Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo Launches Re-Election Bid

SALEM, MA — Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo on Wednesday launched his re-election bid two years after he won the special election to finish out the term of former mayor and current Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.

Pangallo, who served as Driscoll's chief of staff prior to her seeking statewide office, said being the Witch City's chief administration has been the "honor of my life" and that "we still have more to do to ensure that Salem continues to be safe and welcoming, affordable and forward-looking — a place led with competence and with compassion."

Pangallo received about 52.1 percent of the vote in the May 2023 special election with former Salem Mayor Neil Harrington, who served in the city's top elected office from 1990-1997, earning 47.5 percent.

At the time, Pangallo told Patch the victory was "good validation" of both his previous 10 years at City Hall and of his optimistic outlook on the proactive and data-driven role that municipal services can play in the lives of Witch City citizens.

"Our work is just getting started," he said in the campaign announcement on Wednesday. "And at this moment in our history, it's more vital than ever."

"We support our neighbors and we know the importance of valuing everyone in our community," he said. "Those are principles that drive who we are in Salem and they're deeply connected to our unique history. We want our government to be reliable and equitable in the services that it delivers and focused on facts in the policy that it creates."

He listed what he considered his accomplishments over the past two years as:

• Salem is now the #1 public school district among all Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities.
• Our professional approach to City finances resulted in the smallest single-family tax increase on the North Shore, just 1.8%.
• And we fought for and won an inclusionary housing law that requires affordable housing in new buildings.

"I love this city, and I love this job — being able to help make a positive difference in the lives of my neighbors and to shape for the better the place that I love, my hometown and the city where I'm raising my own family," he said.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)