Braintree Elects Town's 1st Woman Mayor In Election Night Upset

BRAINTREE, MA — "We did it." That's the simple declaration of victory from Erin Joyce and her campaign on Tuesday after the former Planning Board Chair upset incumbent Mayor Charles Kokoros.

In District 6, Peter Morin has also won election as he returns to Braintree politics from Norwell.

Here are the vote totals for both races:

Mayor

• Erin Joyce — 4,751
• Charles Kokoros — 4,232

District 6 Council

• Peter Morin — 1097
• Mark Doucette — 627

Here's what to know about the races:

District 6 Council Race

Mark Doucette and Peter Morin are the two candidates in Braintree's only contested election for a Town Council seat.

Either candidate will be a new representative for District 6, as Lawrence Mackin will not seek reelection.

Morin has been a fixture in Braintree local government in years past, however, serving on the town's Board of Selectmen in the 90s, and also as the Chief of Staff and Operations to Mayor Joseph Sullivan from 2008-2014.

Now hoping to make a return to Braintree, Morin detailed what he plans to help the town address if elected.

"We need to control spending and create new revenue so that we eliminate our budget deficit. We need to provide local option circuit breaker tax relief to senior citizens and we need a plan to finance the upgrade of our elementary schools," he said.

Mayor

The mayoral race will once again see Charles Kokoros running for re-election. He has served as mayor since his election in 2019 and, before that, had a decade-plus run as a Town Councilor in District 1.

Kokoros is challenged by another familiar face in Braintree politics in Erin Joyce. Joyce has served as an appointed member of the Braintree Planning Board for the last eight years, serving as chairperson for the last three years.

For Kokoros, school building repairs would be among his top priorities in his next term, if elected. He cites the new South Middle School and other improvements like roofing at elementary schools as signs of progress, but said there is more work to be done.

"After assessing all of our school buildings I saw firsthand how much our schools were in disrepair," he said of the status of the buildings at the beginning of his tenure.

" Over my next term, I want to be able to make major improvements to our elementary schools and partner with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to repair or replace Braintree High School."

For Joyce, however, she believes the town has failed in the past few years when it comes to setting up plans for long-term fiscal stability.

"Braintree has stagnated in the past few years due to a lack of long-term strategic planning with our budget and our town departments and we spend too much time on short-term quick fixes with no consideration of long-term implications," Joyce said.

"We need to be proactive about revitalizing blighted and underutilized commercial zones, create a streamlined permitting process, open Braintree up for business, and go after federal and state grant monies - if not we risk tax increases that may not be palatable for many residents or we cut services in our schools and community."