Voters heading to the polls Tuesday will be asked to narrow down four Boston City Council races to two candidates for the November election.
The contested preliminary races are in Districts 3, 5, 6 and 7, with the remaining six races for district and at-large councilor serving as an indicator of who has the votes to win the general election.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The top two-vote getting candidates for each race will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.
District 3
Seven candidates are vying for an open seat in District 3, currently held by longtime Councilor Frank Baker, who opted not to run for reelection.
John FitzGerald is the deputy director of real estate operations for the Boston Planning and Development Agency. He previously worked for the Marty Walsh administration, and has the backing of the former mayor in this race.
FitzGerald, the son of the late state Rep. Kevin Fitzgerald, was also endorsed by the outgoing Baker, who is part of the more conservative wing of the Council.
The Dorchester resident cites affordable housing, public safety, education and access to basic city services as his four main priorities, according to his campaign website.
Jennifer Johnson is a native of Louisiana but describes herself as a longtime resident and civic leader in Dorchester.
Johnson is focused on stabilizing housing costs, strengthening public education, “delivering on solutions to address the crisis” in the Mass and Cass zone, and constituent services, according to her campaign website.
She runs a small business and has fundraised for progressive causes, her website states.
Barry Lawton is another Southern transplant, hailing originally from South Carolina. He now lives in Dorchester.
Lawton worked as a Boston schoolteacher for 24 years, and is now a small business owner.
He lists affordable housing; public safety with a focus on promoting anti-violence, tolerance and reentry housing; education and small business support among his priorities.
Matthew Patton is a workers’ rights attorney and community organizer who lives in Dorchester.
Patton said his past work for former Gov. Deval Patrick, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and local politician John Barros was focused on building community and advancing the “values of equity, equality and inclusion,” his campaign website states.
His four priorities are getting a handle on the “intersecting crises of homelessness and substance use” at Mass and Cass, equitable education and safe school facilities, housing infrastructure improvement, and expanded access to reproductive health and gender-affirming care, according to his website
Joel Richards is a Boston public school teacher and pastor who lives in Dorchester. He was born to Jamaican immigrant parents and founded the Dorchester Juneteenth Celebration, for which he is still the head planner.
He lists affordable housing, safe and reliable transportation, greener infrastructure and vehicles, and small business support among his priorities, according to his campaign website.
Ann Walsh, of Dorchester, has led civics programming for Boston high school students with the West End Boys & Girls Club and worked as chief of staff to former City Councilor John Connolly, according to her campaign website.
In 2015, she co-founded and then led the education-based family engagement nonprofit, The 1647, Inc., her website states.
She is focused on education improvement, affordable housing, crime reduction through job pathways and evidence-based interventions to tackle the opioid epidemic, effective public transportation, and greener infrastructure and vehicles, her website states.
Rosalind Wornum is a community activist who lives in Dorchester. She is listed as the president and CEO of Women on the Rise New England, per the secretary of state’s office.
Wornum lists education, senior services, mental health, housing, community engagement, and career opportunities among her priorities, according to her Facebook page.
District 5
Three candidates are vying to unseat the embattled incumbent Ricardo Arroyo in District 5.
Arroyo, a progressive voice on the City Council, has stated that, if elected to a third term, he will continue to be a “champion for racial, environmental, economic and social justice.”
A former public defender, Arroyo lives in Hyde Park. He has stated that he is running on his record, which includes his office being behind “more than 40% of all legislation introduced on the Council this term to date.”
Still, his bid for re-election has been mired in controversy — from decades-old sexual misconduct allegations that hung over his unsuccessful run for Suffolk District Attorney last year, to two federal reports released in May that revealed former U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins colluded with him to tip the outcome of that election, to a state ethics violation, for which he paid a $3,000 fine this June.
Arroyo has denied the misconduct allegations and charges were never filed. He has also denied any wrongdoing in the Rollins case, stating that he never asked her to leak information on his behalf, and denied pressuring the state’s top prosecutor to investigate his primary opponent, now-DA Kevin Hayden.
Enrique Pepén, another progressive, has been endorsed by Mayor Michelle Wu, his former boss. He worked for her administration as the former executive director of the Boston Office of Neighborhood Services.
