It may not be November, but election season is still in full swing. District 1 City Councilor Lydia Edwards will vacate her position on April 30 after being elected to state Senate, prompting a special election this spring to fill her seat and a debate over which candidate would be best fit for the role. 

In November 2021, Edwards, the incumbent, ran unopposed for her District 1 City Council seat and was re-elected. District 1 covers the East Boston, North End and Charlestown neighborhoods. At the same time, Edwards ran for the First Suffolk and Middlesex state Senate seat, winning by roughly a 20-point margin in the December primary, according to unofficial results. She then ran unopposed in the general election, was elected to the Senate on Jan. 11 and sworn in on Jan. 20. Edwards is the first woman and person of color to represent her district, as well as the only Black member of the state Senate. 

“Serving on Boston City Council has been an incredible honor, and I am thrilled that the candidates who have expressed interest in the District One city council seat reflect the diversity of the district,” Edwards said in a statement announcing her resignation from the city council.

So far, two candidates have formally announced runs for the vacant seat: Gabriela Coletta, formerly Edwards’ chief of staff, and Tania Del Rio, a community activist who recently ended her term as the executive director of the YWCA in Cambridge. Both are first-time candidates. 

Del Rio, an East Boston resident with two kids in Boston Public Schools, is originally from Mexico City. She first worked for the Consulate of Mexico in Boston and then served as executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement. She said her experience as a Latina immigrant in Boston influenced her decision to run for city council.

“I want to provide people an opportunity to feel like they can come close to government and not feel intimidated,” Del Rio said in an interview with The News. “I think being in this context, having a city council [who] could understand where you’re coming from, speak your language and invite you in a way that you haven’t been before would be very important.”

Del Rio’s campaign focuses on policies she thinks are the most urgent in the District 1 neighborhoods — mainly housing and displacement issues. 

“We’re losing the people who were part of building this wonderful neighborhood and were part of making our present,” she said. “They put blood, sweat and tears in building our presence. They should be able to stay. And that’s what we’re fighting for.”

Del Rio’s other main points of emphasis include education equity, climate justice and providing excellent constituent services. 

Coletta has also worked in city government, as well as activism and political organizing. Before working as Edwards’ campaign manager and chief of staff, she was the associate director of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus. 

She is currently the external relations manager at the New England Aquarium, promoting equity and accessibility along Boston’s downtown waterfront. Her main focuses are similar to Del Rio’s, including housing, education and environmental justice. Both candidates’ policies reflect the major issues facing District 1 today.

Gloribell Mota, an East Boston resident, co-founder and executive director of the organization Neighbors United for a Better East Boston and former candidate for state representative, talked about the importance of a city councilor that meets a diverse community’s needs.

“How do we make sure that resources are equitable and that the resources we have here are also being distributed equitably?” Mota asked, saying this is something “the City Council could take up to par.” 

While Mota said she is excited about the diversity of the candidates, she added she is more concerned about the values each candidate will bring to the table. 

“If you do have access to power and you have the responsibility to be in a position of power, what’s your responsibility for those that don’t have a voice?” Mota said. 

Recent events have brought this question to the forefront of the campaign. Social media posts made years ago by both candidates surfaced on Twitter this week, which included racist and homophobic language. Coletta apologized on Tuesday for her posts, in which she used the n-word. 

“I am incredibly sorry for the ignorant and horrible things I said. There is no excuse,” she said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Regardless of how long ago I used this language, the harm remains.”

Del Rio also issued a statement about Coletta’s posts, writing that Coletta’s comments were “hurtful to the black community and the LGBTQ+ community” and emphasizing that “words matter.”

A few hours later, another Twitter user posted a reply to Del Rio’s statement with screenshots of Facebook posts she had made in 2008, which also included homophobic and racist sentiments. 

Some community leaders in East Boston expressed sympathy toward Coletta, who was the only candidate affected at the time of the interviews. Mota said she hopes that the public allows Coletta space to grow and self-reflect.

 “I think part of being a white ally is understanding your privilege and understanding what that implies … I think she was in public service for the last five, six years,” Mota said. “How has it shown up? How has your commitment to understanding the harm, that’s racism in that social construct, has done? And how have you also benefited from being able to do that?”

Gail Miller, long-time East Boston resident and president of environmental advocacy group Airport Impact Relief, Inc., agreed. She said she understood how the candidates’ youth at the time of the posts contributed to the hurtful language. Coletta’s posts were published from the ages of 15 to 18, while Del Rio’s were from when she was about 21 years old. 

“I just think everyone’s going to have to decide for themselves what that should mean in the candidate,” Miller said. 

While the community is reckoning with how this controversy will affect the upcoming election, some are questioning the wisdom of holding special elections in the first place.

“I would love for these elected officials to do away with these special elections,” Miller said. “This is our third special election back-to-back and it’s tiring and it’s wearing. And worst of all, I think you get voter disinterest because this is coming at them all the time. It just melds, it’s almost like it’s just one campaign.”

That voter disinterest can have a huge effect on voter turnout, according to Mota. 

“There’s a majority that’s not been represented and so they should take that to account,” she said. “Being elected by 17 or seven percent of the electorate is not representative for us for participatory democracy.”

For the moment, however, special elections still determine leadership in Boston. The future of their neighborhoods is in the hands of the residents, if they choose to use the power.