Town Election ’17: Incumbents Baghdady, Shuster Step Aside

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Photo: Sami Baghdady, Elyse Shuster

Citing personal commitments, a pair of town government incumbents have decided not to seek re-election.

Selectman Sami Baghdady and School Committee member Elyse Shuster told the Belmontonian at Monday’s town budget presentation they would not be running to retain their seats on the respective committees.

“It’s about a quality of life,” said Baghdady, who noted he had spent the past 12 years as a member or the chair of groups including the Selectmen, the Planning Board, and the Warrant Committee. 

“Now it’s time for me to focus my attention on my young family and my busy practice,” said Baghdady who is an Arlington-based attorney. 

Baghdady, who help lead the Planning Board through the special permit process on the Cushing Village project, was completing his first term as a Selectman, having served as its chair and vice chair during his three years on the board.

Shuster was elected in 2013 to the committee. In 2016, she abandoned her seat to win the one-year term which remained after Laurie Graham resigned.

While she did take out nomination papers for this year’s town election, “I decided over the weekend that I wouldn’t run,” Shuster told the Belmontonian.

“A couple of commitments” prompted her not to run, she said. 

Town Election ’17: Carbone In, Dash On The Way, Waiting on Baghdady

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Photo: Guy Carbone.

If anyone was wondering about Guy Carbone‘s commitment to the race for a seat on the Board of Selectmen, you could rest assure the octogenarian is serious about winning a three-year term on the board as the Woodfall Road resident is the first resident to turn in his nomination papers to the Town Clerk’s Office on Tuesday, Jan. 17. 

If 50 signatures are verified by Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, Carbone will be the first official candidate on the ballot for the Selectman’s seat now occupied by Sami Baghdady. 

In an earlier conversation with the Belmontonian, Carbone said his run for office will focus on repairing and improving Belmont’s notorious roads and sidewalks.

“We pay a lot of taxes to maintain our streets, but at this stage of the game, there is no leadership among the Selectmen,” said Carbone, who touted his experience as a four-term member of the Watertown School Committee and two terms as a selectman in Watertown. 

Carbone said he would help Glenn Clancy, director of the Office of Community Development, deliver on the promises made to neighborhoods such the Hillcrest community where he lives.

While Carbone is first, in the next few days, another challenger is expected to walk into Town Hall with a stack of papers with signatures to be certified.

Adam Dash, a Goden Street resident and a member of the Warrant Committee, told the Belmontonian Monday, Jan. 16 he has 50 residents’ John Hancocks and wanted to collect a few more than needed before handing them over to Cushman.

It was expected that Dash was committed to a run for selectman as he has created a slick website for his campaign and building a team of community members to back his race.

With two potential candidates moving forward with their campaigns, the person still up in the air on a possible run is incumbent Sami Baghdady. The Arlington-based attorney has yet to take out nomination papers to retain his seat on the board he won three years ago in a race against another non-officeholder, Roger Colton. 

But before anyone makes any conclusions, hopefuls have until Feb. 14 to submit nomination papers. 

In other races, incumbent Tom Caputo will be seeking a full three-year term on the School Committee while Elyse Shuster, who is holding a partial term seat, told the Belmontonian she was still considering whether to run.