Just two weeks after announcing he would seek re-election to the District 5 City Council seat he has represented since 2013, Tim McCarthy last week said he will not run in this year’s race for the Hyde Park-based seat.
McCarthy, a former executive commissioner in the city’s Public Works Department, cited family obligations in a Facebook message announcing his withdrawal from the race.
“After a great deal of reflection and discussion with my family over Christmas break, I feel that it is time for me to make a change, and to move on to my next adventure, whatever that might be,” he wrote in his post.
McCarthy’s withdrawal leaves former public defender Ricardo Arroyo of Hyde Park, Jean Claude Sanon of Mattapan and Yves Mary Jean of Roslindale as declared contenders for the seat.
Arroyo’s account with the Office of Campaign and Public Finance, opened Dec. 12 of 2018, lists $32,560 in funds. That figure does not appear to include receipts from a Jan. 6 fundraiser that drew dozens of supporters.
Sanon, who ran for the seat in 2013 and 2015, losing to McCarthy both times, has a balance of $3,666 in his campaign account and raised $350 in December.
McCarthy had raised $6,600 in December and an additional $700, deposited Jan. 10.
Jean’s account, opened Aug. 29, currently lists a balance of $81, deposited in September of 2018.
In addition, Hyde Park resident Dave Vittorini, chief of staff to City Councilor Michelle Wu, told the Banner he is mulling a run for the seat.
District 5 includes all of Hyde Park, a portion of Mattapan and several precincts in Roslindale and West Roxbury.
Arroyo, who announced his candidacy in December, received an endorsement from state Rep. Russell Holmes, whose 6 th Suffolk District includes parts of Mattapan, Roslindale and Hyde Park.
“As a public defender, Ricardo has fought for residents in our community struggling with addiction, mental illness, and homelessness,” Holmes said in a statement Arroyo’s campaign distributed via email. “I am certain that as our next City Councilor he will see, hear, and serve all of the residents in Hyde Park, Mattapan, and Roslindale.”
Sanon, who garnered 45 percent of the vote against McCarthy in 2013, told the Banner he’s currently working with volunteers to launch his campaign.
“I have a group of people working right now,” he said. “We’re putting together a campaign team.”
