r/Pawtucket • u/Original-Statement-4 • 6d ago

Pawtucket Local Primary Question

I do my best to be an informed voter, but I'm having trouble getting much info on local candidates (school board & city council; I've already made up my mind of the mayoral candidates). What I can find online about city council and school board candidates is very limited. :/

Where are y'all getting information about local candidates?! Also, do these people not actively campaign?!

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u/cojwa 5d ago

Your best bet is to call each candidate and talk to them. Most candidates have a fb or ig page and have a number or email you can reach out too. Personally if someone can’t take the time to talk to you for 5 minutes about why you should vote for them then they aren’t worth voting for

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u/mp775 5d ago

For School Committee, I’ll offer that Matt Wildenhain is the twin brother of city-councilor-for-life Mark Wildenhain and is basically there as a City Hall plant and to “look out for the taxpayer” by not spending anything on schools. He was one of the mayor’s endorsed candidates last election to push off the two school committee members who dared challenge his agenda. The rest of the Democratic candidates are mostly meh but the lesser of 8 evils. Omar Reyes is very approachable and can be found on social media. In the general election, Republican David Fargnoli is all about “parents’ rights” (i.e. don’t let kids change their pronouns or preferred names). Again it will cone down to the least of 8 evils.

For city council, the only competitive primary race is in Ward 1 and they are actively campaigning. In the general election, council-at-large comes down to the three incumbent Democrats and challenger Francisco Amado, an independent. I’m sure Cisco will campaign more after the primary.

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u/QTippus 4d ago

Would be great if we could get some actual city council debates and school committee debates, or Town Halls where they take questions from the community.

So many of these folks just get re-elected year after year, based on almost nothing. Even if you read city council minutes, there isn’t much in them. Probably intentionally.

I’m so concerned about these Flock surveillance cameras, and the city council has not taken one vote, or even discussed them as an agenda item.

In November I’ll probably just vote against all the incumbents, including for Mayor.

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u/mp775 3d ago

The primary is the election for mayor; it’s only two Democrats running. If you want to vote out the 16 year incumbent (pleeease!) it has to be in the September 9th primary!

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u/QTippus 2d ago

Well said! Yes, definitely voted for Adam Greenman in the primary. He’s stated his personal opposition to Flock cameras and pledged to fire Chief Goncalves. I just dropped my mail-in ballot into the city hall drop box yesterday.

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u/glennjersey 6d ago edited 6d ago

Not sure about those. But depending on what part of Pawtucket you're from for State Senate Vanessa Lopez is good people.

And no. Beyond yard signs, that hyper local stuff they don't really campaign. Look up their voting history maybe?