In the closely watched and very acrimonious Select Board race, which featured four candidates vying for two seats, Dick Quintal and Kevin Canty prevailed. They defeated challengers Betty Cavacco and Scott Vecchi.
Quintal, a long-time veteran of the Select Board who has served a total of 21 non-consecutive years on the board, came in a close second in total votes with 4,092 votes to Canty’s 4,149, according to the unofficial results published late Saturday. Cavacco came in third with 3,520 votes. Vecchi got 2,574.
Town elections are usually placid affairs. This one was different. Accusations flew back and forth. In the Select Board race, Vecchi accused Cavacco of being corrupt, an accusation Cavacco denied. Quintal accused Vecchi of offering to drop out of the race in exchange for help getting back on the police force, an accusation Vecchi denied. Signs saying “Can Canty” popped up, with no one claiming responsibility for financing them.
To a large extent, the Select Board race was one between the old and new guards.
Cavacco and Quintal, the old guard, ran as a team promising to fix the disconnect between members of the current board, on which Quintal serves and which has been rife with disputes, most dramatically when Quintal and Bill Keohan sided with David Golden to remove Canty as chair just four months into his tenure.
Cavacco served on the board from 2017 to 2023. Golden endorsed Cavacco and Quintal.
“The election is over, and I’d like to congratulate my colleagues, Kevin Canty and Dick Quintal on their re-elections,” Golden posted on Facebook. “Let’s put the politics behind us, and move forward together in Plymouth.”
Cavacco also posted her congratulations.
“Please join me in congratulating Richard Quintal and Kevin Canty,” Cavacco said. “Please take this opportunity to support them! I’m happy with the results. What defines me is being Ethan and Zackary’s mom and Kris’s wife. Please support our selectboard!”
Canty, on the other hand, ran on the promise of changing the way the Select Board does business, a promise he said he had begun to deliver on with meetings in neighborhoods and more long-term planning.
Vecchi promised to push for a state audit of Plymouth’s finances.
In 2025, voters signaled they wanted change on the Select Board when they voted in Deb Iaquinto and Keohan. It was the first time anyone could remember that two Select Board members were voted out.
In the race for two three-year terms on the School Committee, incumbent Christina Bryant easily won re-election. She will be joined on the committee by Megan Parker, a Hanover elementary school teacher who promised to push for more phonics in teaching literacy. Bryant won 4,433 votes, Parker got 3,242.
They defeated one candidate, Michael Condry, who advocated banning some books for middle schoolers, and another, Lucca Betti, who proposed to give parents a say in whether their children should take some courses, as well as another newcomer, Justin Fosdick. Fosdick came in third with 2,776 votes. Condry won 2,378 votes, and Betti got 1,578.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org