Contested races for Select Board, Assessor headline ’26 election

Candidates for Select Board are pictured at a forum held at Orchard Cove. (Hebrew SeniorLife photo)

At least one newcomer will join the town’s top executive board next week as Canton voters head to the polls for Tuesday’s annual town election.

In addition to a mail-in option for those who formally requested a ballot, a three-day, in-person early voting period was also offered to residents at Town Hall on March 28, 30 and 31. Those who submitted a vote-by-mail application by the March 31 deadline will have until the close of polls on Election Day (April 7) to return their completed ballots.

According to the Town Clerk’s office, more than 1,400 people had already cast their ballots as of yesterday, April 1, with the bulk of those being done via mail-in voting.

While most of the 11 seats up for grabs this year are uncontested, a notable exception concerns the race for Canton Select Board, where four candidates are vying for two open seats with three-year terms. The field includes one incumbent, current board chair John “JR” McCourt, and three first-time challengers: Julie Beckham, David Clough, and Gregory Murphy. (The other Select Board member with an expiring term, Chris Albert, opted not to run for reelection.)

A lifelong Canton resident and veteran of several local boards and committees, McCourt is seeking his second term on the Select Board after defeating then-incumbent Lisa Lopez in a three-person race in 2023. With a background in construction and facilities management, he has worked for more than three decades as a maintenance supervisor with the Canton Housing Authority and has played a key role in the planning/construction of several major town projects, including the recently rebuilt Bolivar Aquatic Complex as well as the ongoing “Next Chapter” renovations at the Canton Public Library.

While none of the other three challengers has held elective office before, all have served on appointed boards and committees in town.

Beckham, a Canton native and CHS graduate, was formerly the vice chair of the town’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and previously served on the boards of the Hansen School CAPT, the Canton Alliance for Public Education, the CHS School Council, and the Canton Cultural Council. A former working actress and drama studio owner, she later moved into the banking industry and currently serves as AVP/financial education development and strategy officer at Rockland Trust.

Murphy, an IT professional who consults for the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, currently serves on several town committees, including Capital Planning, Economic Development, and Sustainability & Climate Action, while also serving as the CPC representative to the Building Renovations Committee. Murphy’s platform is built on a framework he developed called the “Canton Nexus,” which aims to synchronize the town’s “infrastructure, finances, and long-term planning.”

Clough, a former finance professional who went on to start a successful national e-commerce company, served for a total of six years on the Canton Finance Committee and previously served on the Police Audit and Capital Planning committees.

In addition to running for a seat on the Select Board, Clough is also simultaneously challenging longtime incumbent Gene Manning for his seat on the Board of Assessors. While town bylaws permit a candidate to run for more than one office in the same election, he or she can only hold one seat, meaning that if Clough were to win both races, he would have to decide on which board to serve.

As a candidate for the Board of Assessors — which is responsible for determining property valuations for taxation purposes — Clough has advocated for “re-balancing” the tax classification system by shifting even more of the burden away from homeowners and onto commercial property owners. (Canton, like many other area communities, uses a split-rate system with higher rates charged to business properties.)

Manning, meanwhile, is seeking his fourth consecutive term as an assessor, during which time he has helped the town establish the lowest residential tax rate in Norfolk County ($9.75 per thousand valuation in FY26, with Norwood being the next closest at $9.82 per thousand). A senior executive at Marriott International, Manning has served for more than two decades on the town’s Economic Development Committee and is a past president of the Canton Association of Business and Industry (CABI).

Other incumbents running for reelection this year besides Manning and JR McCourt include Kimberly McCourt and Sonja Grauds for Canton School Committee, Dr. Julie Goodman for Board of Health, and George Comeau for the Library Board of Trustees.

Also appearing on the 2026 ballot are two longtime residents who are running unopposed for their first elective office: Robert Maffie, who is seeking a full five-year term on the Planning Board, and Elizabeth Emhardt, who is running for a three-year term on the Library Board of Trustees. Additionally, Rob Fichman, husband of Select Board member Susan Harrington, recently announced that he is running as a write-in candidate for the third open library trustee seat. Those who want to vote for Fichman for that seat should clearly write “Rob Fichman, 45 Spruce Ln” on the write-in line and then fill in the oval on the same line.

For the final seat on this year’s ballot — a three-year Planning Board vacancy — no candidates stepped forward, meaning that the vacancy will remain unless a viable write-in candidate emerges or until such time that the Select Board and Planning Board jointly appoint a member to serve until the next town election in April 2027.

For additional information about the town election candidates as well as the duties of the offices up for grabs, voters are encouraged to visit cantonmavoterguide.com, which also includes links to individual campaign websites as well as videos of recently held candidate forums co-hosted with the Canton Lions Club and broadcast on Canton Community Television (cantoncommunitytv.org).

For more information about the April 7 town election, including a precinct map and polling locations, visit town.canton.ma.us/259/Town-Clerk or call 781-821-5013.

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