By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — It was a good night for incumbents and establishment candidates as, of the three Town Council winners in yesterday’s Town Election, two were incumbents and all three were men.
With yesterday’s election of incumbents Jonathan Chines and Michael McLane along with new board member Robert Vincent, voters returned a male majority to the Town Council. The only woman in the race and the youngest candidate, Katie Dolan, finished fourth, 174 votes behind McLane.
Chines topped the ticket for Town Council with 2,254 votes. Vincent was a close second with a vote total of 2,239. McLane picked up the third seat with 1,824 and Dolan came in fourth with 1,650 votes.
After the polls closed, the winners visited the set of WCAT’s Election Night Show.
“I’m so thrilled to have a chance to serve another term,” Chines said. “The Town Council works best when you have good, committed people. There were no bad choices.”
“It was wonderful to be able to engage with people face-to-face,” Chines added, after a couple of years of COVID.
Vincent reminisced about deciding to move to Wakefield in 2015 after he and his wife drove through and saw the Lake and the downtown.
“And now I’m on the Town Council,” he said.
He also paid tribute to two of his Wakefield “mentors,” the late Bill Chetwynd and Peter May.
McLane said that he ran an “old-fashioned,” self-funded campaign, relying on “dear friend” cards and word-of-mouth. McLane had been on the board for two months, having won a Special Election earlier this year to fill the seat vacated by the death of Councilor Peter May last fall.
McLane said that part of what got him to run for election was the over-development issue. He said that he has also advocated for more senior housing.
He said that he would be open to listening to all viewpoints.
“I’d rather be opening doors than closing them,” McLane said.
