This fall’s Springfield mayor’s race just became a lot less intriguing, with the recent news that City Councilor Bruce Stebbins has decided not to run for the seat.
News of Stebbins’ decision was broken by The Springfield Intruder blog (www.springfieldintruder.com), written by Bill Dusty. While that bit of news was not particularly shocking—although Stebbins’ name had been tossed around as a potential contender for months, in recent weeks it appeared he’d cooled to the idea—the report did contain a more surprising bit of information: Stebbins has also decided that he will not run for another term on the City Council.
Stebbins’ decision may have been based on practical considerations: In 2007, he just squeaked onto the council, finishing ninth in the race for nine seats, almost 1,000 votes behind the eighth-place finisher, Jimmy Ferrera. This election, the number of at-large seats on the council will be reduced from nine to five (with eight new ward seats also added), meaning Stebbins and other lower-placed finishers could very well find themselves kicked off the council.
His ninth-place finish notwithstanding, Stebbins had a solid base of admirers, who recognized him as one of the council’s brightest and most capable members. Over his two terms on the council, Stebbins proposed cost-cutting moves (including reducing councilors’ pay, to the amusing discomfort of many of his colleagues); he also was co-sponsor, with Pat Markey, of an ethics ordinance that will bring some much-needed transparency to a city government that’s had more than its share of corruption in recent years.
But unlike some councilors, who are drawn to the TV news cameras like gnats to a streetlight, Stebbins has never been much of a self-promoter, which might account for his surprisingly low finish in 2007. If Stebbins does decide to run for mayor some day—and at least one colleague speculates he will, perhaps when his kids are older—he’ll have to brace himself for the glad-handing and check-collecting that race typically requires.
And, as one longtime City Hall observer noted, Stebbins would also have to overcome the fact that he does not easily fit into one of the “tribes”—African-Americans; Latinos; white ethnics, with its somewhat uneasy alliance between the Irish and Italians—that form critical voting blocs in the city. Stebbins is also a Republican; while the mayor’s seat is a non-partisan position, that means Stebbins is not a part of the insider Democratic circles that dominate city government. (That, of course, might well be considered a point in his favor by many voters.)
While Stebbins’ decision is disappointing, it does not leave Springfield entirely without a mayor’s race this fall: Incumbent first-termer Dom Sarno will face City Councilor Bud Williams and David Parkhurst, a hotel manager whose campaign calls for a more responsive city government.
