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Three Council seats turn over

Updated September 22, 2026

What's happening

Three of Somerville's eleven city councilors have resigned effective December 31, 2026, and two of the seats go to a special election early next year. Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen sent his letter on September 3 because he won the 27th Middlesex House seat in the September 1 primary; Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott announced the same day that he would leave too, timing his departure to Ewen-Campen's so the city can run one special election for both wards instead of two. Both put irrevocable resignations before the Council on September 10 and asked Council President Lance Davis to place a special-election order on the next agenda (Sept 10 digest). At-large Councilor Will Mbah, the other primary winner, resigned by letter on September 11, also effective December 31; his seat passes to Marianne Walles without an election.

Scott expects the special election "in late January or early February of 2027." No date has been set, and Rice's campaign says none is likely until the seats are formally vacant. The Council's next regular meeting is September 24.

The story

Who is leaving, and what they take with them

Scott has held Ward 2 since 2017, when he unseated a 15-year incumbent, and chairs Legislative Matters, the committee holding the ethical procurement ordinance, the body-camera documents, the rental registry and now the civilian oversight ordinance. His resignation letter lists the condo-conversion protections, the Office of Housing Stability, the wage-theft ordinance and Ward 2 bike lanes and parks as what he got done, and names what he did not: a rental registry, alternative emergency response, social housing, and enforcement of the 2019 vacant-properties and short-term-rental ordinances, which he says the Council passed and no administration ever funded. He says he will keep working on those "outside of my role on the City Council," and told the Independent his Cambridge counterparts' body-camera footage "isn't helping a soul right now" (Cambridge Somerville Independent, Sept 11).

Ewen-Campen has held Ward 3 since 2017 and chairs Land Use, which is about to hold the October 1 hearing on the administration's zoning package and still carries the cottage petitions. He is the lead sponsor of the ethical procurement ordinance and sits ex officio on the Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee. He is also leaving his research job at Harvard Medical School to work the State House seat full time (Ben Ewen-Campen for State Rep newsletter, Sept 6).

Mbah, at-large since 2017 apart from one term, is Council Vice President, chairs Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters, and is a trustee of the Job Creation and Retention Trust. At the September 10 meeting he asked when the special election would be so he could time his own resignation and let "my successor start immediately with the other newly elected"; Davis said he would walk him through the charter. The letter came the next day.

How the seats get filled

The two kinds of vacancy work in opposite ways under charter section 2-12. An at-large seat goes to the defeated at-large candidate with the next-highest total in the last municipal election: the clerk notifies the Council and the Board of Election Commissioners within seven days, the board certifies the candidate, and the candidate is sworn in within 15 days if willing. That is Walles, fifth in November 2025 with 7,900 votes; Mbah's letter says flatly that "Marianne Walles will succeed me." A ward vacancy with more than 180 days left on the term forces the Council to "immediately order a special election" for the remainder. Terms run to the first business day of January 2028, so the winners in Wards 2 and 3 serve about eleven months before the regular November 2027 election.

Who is running

  • Ward 3. Derrick Rice of Craigie Street in Spring Hill declared on September 12 (Cambridge Somerville Independent). He organized the 89-voter body-camera petition, filed organizational papers with the state on March 27, and is vice chair of the charter's Review of Multiple-Member Bodies Committee. Scott has endorsed him. Serena Taylor of Prospect Hill, president emerita of the Somerville Homeless Coalition, filed with the state on August 24 and has not formally announced.
  • Ward 2. Emily Doran, co-chair of the Union Square Neighborhood Council and part of the team that negotiated the SomerNova community benefits, has told the Independent she is interested. Scott says he is recruiting candidates himself.

Somerville YIMBY put "the upcoming special election for City Council" on the agenda of its September 23 meeting (Somerville YIMBY newsletter, Sept 16).

What changes on the Council

Legislative Matters, Land Use and Appointments all change hands on January 1, and the Council loses its vice president. The ethical procurement ordinance loses its lead sponsor and a co-sponsor; the divestment fight's October 9 charter deadline now has an end date attached to the people pushing it. The rental registry loses the councilor who promised to write it himself. And for roughly a month, until the special election, the Council sits at ten members with two wards unrepresented, while Walles votes on whatever lands in January.

What's next

  • September 24, 2026 — next regular Council meeting; the special-election order Scott and Ewen-Campen requested is due "on the next agenda."
  • December 31, 2026 — all three resignations take effect. The clerk then has seven days to notify the election commissioners on the at-large seat.
  • January 2027 — Walles is certified and sworn in within 15 days of the vacancy; Ewen-Campen and Mbah are sworn in at the State House.
  • Late January or early February 2027 — the combined Ward 2 and Ward 3 special election, on Scott's estimate; no date is set.
  • 2027 — the winners run again in the regular municipal election on November 2, 2027, if they want to keep the seats. Nobody is raising money against Mayor Wilson for that ballot: his committee had $16,421.98 on hand as of July 31 per OCPF, and the other five mayoral committees took in $538.63 between them, so the Ward 2 and 3 special election is the only real contest in sight. See Who is who for the current roster and State primary for the primary that started this.