Mayor Jon Mitchell Re-Elected To Fourth Term

Jon Mitchell 8,371
Charlie Perry 5,496

NEW BEDFORD - The final votes have been tallied following another election season, as the political landscape of the Whaling City goes thru its newest changes.

A total of 14,098 votes were cast on Tuesday in New Bedford's final municipal elections. The ballot featured elections for mayor, city councilors, and school committee, as well as a ballot question to on whether to extend the mayoral term from two to four years.

With 13,390 votes cast in the mayoral race, Mayor Jon Mitchell took home 60% of the vote with 8,371 votes in his favor to secure a fourth term in the Whaling City, while his opponent Charlie Perry garnered 5,496 votes for 39%.

Mitchell and a large swath of supporters packed the Waypoint Event Center on the city's waterfront for election night. Those at the mayor's headquarters kept tabs on the race by watching a projection of the unofficial results as they came in from campaign members at City Hall.

The roars of applause from the Mitchell crowd grew louder with each update on the race. Finally, when it became clear that he had won, the mayor delivered a victory speech to thank his family, friends, staff, and all supporters of his campaign for a fourth term as New Bedford's mayor. Mitchell started out the speech by thanking Charlie Perry for challenging him during a spirited campaign.

“We're not perfect in our administration,” Mitchell said. “We work hard and think we're good at what we do, but we do need to get better at our game all the time. And going through a campaign like this allows us to figure out what we can do better.”

Mayor Mitchell also found the time to thank Police Chief Joseph Cordeiro, who was at the event center for the celebration. Mitchell introduced Cordeiro by seemingly alluding to the complaint filed against the chief by Charlie Perry alleging racist conduct, which wound up being dismissed weeks before the election.

“I want to give a special shout-out to my good friend and one fabulous police chief whose endured a lot,” said Mitchell. “Joe knows what he's doing. He's a really effective police chief and we have some issues in certain neighborhoods in our city that we're going to fix things, and he's going to be at the tip of the spear. I have full confidence in him and I'm so glad he's our police chief,” he said.

Candidate Charlie Perry was at his County Street headquarters when he got the election results. Though disappointed, Perry told WBSM News that he's always wanted to be in politics, and didn't rule out another campaign for a different position.

“I'll continue to be around,” Perry said. “I'll continue to run in different races whether its city wide or state wide, I'll always do something.”

Perry added that this election will challenge those in city politics to “be better”, and said he hopes that some of the issues brought up in his campaign will be addressed by the Mitchell administration.

“I love this city. You know, we've got great days ahead and we're going to work very hard at things we need to do in the next couple of years,” Mayor Mitchell said to WBSM News following his victory speech. “Whether it's fixing some of our streets, making certain neighborhoods safer, managing the city's finances, or building our schools, whatever it is, we're going to succeed and we've got the energy behind us to make it happen.”