Gomes Pursuit of Two Seats to Highlight New Bedford Preliminaries

NEW BEDFORD — It’s preliminary election day in New Bedford as voters ready to cast their ballot for City Councilor of Ward One and Ward Four, City Councilor At-Large and even the City’s first four-year mayor.

This year’s election season has been rather quiet, with only two of six wards holding preliminary elections this fall. However, things could shake up quickly with a candidate, already an incumbent City Councilor, running for two elected positions.

In Ward One, freshman City Councilor Brad Markey faces a challenge from candidates Melissa Costa and Dan Costa. Ward Three City Councilor Hugh Dunn seeks re-election against candidate Guy Larock. Dunn was elected Councilor after beating Larock in 2017.

Ward Four features a lengthy list of candidates as incumbent Councilor Dana Rebeiro has stuck to her promise to not exceed two terms in office. Running for Rebeiro’s seat is former Ward Four Councilor Joseph “Jo-Jo” Fortes, Sean Carney, Derek Baptiste, Nair Barros, Dennis Houtman and Kenneth Gilbert. Fortes lost to Rebeiro in the 2018 final election.

Councilor At-Large incumbents running for re-election include Ian Abreu , Naomi Carney, Debora Coelho, Brian Gomes,  and Linda Morad.  The race also includes candidates Paul Chasse, Leo Choquette., Russel Dearing, Carlos Felix, Michael Janson, and Lisa White.

The race for the city's first four-year mayor includes incumbent Mayor Jon Mitchell, whp is running against a field of first-time candidates. Tyson Moultrie, Michael Medeiros, Jose Perez, and David Pimentel are also running for mayor.

Mitchell does technically have one potentially tough competitor, well, if he decides to seriously pursue the Mayor’s office.

Longtime City Councilor At-Large Brian Gomes mistakenly filed to run for both the Mayoral race and for re-election to his own City Council seat. With his experience, Gomes could be a mayoral candidate that could prove a challenge for Mayor Mitchell.

City residents may cast their votes anytime between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. at any of the usual polling locations in the city.