Ward Captains

In 1977 the race for Mayor was between Tom August, Bill Pickett, and Gene Brune. More on each of them later.

Each had organizations in place that where the standard of any serious candidate for Mayor. There was a Campaign Manager, and reporting to him where Ward Captains.

The role of the Ward Captain was central to the campaign. He was responsible for getting things done during the campaign and then getting out the vote on election day.

In Somerville all elections where local and very personal. So the more connected you where to each ward and precint with a representative who was from his neighborhood and would do the work needed the stronger your candidacy was.

The effectiveness of Ward Captains varied widely. There was no training or selection process. It was catch as catch can ... and give each some broad instruction on what was needed.

The hope was that the candidate could leverage the local personality and his or her family and friend connections to enhance his own campaign. It did not always work that way. When it did the Ward Captain would get the all important coffee party, have roof racks put on, load up bumper stickers, stand outs, do the all essential drops, and have people at the polling place on primary and election day. The more effective ward captain would keep a list of the voters and have a yellow marker to identify who was with the candidate. They would then organize a drop and pull- and in a close election that was the difference without question. They would also be constantly looking to expand the base of the candidate by bringing people in as precint captains, standouts

Tom August had appointed the following Ward Captains: Jimmy (Ward 1), Gerry Redman and Jim Stace (Ward 2), Joe and Joanne Mitzer (Ward 3), Jay Holmes (Ward 4), Ray Gauthier (Ward 5) ...

The named campaign manager was Ray Gauthier- the campaign manager in practice and behind the scenes was Larry Bretta. The focus here was money and message

Jimmy was a red faced large belly former Ward 1 Alderman- who did a lot more talking than working.