Newton City-Councilor Elect John Oliver On What's Next

NEWTON, MA — It was his first run for city office, and John Oliver captured the Ward 1 City Councilor seat in the Special Election by more than 1,300 votes, according to the results Tuesday night.

He'll be the new Ward 1 At Large City Councilor for the next eight months.

"This is all just sinking in right now," Oliver said Wednesday morning.

Read more: Newton Special Election 2021: John Oliver, Tarik Lucas Win Seats

The polls hadn't been closed an hour and he and his campaign were on a Zoom call, collectively hitting refresh on the city's website as the results came in, when he got a call from his opponent Madeline Renalli conceding the race.

As of Tuesday night, with some mail-in ballots yet to be counted he earned 7,812 votes to Renalli's 6,436 votes.

Oliver, 52, has lived in Newton for the past 18 years with his wife, where they've been raising their 15-year-old son Griffin. He got his Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University in industrial, organizational psychology and has been a marketing consultant for the past 25 years.

Although he's been a board member for Newton Community Education, if you had asked him five years ago about vying for a front row seat to Newton's politics, he would not have imagined it, he said.

It wasn't until 2019, when he heard that the city was planning to place a new senior and community center on Ablemarle field that he sat up, and started tuning in more closely.

"There was just this record scratch sound in my ear, like; what? Why would you do that?" he said in a phone interview. "It just didn’t make sense on so many levels."

He said that's when he started getting more involved, asking about the process and realizing he had more questions than answers.

So he based his run prioritizing transparency, clarity and collaboration.

On Tuesday night, upon hearing that he had won, he and about 70 community members, volunteers and friends celebrated from their own homes together on Zoom.

"I have so much to learn, it’s humbling and at the same time as its invigorating," he said. "It was, I know, a difficult phone call for Maddy to make last night. That’s not lost on me in this whole process. I mean what I’ve been saying, I want people to feel heard in this city. And so many people don’t right now."

Oliver said in addition to working to make what happens in the city more accessible and public, he hopes to help more people feel heard.

"It’s gotten to the point in my opinion, where people are just mad," he said, adding there's a problem in the city that he hopes to help untangle.

Zoning, police reform, budget

The city council has a lot on its plate this year. Among them: the major development at the Riverside MBTA stop is back in front of them, Grace Church and police reform.

Oliver said he's been preparing by attending as many meetings online as he can, from zoning to full city council to finance and public safety and land use.

He said he's looked at the recommendations from the Police Task Force.

"There are things in there that I read that make sense to me, and then there are others that I wonder how will that work in practice," he said. "At this point I’m armed with the ability to ask some important questions. There's a lot there."

When it comes to the upcoming city budget?

"That is the number one enabler that this city has to get right in order to get everything else right, that’s central to all of it," he said. "And we’re going to have to figure it all out."

And the crux of it: There's still lot to catch up on.

"I’m in a good starting point to ask the right questions that will help," he said.

Next week

Oliver is set to discuss with the City Council President Susan Albright committee assignments, and expects to be sworn in sometime early next week, after the clerk's office finishes validating the votes.

"I may have won, but it’s not like I got everyone’s support," he said. " I'm going to listen, and I want to do what I can to bring everyone along in the process. It's a big, and humble, thank you. I’m going to do my best job."