[{"slug": "adrienne-klein", "name": "Adrienne Klein", "blurb": "

Adrienne has a decade of experience in humanitarian work, ranging from human rights work around the world to advising NYC Health and Hospitals early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Locally, Adrienne has worked with organizations such as Project Bread, Enroot, and the College Success Initiative all the while earning her Masters in Humanitarian Studies from the Fletcher School at Tufts.

Before launching her campaign Adrienne Klein worked in the office of Mayor Siddiqui as the Director of Constituent Services, helping residents benefit from public programs such as the home ownership lottery.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/adrienne-klein.b498f8e428ee.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "ayah-al-zubi", "name": "Ayah Al-Zubi", "blurb": "

Ayah Al-Zubi is a first-generation immigrant who moved to Cambridge to attend Harvard, from which she graduated in May 2023. She has been involved in after-school sports programming in area schools, for instance coaching a basketball program at Baldwin Elementary School (through Harvard\u2019s Phillips Brooks House Association).

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/ayah-al-zubi.d303eaa23a36.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "ayesha-wilson", "name": "Ayesha Wilson", "blurb": "

Ayesha Wilson grew up in Cambridge public housing. After graduating from Cambridge Rindge and Latin and after getting a Master's in Social Work, she was a Mental Health Clinician. She now continues her social work as Senior Teacher-Counselor for Cambridge Housing Authority's Work Force Program, an after-school educational enrichment and work-readiness program for low-income teens in Cambridge public housing.

She is currently serving her second term on school committee.

If elected, Ayesha would not only be the only active union member on the council, she would also be only the 3rd Black woman to serve.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/ayesha-wilson.88a1957aab4f.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "burhan-azeem", "name": "Burhan Azeem", "blurb": "

Burhan Azeem's family immigrated to the United States from Pakistan when he was a kid. They moved several times, and he's spoken about how, as a brown Muslim immigrant living in the USA after 9-11, Cambridge was the first place he felt welcome.

He holds a Bachelor of Science from MIT and speaks three languages. He has studied sustainability and is passionate about mitigating climate change and its impacts. Professionally, before being elected to the council, he was an engineer.

In addition to canvassing, he has helped residents register to vote and has also been a volunteer EMT. A renter, he served on the board of A Better Cambridge, and founded a housing nonprofit called Abundant Housing Massachusetts.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/burhan-azeem.ef89c0e33ce5.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "carrie-pasquarello", "name": "Carrie Pasquarello", "blurb": "

Carrie Pasquarello worked for the U.S. State Department before she co-founded a personal security consulting agency. There, she advises individuals and companies, and writes content about protecting yourself, your family, and your valuables during international travel. She has also written a book along those lines, Study Abroad Safety: A Parent's Guide to Sending Your Child Abroad.

She is one of the two candidates in 2023's race that has come under scrutiny for liking, engaging with, and reposting far-right, transphobic, racist, anti-immigrant, and Islamophobic content. While she has recently deleted some of those, such as her retweet of a \"neo-aryan\", she's left up likes accusing LGBT Teachers of grooming, questioning who is a woman, blaming violence on migrants and \"Islamized France\", as well as responses to tweets about \"The war on Whites\".

She also has a history of interacting with or reposting tweets about violence against people, especially children, teens and women, \nincluding calls to have them arm themselves, and uses the hashtag \"#CrimeSurge\", stating that (violent) crime is out of control. She also frequently likes and retweets about police, police officers, violence against them, and their anger at being reported on for violence against the Black Lives Matter movement, even when the pro-police/anti-BLM tweet is from the fake news site The Gateway Pundit.

She follows, responds, and retweets Amy Mek, who has been accused of spreading Islamophobia for years, right-wing author Andy Ng\u00f4, and hundreds of other, smaller MAGA accounts.

Carrie also has a youtube channel/podcast, where she's interviewed now-former Massachusetts Sheriff Tom Hodgson, who, in addition to inciting many controversies in Massachusetts, is on a board that the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a hate group. She introduces him as \"an amazing man who is on the front line every day trying to make this world a better place\".

Carrie is one of two candidates in 2023's race who has previously voted in Republican primary elections.

