ready to end single family housing across the city, it's not what I said, we just need to keep our options open."

She's also started to reach out to people like the heads of commission on disability, council on aging, to get a sense of how to better represent those groups, especially as Councilor Cheryl Lappin, a strong advocate steps down.

She's planning to dig into the city's climate action plan to better understand that, and she's paying attention to the development at Riverside and the Northland project, which zoning approved last week and now heads to land use and then the city council.

"People should expect I'm going to continue supporting greater investment in our public transportation and helping the city be more active about walking and biking," she said. "There's a lot of things that we can do to improve transportation short term - bussing, pressure on the state to improve reducing congestion, and Green line extension improvements, 2040 is way too long to double the capacity. We should all be paying attention to the reconstruction of the pike in Allston and making sure there's a good plan for that. "

Bowman said she sees a need for a multi-pronged approach there that includes ensuring housing and transportation are greener.

"I'm ready to dig in on those details and be a leader on that," she said. "I'm busy, we're going to take a few deep breaths. There's a lot that needs to be done."

Related:

Newton Election Results 2019
Election Day In Newton: 25 Percent Turnout

Newton City Councilor At-Large Greg Schwartz To Call For Recount

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).