Flint tops voting for Planning Board; Hutchinson, Rajdev elected

Challenger Ephraim Flint won one of two seats on the Planning Board with the highest tally of the three candidates, winning 713 votes in the March 28 town election. Incumbent Chair Margaret Olson narrowly retained her seat over fellow board member Steve Gladstone by a margin of 561–544.

Flint, a Lincoln native who served on the board from 2003–2008, was seen by some as a candidate who was more cautious about allowing more development in town, particularly in South Lincoln.

In the Select Board races, Jim Hutchinson will replace outgoing board member James Craig, beating School Committee member Adam Hogue by a tally of 914–215. Hutchinson previously served on the Finance Committee, Water Commission and Green Energy Committee. In the March 16 candidate forum, Hogue advocated for more housing in town to alleviate the statewide housing crisis and increase socioeconomic diversity in town.

“I just wanted to send a quick note and congratulate Jim on his victory,” Hogue said in an email to LincolnTalk on Tuesday morning. “I wish Jim and the rest of the Select Board nothing but the best during the next term and look forward to my continued work on the School Committee. I am proud of the campaign me and my team ran and plan to continue the fight for affordable housing, economic development, and responsible budgets.”

In the Lincoln School Committee race, Kim Rajdev beat Joseph Dwyer by a 901-211 margin. “The voters of Lincoln have spoken,” Dwyer wrote to LincolnTalk on Tuesday. “Kim, you won fair and square. I wish you the best of luck in your term. I appreciate the issue-oriented campaign and that it did not devolve into personality squabbles. The voters of Lincoln deserved that. I want to thank  the moderators of LincolnTalk and Lincoln Squirrel for providing a quick and fair method of communicating positions on the issues. We should all thank Valerie Fox and her team for doing a great job operating a smooth election and providing quick results.”

L-S School Committee incumbents Cara Endyke Doran and Kevin Matthews retained their seats, winning 1,853 and 1,650 votes respectively in the combined Lincoln and Sudbury town elections. 

The vote in Sudbury was close: 1,307 for Carty, 1,207 for Matthews, and 1,046 for Endyke Doran, the incumbent chair. Challenger Maura Carty got the most votes in Sudbury but the fewest in Lincoln. In Lincoln, the biggest vote-getter for that race was “blank” with 882 votes, undoubtedly because none of the candidates were Lincoln residents.