She cites \"the rise in crime\" as well as opposition to the Cycle Safety Ordinance (CSO), the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO), and the Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) as reasons for running.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/carrie-pasquarello.9bab26e21d74.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "catherine-zusy", "name": "Catherine \"Cathie\" Zusy", "blurb": "

A Cambridge resident for over 25 years, Cathie Zusy is a former museum curator who has been very active in local boards and organizations for many years. She has even been called \"Magazine Beach Lady\" for her years-long efforts to secure public investment for the revitalization of Magazine Beach Park along the Charles River.

She is one of two candidates in 2023's race who has previously voted in Republican primary elections.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/catherine-zusy.5c51a096ddfc.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "dan-totten", "name": "Dan Totten", "blurb": "

Although a first time candidate, Dan Totten has been in local politics the mid 2010s, working on the election campaigns of Massachusetts Representative Mike Connolly and Councilor Quinton Zondervan. Since 2017, Dan has worked as an aide to Councilor Zondervan where he helped draft legislation and worked with directly with constituents.

Dan is a democratic socialist as well as a member of the Democratic City Committee. In 2021, during a debate over whether the state democratic party had spread negative rumors about a gay candidate's relationships, another committee member used an anti-gay slur to refer to Dan, who is himself queer. Dan and other members of the City Committee worked to censure and expel that member. He has since written that he's stopping attending meetings, as \"the space is just too toxic. Rich Liberal Social Club.\"

In the 2023 election, he has spoken out against other candidates' promotion of transphobic, Islamophobic, and racist content on Twitter.

Dan is also an advocate for defunding the police. He has supported alternate first-response models, protested in response to the recent police killing in Cambridge, and has tweeted that \"abolition is the only answer\".

Also on Twitter, he has supported the Boston chapter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, tweeting statements about an Israel-based defense contractor with an office in Cambridge (\"Elbit Systems, get the [#$%&] out of our neighborhood!\") and also retweeted the BDS mapping project, a controversial interactive map that the Anti-Defamation League criticized as antisemitic.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/dan-totten.3b3dddd7e991.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "denise-simmons", "name": "Denise Simmons", "blurb": "

Brought up in Cambridge, Denise Simmons has been active in the Cambridge community for many years.

Denise Simmons previously served 2 terms as mayor, which made her both the first Black, openly-lesbian mayor in the United States and the first Black woman to be mayor in Massachusetts. In the 2017 election, she was one of two candidates elected outright on the first count of ballots.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/denise-simmons.fc895ad546b7.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "doug-brown", "name": "Douglas \"Doug\" Brown", "blurb": "

Doug Brown has lived in Cambridge for almost 25 years, and first bought a house here in 2002. Before being a project manager and stay-at-home-dad, he worked for 15 years at an automative/transportation insurance claims processing tech firm.

He is currently the clerk for History Cambridge, and has also been involved in the Fresh Pond Residents Alliance, the City\u2019s Climate Resiliency Zoning Task Force, the Envision Cambridge Alewife Working Group, and is an organizer of the annual Standish Street Halloween Block Party. He's submitted several zoning changes to the city in the past decades; one in February was rejected by the council as \"defective as a matter of law\".

He wrote in the Cambridge Citizens Coalition survey that \"the continuing polarization of local politics by certain Councilors and by factions such as ABC motivated me to run.\"

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/doug-brown.8a90d4849391.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "federico-muchnik", "name": "Federico Muchnik", "blurb": "

In June, Federico launched a change.org petition against a plan to build a seven story building on Walden Square Road which originally comprised nearly 100 affordable units. Building on his local advocacy, Federico launched his campaign to tackle what he sees as excessive density which threatens the character of the Cambridge he grew up in.

Federico is also a filmmaker, whose work includes both fiction and documentary films. His recent documentary films focus primarily on housing development and Cambridge history.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/federico-muchnik.85208b20fb4c.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "frantz-pierre", "name": "Frantz Pierre", "blurb": "

A second-time candidate for City Council, Frantz Pierre is a lifelong Cambridge resident and attended Cambridge Rindge And Latin. Frantz is the only candidate this year running for both council and school committee simultaneously.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/frantz-pierre.f7a08b5d529b.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "gregg-moree", "name": "Gregg Moree", "blurb": "

A lifelong Cambridge resident and a graduate of CRLS, Gregg Moree is a perennial candidate, having run in every council election since 2007. In 2015, he received 75 #1 votes, and was defeated in the 5th round of counting with 80 votes total. In 2019, he was eliminated in the 3rd count with 47 votes total. And in 2021, he was eliminated in the 4th round with 84 votes total.

