(This report has been updated from its original version)
In the closely watched and very acrimonious Select Board race, which featured four candidates vying for two seats, Kevin Canty and Dick Quintal prevailed. They defeated challengers Betty Cavacco and Scott Vecchi.
“I look forward to have three more years to make meaningful changes to Plymouth to make it easier for all residents to live, work, and retire here, to make it more affordable, and to bring in some smart and balanced economic development, which is what I ran on,” Canty told the Independent.
In his first three years on the board, including four months last year as chair, Canty has also championed board meetings in community neighborhoods and town resistance to police cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement except in criminal investigations.
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.
Quintal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cavacco came in third with 3,520 votes. Vecchi got 2,574. Voters cast 982 votes for write-in candidates.
Of all 15,317 votes cast for Select Board candidates, Canty won 27.1%, Quintal 26.7%, Cavacco 23%, and Vecchi 16.8%. Write-in candidates got 6.4%.
The heated Select Board race drove turnout to 16.08 percent, beating last year’s 15.1 percent. It was still a paltry turnout, with more than four out of five registered voters sitting the election out.
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.
“I think the results of the election indicate that the voters value campaigns run on issues and policies, and not negative campaigning,” Canty said.
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.
With the re-election of Canty and Quintal, the board’s divisions appear to be fixed for the next year, unless Golden wins election to the state House of Representatives. He is running for the Republican nomination and would face Democrat Michelle Badger.
“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.
“Regardless of the negativity that has dominated the last several months, I am going to do my best to move forward with all of my colleagues to advance my priorities and Plymouth’s shared priorities so that we can get to doing the work of the town,” Canty said.
“This was a group effort, not the effort of one person,” he added, thanking all those who helped his campaign. “I’m very honored to have the support of so many people in America’s hometown.”
Vecchi had promised to push for a state audit of Plymouth’s finances. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I’m hoping that the elected members can do a little bit better job of working together this time and focus on the town finances,” Vecchi said. “Personally, I don’t see a drastic change that will take place in the near future.”
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.
Voters also elected Paul Curtis to a five-year term and Barry Wood to a four-year term on the Redevelopment Authority, Frank Mand to the Planning Board, and Courtney Curran to the Housing Authority. All ran unopposed.
They also elected a third of Plymouth’s 162 Town Meeting members, three from each precinct.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org