What To Know About Worcester's Increasingly Crowded 2023 Election

WORCESTER, MA — The 2023 Worcester election won't officially begin until roughly the end of May.

At the same time, the Worcester election began months ago.

That's right: a pretty sizeable number of people are clamoring to obtain — or re-obtain — seats on the Worcester city council and school committee this year. One month before candidates can even pull papers to run in 2023, seven new candidates have already taken the first step toward running — and that's just on the city council side.

On Wednesday alone, candidates Maydee Morales and Jose Rivera held dueling campaign kickoff and fundraising events (at Mint Kitchen and 2 Chefs Restaurant, respectively) in their bids for at-large seats.

In 2023, every city council seat plus the mayor will be on the ballot. Worcester voters will also experience the city's first district school committee election — for decades, school committee members have been elected all at-large, a system so inequitable it led to a legal settlement in 2021.

Here's what we know so far about the various races coming up in Worcester this year.

Key Deadlines

Like we said, election season in Worcester hasn't really started yet. Candidates can't even pull papers to run for office until April 4. Those are due back May 30, which is when we'll know who will be on the ballot. Candidates in some cases will pull papers and register their campaign with the state, but will decide not to run before the May deadline.

That said, candidates who do return papers have until June 8 to withdraw from the election. Voters will have until Aug. 26 to register to vote in the preliminary election, which is scheduled for Sept. 5 if needed.

School Committee

Every sitting school committee member will seek reelection in 2023. Members Tracy Novick, Sue Mailman and Laura Clancey have all said they will run for two at-large seats. Jermaine Johnson, Jermoh Kamara and Molly McCullough will all run for district seats.

Unlike city council candidates, Worcester school committee candidates do not have to register their campaigns with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance. We likely won't know who the other candidates are until after the filing period opens on April 4.

Even with all the incumbents in, there are still three district seats open for newcomers to fill: District D covering parts of downtown, Vernon Hill and Main South; District B covering parts of downtown and the neighborhoods around Green Hill Park; and District E covering the entire southern part of the city west of Route 146. See a full map here.

City Council

You could say District 1 Councilor Sean Rose kicked off the 2023 municipal election when he announced in early December that he would not run for reelection. He was followed soon after by District 4 Councilor Sarai Rivera.

As of today, At-Large Councilor Moe Bergman, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj, District 3 Councilor George Russell, At-Large Councilor Kate Toomey and Mayor Joe Petty have all said they're running for reelection. District 2 Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson and At-Large Councilors Thu Nguyen, Khrystian King and Donna Colorio area all almost certainly returning this year.

In February, Mero-Carlson raised nearly $14,000 for her reelection bid — the fourth-highest of any city council candidate in the state that month, according to OCPF. Only Petty and King raised more than $5,000 over the first two months of 2023 at $9,052 and $6,396, respectively.

Here's where each councilor's campaign balance stood at the end of February, according to state records:

• Russell — $64,615.45
• Mero-Carlson — $46,160.48
• Colorio — $24,465.89
• Haxhiaj — $23,987.11
• Bergman — $21,751.41
• King — $10,341.70
• Petty — $10,015.58
• Nguyen — $3,781.00
• Toomey — $3,264.94

So who might unseat one of the incumbents this year? Here are the candidates who have registered campaigns with the state so far:

Robert Bilotta

Bilotta is the former chair of the Worcester Commission on Disabilities, which is now known as the Accessibility Advisory Commission. He is also the most recent person to file a campaign with the state. His OCPF filing does not say which seat he'll seek, but he is a District 2 resident.

Johanna Hampton-Dance

The Union Hill resident attempted to unseat Mero-Carlson in the 2021 election, but fell short by about 260 votes. She'll attempt to pick up an at-large seat in 2023.

Ted Kostas

So far, Kostas is the only newcomer who's a registered Republican. His OCPF filing does not say which seat he'll seek, but his address is in District 4.

Maydee Morales

Morales is a longtime social services worker in Worcester, most recently managing the emergency homeless shelter at Blessed Sacrament church off Park Avenue. She's running for an at-large seat.

Jenny Pacillo

So far the only candidate running for Rose's District 1 seat, Pacillo is pretty well known in Worcester, whether for her tweets, winning a Worcester Magazine honor or running the Community Preservation Act ballot question campaign last year (and working on Petty's state senate campaign).

Domenica Perrone

Perrone works as the director of community engagement at Clark University, and was named one of the 40 under 40 in 2022 by the Worcester Business Journal. She'll seek an at-large seat in 2023

Jose Rivera

Rivera, a former boxing champion, has come out swinging over the past few weeks after a Feb. 23 campaign launch. He's running for an at-large seat.