Plymouth Votes
Horse Track/Casino Rejected by Vast Margins; Mahoney and Bletzer Elected to Select Board; Bolotin elected to Planning Board; Nessralla elected Town Meeting Member
Plymouth went to the polls on Saturday, May 21st, overwhelmingly rejecting a horse track/casino proposal, and electing members of the Select Board, the Planning and School Boards, and Town Meeting Members.
It was one of the more hotly contested elections in recent memory in America’s Home Town, with Holtec’s proposed nuclear dumping and a proposed horse track/casino roiling local waters.
Ballot Question 4 asked Plymouth voters if they were in favor of a Horse Track/Casino on the County Woodlot. According to unofficial results from the Plymouth Town Clerk’s Office, “No” received 7,098 votes, or 88% of the vote, and “Yes” received 970 votes, or 12% of the total vote.
This is a similar margin by which the same developers were defeated last Spring at Wareham Town Meeting, by 85% to 15% there.
In the Plymouth Select Board race, which saw four candidates vying for two seats, former Plymouth Selectman John Mahoney was elected to his fifth (non-consecutive) term, and serving Selectman Charlie Bletzer was reelected. Mahoney received 4,260 votes, or 31.5% of the vote, while Bletzer received 3,706 votes, or 27.4 % of the vote.
Former Plymouth Fire Chief Ed Bradley received 3,031 votes, or 22.4 % of the vote, and Town Meeting Member Alan Costello received 2,449 votes, or 18.1% of the vote, and were not elected.
In the Planning Board race, Stephen Bolotin was elected with 3,611 votes, or 54.2% of the vote, while Nicholas Filla received 3,047 votes, or 45.8% of the vote.
Dr. James Sorensen and Luis Pizano were elected to the School Committee. Dr. Sorensen received 4,631 votes, or 37.9% of the vote; Mr. Pizano received 4,434 votes, or 36.3% of the vote, and were both elected. Noreen Bechade received 3,102 votes, or 25.4% of the vote, and was not elected.
In her race for Precinct 13 Town Meeting Member, Lauren Nessralla was elected, with 276 votes, proof that hard work and strong convictions can carry a candidate to victory.
Many other longtime Town Meeting Members were returned to office, as well.
Turnout was "high" at around 16% of the electorate (varying per race), largely because of the Casino question, though this also was affected by an occasionally harsh Select Board race.
Indeed, Candidates Mahoney and Bletzer crossed swords on occasion during the campaign, with heated exchanges between the two marking the League of Women Voters Candidates’ Forum in April.
It was also a race characterized by high levels of spending.
According to one reliable source, Bletzer, who won a Special Election to replace Shelagh Joyce in August, 2021, after the latter’s surprise resignation, has raised approximately $50,000 for his campaign war chest, and spent around $28,000 of that in the last two elections.
At the meeting of the new Plymouth Select Board in Plymouth on May 24th, Mahoney and Bletzer were sworn in, and Betty Cavacco, who served as Vice Chair of the Board, was elected Chair, while Richard Quintal, who had served as Chair, took over the position of Vice Chair.
The Select Board’s previous letter of support from March has already been used by representatives of Boston South Real Estate Group to indicate community support for their Horse Track/Casino proposal, according to documents shared with the Plymouth County Observer.
The new Select Board in Plymouth appears set to act on the Town’s massive rejection of the Horse Track/Casino at the polls, with a letter rescinding the previous letter of support scheduled to be discussed at the Tuesday, June 7th Meeting of the Select Board.