Aquinnah voters have elected Thomas Murphy to fill Jim Newman’s soon-to-be-vacant seat on the select board, as the longtime town official retires after 18 years of service.
The single-seat select board race between Murphy, Adrian Higgins, and Nancy Gilson Slate was the main focus of this year’s town election. Murphy received 97 votes, to 75 for Higgins and six for Slate.
Murphy is an attorney in western Massachusetts, but has lived in Aquinnah full-time for the past six years. In an interview prior to the election, he said as his law practice winds down, he has more time to volunteer for town government. “I love this community, and I pretty much know a lot of what’s under the hood, having dealt with all the financial challenges we have had in this community,” he said in response to why he was running for the board.
In the other contested race on the ballot, Kathy Newman narrowly defeated Jim Glavin for the board of health by a vote of 88-81.