Pepén was born to Dominican immigrant parents and lives in Roslindale. He lists affordable housing, public education, jobs and the economy, environmental justice, and improved public safety through addressing institutional racism, homelessness and inequitable emergency response among his priorities, according to his campaign website.
Jose Ruiz, a retired Boston police officer, has the support of former Mayor Marty Walsh, now the executive director of the NHL Players Association.
Ruiz is a native of Puerto Rico who lives in Hyde Park. The more conservative-leaning candidate lists affordable housing, education, public safety and access to basic city services among his priorities, his campaign website states.
Jean-Claude Sanon is a small business owner and community organizer who lives in Mattapan.
His four priorities are public health, small businesses, unemployment and job creation, and public safety, his campaign website states.
District 6
Two candidates are looking to knock off the incumbent Kendra Lara, who is running for a second term in District 6.
Lara is a progressive-leaning councilor who lives in Jamaica Plain. She was the first woman of color to be elected to D6, and previously worked as the director of radical philanthropy for Boston-based organization Resist, according to her City Hall biography.
Her biography states that she is anchored by a socialist vision, which according to her prior campaign website, includes a focus on economic and environmental justice, housing, community safety, and LGBTQ equity.
Still, Lara has faced her own controversies during this campaign cycle. Questions about her residency in the district she represents led to a challenge that was heard, but ultimately dismissed in court.
She is also facing multiple motor vehicle charges stemming from a June 30 car crash into a Jamaica Plain home.
It was later revealed that Lara was driving with a revoked driver’s license, which was first suspended a decade ago.
Lara is charged with driving with a revoked license, driving an unregistered vehicle and driving an uninsured vehicle, among others, but presented the findings of a report she commissioned Thursday, that disputes a speeding charge.
Questions have arisen about how the study was funded, in terms of potential campaign finance or ethics violations stemming from contributions solicited from the Jamaica Plain community.
William King, a more moderate Democrat, is an information technology specialist who lives in West Roxbury.
He lists increasing the number of affordable and market-rate housing units, investing in public education, improving public safety, fixing an “almost total collapse” of the region’s public transportation system, and “fighting environmental justices” among his priorities, according to his campaign website.
Benjamin Weber, a progressive candidate, is a workers’ rights attorney who lives in Jamaica Plain.
He is a former assistant attorney general who works in the Boston law firm Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., which was co-founded by former Democratic attorney general candidate Shannon Liss-Riordan.
Weber lists a number of priorities, including an “effective City Council,” housing affordability, education, climate change, LGBTQ rights, transportation, supporting immigrants and refugees, and public safety, “especially by removing barriers to cooperation between law enforcement and immigrants.”
District 7
Five candidates are vying for the District 7 seat held by Tania Fernandes Anderson, who is seeking a second term.
Fernandes Anderson is a progressive councilor who lives in Dorchester. She previously worked as executive director of a local nonprofit and as a child social worker, according to her City Hall biography.
She lists mental health, racial health equity, affordable home ownership, development without displacement, decriminalizing youth, and stopping violence from a public health perspective, by investing in non-violent de-escalation teams, among her priorities, according to her campaign website.
Fernandes Anderson caught some flak for the latter priority during the Council’s budget process, which she chaired. She proposed a $31 million cut to the police department, which was approved by the Council, but ultimately vetoed by the mayor.
She was also found to have violated the state’s conflict of interest law by hiring her sister and son to paid positions on her staff, and agreed to pay a $5,000 fine to the Ethics Commission in July.
Althea Garrison is a former city councilor-at-large and was the first transgender person to be elected to a state legislature in the United States, ultimately serving one term, from 1993-95.
An archived City Hall biography lists her priorities as affordable housing, caring for senior citizens, supporting homeless veterans, workforce development, and transportation.
Jerome King lives in Dorchester. He has worked at the Massachusetts Department of Human Services.
Roy Owens Sr., like Garrison, has been a perennial candidate. He lives in Roxbury.
Padma Scott has been a vocal critic of the Wu administration’s prior vaccine mandate for city employees, which she described in a Facebook post as unconstitutional.
The Roxbury resident lists crime, gentrification, small businesses and youth programs among her priorities, according to her campaign page.
Matt Stone/Boston Herald
Embattled incumbents are fighting a slew of challengers to occupy chambers at Boston’s City Hall. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)