Posted: Tuesday, November 3, 2015 11:01 pm | Updated: 11:02 pm, Tue Nov 3, 2015.
By Ray Lamont
Ten months after gaining the votes of her City Council colleagues to serve as mayor through 2015, Sefatia Romeo Theken has captured the support of Gloucester residents to serve a full two-year term.
Sefatia Romeo Theken handily won Gloucester’s wards 2, 3 and 5 and split wards 1 and 4 with her opponent for mayor, City Council President Paul McGeary.
Romeo Theken, who has served as interim mayor since her appointment by her fellow councilors last January, bested McGeary 5,266 to 4,134 in the run to be Gloucester’s chief executive.
The election will make Romeo Theken, 53, just the second woman to serve as an elected mayor — and the second in a row — when she takes the oath of office for her new term on Jan. 1. Carolyn Kirk, who served into a fourth term before leaving for a state position in Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration at the turn of the new year, had been the first elected female mayor when she won her first term in 2007. Beatrice Corliss also served as mayor from 1955 through 1962, but that was under a format when the mayor was chosen by the City Council.
Romeo Theken’s triumph Tuesday came on a day in which city voters trekked to the polls under sunny, 60 degree skies, and on a night when those voters also chose a new City Council, a new School Committee and extended their advice through a non-binding referendum as to whether the city should continue to add supplemental fluoride to its water system.
Romeo Theken’s win caps what has been one of the longest and perhaps the most costly election campaign in Gloucester history.
Campaign finance reports posted with the state show that, through Oct. 16, McGeary’s committee had raised $54,615 and Romeo Theken’s $37,425 for a $92,040 total more than two weeks shy of Election Day.
The campaign began last December when Councilor at-large Greg Verga first announced his run for the mayor’s seat, more than two weeks before Kirk announced she was stepping down. McGeary, completing his third term as Ward 1 city councilor and his second as council president, officially entered the race in March, and Romeo Theken jumped into the fray on July 13. Longshots Francisco Sclafani and Daniel Ruberti capped off the five-candidate preliminary field.
Read the full article on gloucestertimes.com