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Three Council seats turn over

Updated October 31, 2026

What's happening

Ward 3 has a real race. Serena Hollmeyer Taylor, president emeritus of the Somerville Homeless Coalition, formally declared on Wednesday, October 28, setting up a contest with Derrick Rice, who declared in September for the seat Ben Ewen-Campen is leaving (Cambridge Somerville Independent, Oct 30). Ward 2 still has no declared candidate in our sources.

The calendar is set. Nomination papers go out November 16, and candidates need 50 signatures from registered voters in their ward, filed by 5 p.m. December 9. The preliminary is Tuesday, February 2, 2027, and the final is Wednesday, March 24, 2027. Elections Director Nicholas Salerno presented that schedule to the City Council on October 8, and it was placed on file without questions (Oct 8 digest). Salerno said it is the earliest schedule city rules and state law allow. The board wanted a Tuesday final on March 23, but that is Holy Tuesday, so the vote moves to the next day. "Precedent has been set in the past for different days of the week other than Tuesday, so don't let that get anybody too nervous here," he said (Cambridge Somerville Independent, Oct 9).

Three of Somerville's eleven councilors have resigned effective December 31, 2026. Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen sent his letter on September 3 after winning 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 it so the city could run one special election for both wards. "By announcing my irrevocable intent to resign at the end of 2026, it allows the city to schedule one special election for both seats," he said. Both put irrevocable resignations before the Council on September 10 (Sept 10 digest). At-large Councilor Will Mbah, the other primary winner, resigned by letter on September 11. His seat passes to Marianne Walles without an election.

The calendar means two wards go unrepresented for about twelve weeks, from January 1 until the March 24 winners are sworn in. That's well past Scott's own guess of "late January or early February."

The story

Who is leaving, and what they take with them

Scott has held Ward 2 since 2017, when tenant advocates urged him to run and he unseated a 15-year incumbent. He chairs Legislative Matters, which holds:

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. It also names what he didn't: a rental registry, alternative emergency response, social housing, and enforcement of the 2019 vacant-properties and short-term-rental ordinances, which he says no administration ever funded. He says he will keep working on those "outside of my role on the City Council" (Cambridge Somerville Independent, Sept 11). On October 8, approving the Armory arts lease, he told staff "it's my fervent wish that the city can manage to be a better landlord going forward" (Arts and culture).

Ewen-Campen has held Ward 3 since 2017. He chairs Land Use, which on October 15 sent four of the administration's five zoning amendments toward the Council and kept the backyard-cottage fight, which he says he hopes to finish before his term ends. On October 8 he won approval for plain-language fact sheets on every zoning amendment. He is the lead sponsor of the ethical procurement ordinance and is unopposed on November 3 for the House seat Erika Uyterhoeven is leaving for the Senate. His last big local item to take effect is the notice-of-sale ordinance, on October 14.

Mbah has been at-large since 2017, apart from one term. He is Council Vice President, chairs Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters, and is a trustee of the Job Creation and Retention Trust. He won the 34th Middlesex House primary to replace Christine Barber.

How the seats get filled

Under charter section 2-12 the two kinds of vacancy work in opposite ways.

  • At-large seats go 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's Walles, a labor leader, social worker and former mayoral candidate who finished fifth in November 2025 with 7,900 votes.
  • Ward seats with more than 180 days left on the term require a special election for the remainder. Ewen-Campen ran unopposed in 2025, so there is no runner-up to tap even if the rules allowed it. Terms run to the first business day of January 2028, so the March winners serve about nine months before the regular November 2027 election.

The Council approved the clerk's request to hold the election (26-1437) on September 24 (Legistar).

Who is running

  • Ward 3: Derrick Rice. Rice, of Craigie Street in Spring Hill, declared on September 12 (Cambridge Somerville Independent). He is a software engineer in data privacy and security with a union-organizing background, organized the 89-voter body-camera petition, and is vice chair of the charter's Review of Multiple-Member Bodies Committee. Scott has endorsed him. Rice worries about turnout in a winter special; his plan is door-knocking (Tufts Daily, Oct 2).
  • Ward 3: Serena Hollmeyer Taylor. A Union Square-area resident since 2011, Taylor filed with the state on August 24 and declared October 28. She co-founded the Somerville Non-Profit Collaborative and sat on Mayor Jake Wilson's transition committee, advising on homelessness, health and human services. Her priorities are more housing, keeping longtime residents in their homes, and better streets, safer transportation and parks. Her pitch is pragmatism over ideology: "As a nonprofit leader, I don't have the luxury of playing politics. I have to bring people together, listen and actually solve problems." The race pits Scott's endorsed organizer against a coalition-builder from the city's nonprofit world.
  • Ward 2. Nobody has formally declared in our sources. Emily Doran, co-chair of the Union Square Neighborhood Council, who helped negotiate the Somernova community benefits, has expressed interest. Scott is recruiting, telling neighbors "YOU can do this job as long as you care deeply for your community."

What changes on the Council

On January 1, Legislative Matters, Land Use and Appointments all change hands, and the Council loses its vice president. The ethical procurement ordinance loses its lead sponsor and a co-sponsor. The rental registry loses the councilor who promised to write it himself. From January 1 to late March the Council sits at ten members, with Walles voting and Wards 2 and 3 empty.

What's next

  • November 16, 2026: nomination papers available for Wards 2 and 3.
  • December 9, 2026, 5 p.m.: nomination papers, with 50 signatures of registered ward voters, due.
  • December 31, 2026: all three resignations take effect. The clerk then has seven days to notify the election commissioners about 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.
  • Tuesday, February 2, 2027: preliminary election in Wards 2 and 3.
  • Wednesday, March 24, 2027: final special election.
  • November 2, 2027: regular municipal election. Nobody is raising money against Mayor Wilson: his committee had $16,421.98 on hand as of July 31, and the other five mayoral committees together took in $538.63. See Who is who for the current roster.