Suddenly, At-Large May Need a Preliminary

In the last few weeks, as the candidates have come out of the woodwork, there's a puncher's chance that the at-large council race will need a preliminary election this fall.

It takes 11 candidates to trigger a prelim for at-large (double the five seats, plus one), and right now the list is at nine. Two more, somewhere, somehow, and we get bonus ballot action on Sept. 25.

In right now: Carbone, Conry, Cruz, Cormier, Tran, DiMartino, Hay, DiNatale, and Reynolds. Seven are or were councilors. That's a pretty deep field. We've got just over two weeks for two more to jump in before the Aug. 7 deadline to file papers. Will it happen?

One of the reasons to see it happen is to get an early gauge on on where the strengths lie. To see if there's a bunch in that 4-5-6-7 range, or if there's a clear dropoff at 5-6, or if there's a big pack at like 3-8 that could go one way or another.

Tough to say if it'll happen. People have been signing up lately, but the crop of potential candidates are thinning. That and if someone's heart isn't really in it, you'd have to think the deep roster so far might scare some folks off. But there's always that person or two who just want to get on the ballot and see what happens. Let's hope they pop up and get us to the preliminary this fall.