The time for talking is over, and on Tuesday, Greenfield residents will go to the polls to decide which two names will go on the ballot in November to become the city’s next mayor.
In a way, it’s too bad one of them has to leave. I personally think in another situation, Brickett Allis, Sheila Gilmour and Roxann Wedegartner would have made a great selectboard — although I’m hesitant to share that take, lest it fan the flames among those who want to abandon Greenfield’s mayoral system in favor of a return to the “leadership by committee” system which worked so well before.
For one of the three, the campaign will end Tuesday, and who remains when the dust settles may tell us what the voters may be thinking moving forward.
One thing I’ll be curious to see is how many people turn out, and now the progressive vote breaks. I know there is a concern in the Gilmour and Wedegartner camps that those two will split the progressive vote in the primary, which could set the table for Allis to grab one of the two final slots.
However, if the voter demographics in Greenfield have shifted as far to the left as some seem to think, then Aliis could end up on the cutting room floor, electorally speaking. And that is very much a possibility, lest we forget that current Mayor Bill Martin barely got past Patty Morey Walker the last time his name appeared on the ballot.
I also believe a Gilmour-Wedegartner final would benefit a number of the ballot initiatives, most notably the library project, which got a boost of its own by Martin’s recent executive order barring any non-library activities at the site because of accessibility issues.
There’s also a good chance that Allis may wind up benefiting from some of the actions taken recently by his fellow councilors. I’m guessing there are a few more conservative voters in Greenfield who aren’t wild about the recent efforts to pass ordinances on safe cities and banning certain types of guns—which probably won’t come up until after the general election — and non-binding resolutions related to abortion access and the impeachment of President Trump.
Allis has been the only candidate to speak out strongly against these types of measures, and, in doing so, has positioned himself as the only potential check against what looks to be a pretty activist council — one which could end up with a progressive super-majority depending on how some of the down-ticket races break in November.
Allis must be a threat given the amount of social media chatter related to his alleged “promise” to lower taxes if elected. It’s a promise he never made, but apparently is one that some of his supporters are expecting to see happen. If that’s the case, they are going to be seriously disappointed because it’s not likely to happen, regardless of who wins the race.
What Allis has promised to do is make an effort to try to control spending and reduce the tax rate, which will be challenging enough to pull off in a city with a lot of capital and infrastructure problems that badly need to be addressed.
Implementing a plan to address those problems starts in January. To get the opportunity requires getting past Tuesday, and Greenfield residents have a pretty important and clear choice to make. Hopefully, they will take the time to do so in larger numbers than we’ve seen recently.
See you at the polls.
Chris Collins is a Greenfield native who has covered local and regional politics for close to a quarter of a century. He can be reached at sourcechris.collins@gmail.com.