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About Half of Massachusetts Cities Have Four-Year Mayoral Terms

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About Half of Massachusetts Cities Have Four-Year Mayoral Terms


Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan is up for re-election this fall. If it seems the Spindle City is in a perpetual state of campaigning, it is.

Like all Massachusetts cities with elected mayors, Fall River has a municipal election every two years. New Bedford does as well.

However, while Fall River elects a mayor every other year, mayoral elections are held every four years in New Bedford.

City councilors, school committee members, and other elected municipal officials in both cities face re-election every two years, thus the perception that they are always campaigning.

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Of the 351 communities in Massachusetts, 47 have elected mayors. Twenty-four (51 percent) of them have four-year mayoral terms. Twenty-three (49 percent) have two-year terms.

For most of its history, New Bedford had two-year mayoral terms. In 2017, voters narrowly approved a ballot question extending New Bedford’s mayoral term to four years.

There was a time when New Bedford held mayoral elections annually.

About Half Of Massachusetts Cities Have Four-Year Mayoral Terms

City of New Bedford Video

Mayor Jon Mitchell, first elected Mayor of New Bedford in 2011, was the first to win the new four-year term in 2019. In 2023, Mitchell won a second four-year term. Mitchell has not indicated if he plans to seek a third four-year term when his current term is up in 2027.

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Mitchell told WBSM as far back as 2013 that he favored a four-year term, calling the two-year term “archaic.”

In 2017, Mitchell told WBSM, “Running the City of New Bedford is not like running a lemonade stand.” Mitchell said a two-year term forces more short-term decisions than long-term ones.

The Massachusetts Municipal Association’s website lists all current Massachusetts mayors, the length of their term, and when their term expires.

New Bedford Mayors

New Bedford has had 49 different mayors, along with two acting mayors and one interim mayor.

Gallery Credit: Tim Weisberg

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WBSM’s Top SouthCoast Stories 1/1 to 1/10

These are the top stories in New Bedford and across the SouthCoast from January 1 to January 10, 2025. Click the photo or title to read the complete story.

Gallery Credit: Tim Weisberg





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Massachusetts

Swimmer pulled from Houghton’s Pond after search

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Swimmer pulled from Houghton’s Pond after search


A teenager was pulled from a pond in Milton, Massachusetts, after he went missing while swimming Saturday night.

The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said the teenaged male was taken to a Boston area hospital following the incident at Houghton’s Pond. It’s unclear how long the teen was under water, and there was no immediate word on his condition.

State police had said earlier that they responded to the pond shortly after 7 p.m. for a person who entered the water and didn’t resurface. State police divers, detectives, troopers, and the Milton Fire Department were all on scene involved in the search.

The DA’s office is conducting an investigation with state police that remains ongoing. Further information is not being released at this time.

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This story will be updated when we learn more



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Mass. man charged with posing as teen, exposing himself to 12-, 13-year-old girls

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Mass. man charged with posing as teen, exposing himself to 12-, 13-year-old girls


A Massachusetts man is facing multiple charges for allegedly engaging in inappropriate communications and exposing himself to children.

Orate Kyle Graham, 20, of Bridgewater, was arrested this week on two counts of disseminating obscene material to a minor and one count of accosting or annoying another person.

Bridgewater police said they were made aware Tuesday of allegations involving interactions between several girls age 12 and 13 and an individual known to them only as “Jay.” The individual said he was 17 years old during conversations with the girls through FaceTime and in person.

Through an investigation, police identified “Jay” as Graham, and also found that he had regularly engaged in interactions with the minor victims. During those interactions, he allegedly exposed himself and asked the girls to expose themselves to him.

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He was arrested Thursday and taken to the Plymouth County House of Correction, where he was held on $25,000 bail. The case remains under investigation by Bridgewater police and the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office.



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Fisherman reels in white shark off Massachusetts, then snags the hook from its toothy mouth

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Fisherman reels in white shark off Massachusetts, then snags the hook from its toothy mouth


BILLERICA, Mass. (AP) — Elliot Sudal didn’t need a bigger boat, but he did need to find a way to get a hook out of a shark’s mouth.

Sudal, a veteran angler and boat captain, reeled in the nearly nine-foot shark — also commonly known as a great white shark or a great white — on June 7 on Nantucket. White sharks are a protected species in the U.S. and must be released immediately when accidentally caught.

That presents a nasty problem for a fisherman because the white shark is a formidable apex predator best known for the 1975 movie Jaws, in which Roy Scheider utters the famous line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” upon seeing the big fish. Sudal, who caught the shark while fishing from shore, decided to use his encounter to demonstrate how to respond to such a situation.

Sudal posted a video of himself removing the hook to his social media accounts. In the video, Sudal climbs onto the back of the shark, secures the fish in the surf, and removes the hook from its mouth. By the end of the short video, the shark is back in the water.

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White sharks typically have about 300 teeth arranged into five rows, so speed was key.

“Hooks out and back on her way in 15 seconds, not sure how to do it better,” Sudal wrote in an Instagram post that included a video of the shark release.

Sudal is no stranger to sharks, and has caught and tagged hundreds of them over the years. He said in a social media post that this month’s encounter with a white shark was the first time he has ever caught one of them in more than a decade of the work.

Sudal’s practices have sometimes attracted the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, such as in 2017, when the agency investigated his handling of a smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, in Florida. The agency said in 2018 that it sent Sudal a letter “informing him of the Endangered Species Act issues and the safe handling protocol for sawfish.”

White sharks are not listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but are subject to special federal protections. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers them vulnerable globally.

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Sightings of white sharks off New England have ticked up in recent years, and some scientists have pinned that to the greater availability of the seals that they prey on. Dangerous encounters between white sharks and humans are extremely rare, and only a few dozen fatal white shark bites on people have ever been recorded.

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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.





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