9 Vie for 5 At-Large Seats on the City Council

Early predictions forecast low voter turnout on Tuesday, and that may be due to the lack of a mayor's race, but there's definitely a seat or two at stake in the Councilor-at-Large race.

There are five at-large seats on the Peabody City Council and nine candidates (the remaining six seats are filled by ward councilors).

Tom Gould, Mike Garabedian, Dave Gravel and Anne Manning-Martin are all incumbents, each with their own established bases of support, but two challengers in this race have substantial name recognition in Peabody -- former state Rep. Tom Walsh and Making a Difference in Peabody Foundation President Scott Frasca.

Joining Walsh and Frasca, Library Trustee Margaret Tierney is making another bid for the City Council along with Russ Donovan, and Peter Bakula is running his first campaign for office.

Two years ago, Gould topped the ticket in his first bid for office, with Garabedian, Gravel and Manning-Martin following in that order. The open seat this year is due to the retirement of longtime councilor Jim Liacos.

We caught up with the candidates for Councilor-at-Large recently for a Q&A on the issues:

• Peter Bakula
• Dave Gravel
• Russ Donovan
• Margaret Tierney
• Anne Manning-Martin
• Tom Walsh
• Mike Garabedian
• Scott Frasca
• Tom Gould