Gregg Moree is a strong believer in a Second Bill of Rights, including the rights to medical care and employment. He frequently points out that a relative of his worked on the Second Bill of Rights.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/gregg-moree.b8ef8b93fd4a.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "hao-wang", "name": "Hao Wang", "blurb": "

A new candidate for office this year, Hao Wang has lived in Cambridge for over 30 years and has been a homeowner for more than 25. He is the former Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health and the former Chief Information Officer for the State University of New York. He has also worked for Accenture, the management consulting company.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/hao-wang.94ac348b53d0.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "jivan-sobrinho-wheeler", "name": "Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler", "blurb": "

Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler has lived in Cambridge since 2017 and previously served 1 term on the city council, having been elected in 2019. Prior to that experience, he had been politically active for several years, including working with Our Revolution Cambridge and the Democratic Socialists of America, and being a field and operations manager for a mayoral campaign in New Haven, Connecticut.

Before moving to Cambridge, he worked at consultancy groups in Portland, Maine and the New York City area. After narrowly losing a seat on the council in 2021, he's been working for the Working Families Party.

Jivan also speaks three languages.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/jivan-sobrinho-wheeler.485805737516.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "joan-pickett", "name": "Joan Pickett", "blurb": "

A Cambridge resident for over 25 years, Joan Pickett has actively served on the Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Association as well as the Charles River Conservancy. She spent more than 20 years working in Strategic and Business Planning at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Joan is possibly most known for leading the charge against bicycling. She was the chair of the organization Cambridge Streets for All, which sued the city of Cambridge over its protected bike lane network (all lawsuits have failed, been rejected, or are being appealed at this time). She's also written the city council many times about problems with the Cycling Safety Ordinance, keeping parking, delaying bike lanes, and questioning cyclist counts. She's encouraged a moratorium on bike lanes based on another Cambridge Streets for All's member's analysis, and written an op-ed about e-bikes worrying her.

She has said that one of her motivations for running is to get the city to listen to residents and businesses more.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/joan-pickett.040f100b758c.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "joe-mcguirk", "name": "Joe McGuirk", "blurb": "

Named the Best Bartender in Boston by the Boston Magazine twice, Joe McGuirk has spent several decades tending Cambridge and Boston bars. He grew up in the area, and wants to continue living and serving in Cambridge - something he says is difficult for working families given the housing crises.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/joe-mcguirk.370ebd356faf.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "john-hanratty", "name": "John Hanratty", "blurb": "

John Hanratty has lived in Cambridge for over 25 years. He's had a long career as a tech executive and entrepreneur.

John cites his opposition to the Cycling Safety Ordinance and his subsequent \"community crusade in Porter Square\" as the issue that drew him into city politics. He was heavily involved in suing the city of Cambridge over its protected bike lane network (all lawsuits have failed, been rejected, or are being appealed at this time).

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/john-hanratty.7e91ae54623f.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "marc-mcgovern", "name": "Marc McGovern", "blurb": "

Marc McGovern was born in Cambridge and has spent much of the last two decades in elected offices, first on the School Committee where he served four terms and then on the City Council where he served four terms including one as Mayor. He is also active in the Cambridge Democratic City Committee.

Outside of politics, he is a trained social worker, and when first elected he continued to work part-time as a Clinical Support Social Worker for Farr Academy, a Cambridge school for students grades 7-12 with a range of emotional and learning problems.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/marc-mcgovern.347688683213.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "patty-nolan", "name": "Patricia \"Patty\" Nolan", "blurb": "

Patty Nolan grew up in Chicago and Connecticut. She first moved to Cambridge to attend Harvard, graduating in 1980. She then lived and worked in New York City, and attended Yale for business school. She has worked both in corporate consulting and the non-profit sector.

Patty returned to Cambridge in 1991, and has been actively involved in local politics since then, for instance serving on the Board of Cambridge School Volunteers. She was first elected to the school committee in 2005. In 2017, she was re-elected to the school committee in the first round of voting.

