Thomas Breen photo
New Ward 24 Democratic Party co-chairs Randall Furlow (left) and Art Perlo outside Ellsworth Avenue voting location Tuesday.
Arthur Perlo and Randall Furlow handily defeated incumbent Arthur Gary Stewart in Tuesday’s local Democratic Party Ward Co-Chair primary in the Edgewood neighborhood.
Perlo and Furlow ran as a slate for the two Ward 24 Democratic Party co-chair positions against Stewart, who served for four two-year terms as neighborhood co-chair.
Furlow has served as neighborhood party co-chair alongside Stewart since 2016. He and Perlo will now serve as the neighborhood’s two leaders and representatives to the Democratic Town Committee (DTC), where they will vote on party endorsements for city, state and federal offices.
Perlo is a longtime union organizer and active member of the Communist Party who has deep roots with Yale’s UNITE-HERE unions. Furlow is a local minister who is also the cousin of Amity/Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow. They were supported by the UNITE-HERE team that dominates both the party ranks and the Board of Alders; Stewart spoke out against its influence.
It was the only Democratic co-chair primary in the city’s 30 wards this year. All other seats went uncontested.
Arthur Gary Stewart.
Read a full article about the race and the candidates here.
Below are the final vote tallies from the election.
Arthur Perlo: 120 votes.
Randall Furlow: 121 votes.
Arthur Gary Stewart: 20 votes.