Familiarity proved to be the outcome of yesterday’s Fall River Municipal Election as all the incumbents who ran were re-elected and the open seats will be filled by candidates who had previously held public office.
A little over 19 percent of Fall River’s registered voters cast ballots in the election, falling well below the turnout of recent municipal elections.
Mayor Pall Coogan earned a third term in office, defeating former Mayor and Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter. Mayor Coogan received 6,643 votes (60 percent) to Sutter’s 4,310 (39 percent).
Here are comments made by both candidates as they addressed supporters last night.
The seven incumbents running for city council were all re-elected, with two former councilors selected to fill the open seats. Linda Pereira, Brad Kilby, Cliff Ponte, Shawn Cadime, Joseph Camara, Andrew Raposo, Paul Hart, Michelle Dionne and Laura Washington will all start their next term in January with Mr. Ponte and Mr. Hart returning to City Council Chambers.
Ricky Tith finished tenth, followed by Gabriel “Boomer” Amral, Joshua Teixeira, Jordan James Silvia, Alexander Silva, Bob Pearson, Gloria Saddler, Paulo Amaral, and Joseph Salvador.
For school committee, five incumbents have earned another term, Kevin Aguiar, Sara Rodrigues, Michelle Mimi Larrivee Shelli-Ann Pereira and Bobby Baily. Tom Khoury, who chose not to run for re-election two years ago, was elected to return to the committee.
Falling short in the election were Collin Dias, Warren Alves, Rene Brown and Charles Chase.
During live coverage of the election results on FRCMedia and FRGTV, former Mayor John Mitchell said it is always difficult for new candidates to break through to be elected for the first time.
All the winners of yesterday’s election will be inaugurated on January 2.
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