She is a landlord; she rents out the second unit in her two-family home.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/patty-nolan.898bb463754e.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "paul-toner", "name": "Paul Toner", "blurb": "

A longtime cambridge resident, Paul Toner lives in the home of his great-grandfather.

Paul Toner first ran for City Council in 2017 and was first elected in 2019. He was vice president and then president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association from 2006 until 2014, and was president of the Cambridge Teachers Association from 2001-2006. Prior to being in leadership, he was a 7th and 8th grade teacher from 1993 to 2001 at the Harrington Elementary School in Cambridge.

Recently, he was an Executive Director at Teach Plus, a non-profit focused on training teachers to lead to education policy and a supporter of teacher and student evaluation systems.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/paul-toner.5845e50beddb.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "peter-hsu", "name": "Peter Hsu", "blurb": "

Peter Hsu moved to Cambridge in 2020 to practice medicine at BIDMC and teach at Harvard Medical School. In 2022, he decided that one of the best ways use his Masters of Public health and his passion for health policy, would be through political office.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/peter-hsu.9358cad25892.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "robert-winters", "name": "Robert Winters", "blurb": "

Robert Winters is perhaps best well known in Cambridge for maintaining a blog, titled Cambridge Civic Journal, about Cambridge politics; his notes about City Council meetings going back to 2006 are still available at his website. He started including videos, often with guests, in 2014. And he puts together a page with basic candidate information for every election as well.

He has also been active on Twitter for many years. His long history of posting, engaging with, and liking content there that other people and organizations classify as transphobic, racist, sexist, Islamophobic, and pro-retaliatory-violence is an issue other candidates, in addition to voters, are weighing in on this election season. For instance, he follows the well-known far-right, anti-LGBT+ LibsofTikTok account, and drew their attention to a local drag queen event at the Cambridge Public Library. Since that account is notorious for inciting violence, the Cambridge Police ended up deploying to protect residents in response.

When questioned about this history at a candidate forum, he said he didn't remember or liked something he found funny. On Twitter, he responded to accusations of transphobia with, \"Fortunately, I don't follow those with nothing to say worth listening to.\"

Despite being a registered Democrat, he has referred to Ayanna Pressley and Mike Connolly as \"misrepresentatives\", publicly says Elizabeth Warren exaggerates, and repeatedly replies to Katherine Clark's twitter account with tweets like \"ClarkBot\".

While his website refers to himself as a new candidate, he previously sought election in the 1990s.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/robert-winters.006fdbe3aba2.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "sumbul-siddiqui", "name": "Sumbul Siddiqui", "blurb": "

Sumbul Siddiqui's family immigrated to the United States from Pakistan when she was 2, and they moved to Cambridge when they got a lottery spot in Cambridge's affordable housing system. She is a graduate of CRLS, Brown University, and Northwestern.

While attending CRLS, she co-founded the Cambridge Youth Council (then the Cambridge Youth Involvement Subcommittee), a way for students to engage with city government and policy.

In addition to serving on the council, she is an Attorney at Northeast Legal Aid, a nonprofit that provides legal assistance. Prior to her election, she was on the board of the Cambridge School Volunteers and was a member of Cambridge's Human Services Commission.

She and Alanna Mallon have been producing a podcast together since January 2018.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/sumbul-siddiqui.e3c68e257341.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}, {"slug": "vernon-k-walker", "name": "Vernon K. Walker", "blurb": "

Reverend Vernon Walker has worked for the non-profit \nCommunities Responding to Extreme Weather (or CREW). He has also organized for the Massachusetts Nursing Association and Voter Choice Massachusetts, and is a Democrat State Committee Member.

Vernon first moved to Cambridge in 2020, and now lives in an inclusionary unit (a below-market unit in an otherwise market-rate building, required as part of Cambridge's policy for larger buildings). He says that is what has allowed him to stay in Cambridge.

He writes that he was motivated to run this year out of concern over the impacts of extreme weather in Cambridge, the lack of affordable housing units available, and the lack of equitable representation of renters on the Council.

", "img_url": "/static/headshots/vernon-k-walker.f19fd0b168cc.png", "img_alt": "headshot of candidate", "comment": "", "order": null}]

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