Either incumbent Mayor Greg Verga, incumbent City Councilor at-Large Jeff Worthley or former City Council President Paul Lundberg will move on to face each other in the Nov. 4 Municipal Election after a Preliminary Election on Tuesday.
The three candidates, all Gloucester natives, faced off in a Preliminary Election on Tuesday in which turnout was light.
At 6:04 p.m. at the Ward 1 polls at East Veterans Elementary School on Webster Street 580 had been cast at Precinct 1, and 370 were cast at Precinct 2.
At 4:29 p.m. at the Ward 1 polls at Our Lady of Good Voyage Youth Center on Prospect Street, Precinct 1 had 253 voters and Precinct 2 had 244 voters.
At 5:24 p.m., the Ward 3 polls at the Gloucester High field house on Leslie O. Johnson Road, had 258 votes cast in Precinct 1 and 376 votes cast at Precinct 2.
At 5:18 p.m., Ward 4 Precinct 1 had seen 460 voters turn out to the polls atBeeman Memorial Elementary School on Cherry Street.
At 4:44 p.m., 621 voters had trickled into the Ward 4 Precinct 2 polls ar Plum Cove Elementary School on Hickory Street.
Erin Ryan came to vote with her daughter, Areanna Ryan, 25, who works as a medical assistant. Erin Ryan said she was emotional voting with her adult daughter for the first time for mayor, though they have voted together in past presidential elections.
“It’s just nice, one day you are taking them to kindergarten and the next thing you are voting together,” Erin Ryan said. She said it’s important to pay attention to local elections and to stay informed about things like budgets and where the money is going. “It’s super important to know what’s going on in your community.
A negative turn
In a sign that negative campaigning has made its way to a mayor’s race on the eve of the Preliminary Election, signs stating “Mayor’s Race ’25 Don’t Let Your Vote Be Worthless” cropped up in various places around the city.
The signs appear to be a not so subtle play on the name of mayoral candidate Worthley.
“I’m focused on my positive message for a better future for Gloucester residents,” Worthley said in an email late Monday afternoon. “There are more than 600 signs out in residents’ yards in support of our campaign and 100 more requests our volunteers are still hoping to get to. I don’t know who’s behind that effort and it’s not slowing me down one bit.”
Verga said he has been made aware of the signs, as some were spotted near his own.
“We didn’t initiate this,” he said. “It’s not something I would have done.”
He said what has been reserved for Washington politics has trickled down to little cities and towns all over the country.
Lundberg, who was out knocking on doors late Monday, also said his campaign had nothing to do with the negative lawn signs.
“Absolutely not. as I said to you and the other candidates, whatever you have done in the past is between you and the voters,” the former City Council president said. “We had nothing to do with it.”
Lundberg, a former city councilor, said this was the first time he has seen negative signs like this.
“I discourage it, I don’t encourage it,” he said of negative campaigning.
Standouts
There were dueling standouts at Grant Circle around 5:15 p.m. with folks from the Lundberg campaign standing out on the northbound, Washington Street/Salt Water Grille side of the circle, while a smaller group of Verga supporters were seen in the vicinity of Washington and Poplar streets.
Lundberg was alone holding a sign at the entrance to the Plum Cove School around 4:40 p.m. Just prior to a reporter showing up, Lundberg said for a couple of hours, his wife Christine and he, and Verga and his wife Kellie had stood across from one another across the driveway in what Lundberg said “was a cordial education competition” with voters.