Bernadette and David Kinnier say that rising taxes are the top issue in the city of Concord.
“We’ve lived in the same house for 28 years now, and it just keeps going up and up and up,” Bernadette said. “It gets harder every year to pay for it.”
At the same time, they didn’t see voting against incumbent councilors as the solution. They wanted experienced city leaders, above all.
“I know it’s hard for them. We need a new police station, we need all these new things,” Bernadette Kinnier said. “I like what’s going on, and I think they’ve got control of it. I’m going with, let’s just keep what we’ve got.”
The Kinniers were aligned with voters across the city on Tuesday, many of whom voiced worry about the affordability of local taxes and housing costs broadly at the polls, while citywide, incumbents won every race where they faced a challenger.
Some races were closer than others. The incumbent who came closest to losing was at-large councilor Fred Keach, who eked out a win over a community organizer Fisto Ndayishimiye by just six-tenths of a percentage point, or 68 votes.
Mayor Byron Champlin won re-election, taking home 63% of the vote against challenger Kate West. Champlin campaigned on wanting to continue the groundwork he’d laid in his first term, arguing there were too many upcoming projects and challenges before Concord to hand a newcomer the gavel.
Once results were set, Champlin wound down with friends and supporters at a South End brewery. He was grateful, he said, that voters delivered him another two years as mayor.
“We have a lot to do in terms of economic development, we have a lot to do in terms of housing,” he said. “With the challenges that are facing us, it’s going to be really critical for the council to learn how to work together effectively and efficiently, share ideas and come to consensus.”
West, a single parent and former school board member, called for a more welcoming atmosphere between the council and its constituents, promising to add a public comment period and greater public access overall to council meetings. West also pushed for a more progressive tack on handling homelessness.
As voting hours waned outside the Abbot-Downing School Tuesday evening, West said her goal was for a closer matchup than two years ago, when she took home around 20% of the vote.
She succeeded, winning 37% of voters’ support. While Champlin still enjoyed strong support, it was a less dominant showing than two years ago, when around three-quarters of voters backed him in a three-way race.
“To me, this is a really big win,” West said after results came in. “I know it’s not a technical win, but in terms of connecting with the community and being a better representative and learning more skills and learning more about my community in order to see a better future, this is great.”
Among the most competitive races in the city was a five-way contest for two at-large, or citywide, seats on the council.
Ndayishimiye won in seven of 10 wards, under preliminary results, and looked to be on his way to taking a seat on the council. Then the final results landed from Ward 10, which Keach won by nearly 200 votes, giving him enough to keep his seat. Fellow Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton, who won comfortably with a third of the total vote, lives in Ward 10.
Grady Sexton and Keach will both serve another four years as citywide representatives. The campaign signs for the two incumbents were stapled one on top of the other at polling places on election day.
In every race citywide where an incumbent was on the ballot, they won. Two new faces Mark Davie in Ward 4 and Aislinn Kalob in Ward 6, will join the city council table come January. Councilors Karen McNamara and Paula McLaughlin opted not to run for re-election.
Despite roughly half of the Ward council and school races uncontested, voter turnout held atypically high. Throughout the day, ward moderators said that things had been slow – “even for a city election,” as Ward 5 moderator Nick Wallner said. Evidently, they picked up later in the day.
Two years ago, with an open mayor’s seat for the first time in more than fifteen years, 28% of registered voters, or around 7,000 people, filled out ballots. It was a record-breaking turnout for a municipal election. Around the same number of voters completed ballots on Tuesday.
Charlotte Matherly and Jeremy Margolis contributed reporting.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with final election results from the city clerk’s office.