Delaney, Johnson Withdraw From Town Election

Board of Health now only contested ’23 race

Today at 5 p.m. was the deadline to officially withdraw from the 2023 Tewksbury Town Election, and two of the 11 residents who had qualified to be on the ballot have pulled their names from consideration, according to Town Clerk Denise Graffeo.

Stephen Johnson is currently — and will remain — chair of the Tewksbury Planning Board. An attorney with Donovan Hatem LLP specializing in professional liability, insurance defense and coverage, and business and construction litigation, Johnson has served on the Planning Board since 2011 and as chair for six years. We recently interviewed him for our 2023 In Preview series.

Had Johnson prevailed, his seat would have been filled via a joint appointment by the Planning and Select Boards, just as Jonathan Ciampa was selected to fill Eric Ryder’s seat when the latter resigned last year.

That route back to the board is no longer a possibility for Jay Delaney, who also pulled his name from consideration. Delaney previously served one five-year term on the Planning Board. He has lived in Tewksbury since 1954 and is a retired union electrician and electrical contractor with over 50 years in the industry.

Jerry Selissen previously withdrew from the Housing Authority race.

Here are the candidate who will be on the ballot. Residents can meet them at these events.

Race: Select Board (one three-year term)
Patrick Holland is currently a member of the Conservation Commission and the Community Preservation Committee. He was recently part of the host committee for Sal DeFranco, who unsuccessfully challenged Senator Barry Finegold in the 2022 state election.

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Race: School Committee (one three-year term)
Kaitlyn (Katie) Anderson is a senior logistics manager at Raytheon. Anderson is also a PAC co-chair for the new Center Elementary School and is very involved in Tewksbury youth sports.

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Race: Planning Board
Three-year term:
Jonathan Ciampa holds a BS in Architecture from Northeastern and currently works as a project manager, senior estimator and safety officer at electrical construction and engineering firm John A. Penney Co. Ciampa served on the ESBC change order subcommittee and was appointed to the Planning Board in August.

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Two-year unexpired term:
Nicholas Lizotte is a first-time candidate. He is associate director of engineering at Wayfair and holds a degree in Computer Science from the Virginia Military Institute. He has lived in Tewksbury for six years.

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CONTESTED Race: Board of Health (one three-year term)
Katlynn Bugda Gwilt is a first-time candidate. She holds a Bachelors of Science from Syracuse University in Cellular and Molecular Biology and a PhD in Pharmacology from Northeastern University. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital.

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George Ferdinand is seeking to return to the Board of Health, where he served from 2016 to 2019 before losing a reelection bid. He is a retired union autoworker who has also previously run for Planning Board and Select Board.

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Race: Housing Authority (one two-year unexpired term)
Ryan Lloyd is a Tewksbury native and 2009 graduate of Shawsheen Tech. He served for 12 years in the U.S. Air Force and holds a BA in Political Science & Government from American Military University.

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Race: Board of Library Trustees (two three-year terms)
Jessica Rauseo is a fourth-generation Tewksburian who graduated from TMHS in 2001. She has two children in Tewksbury schools, one a senior at TMHS and the other a sixth-grader at the Ryan. Rauseo works at St. Joseph the Worker Shrine in Lowell.

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Race: Moderator (one three-year term)
Incumbent Dustin Weir is looking to continue in the moderator role. Weir drew praise for his handling of the May and October 2022 town meetings, which featured such contentious issues as the new zoning bylaw, new School/DPW facility and retail marijuana.

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