Ask the two candidates hoping to become the next mayor of Somerville what sets them apart, and you’ll get two starkly different answers.
At-large city councilor Willie Burnley Jr stresses that — like roughly two-thirds of Somerville’s residents — he’s a renter himself. He casts himself as an agent of big, substantive change at a moment when he says that’s exactly what Somerville needs.
As Burnley put it in a recent debate at the Somerville Theatre: “This is not the time to pick a new mayor who’s going to tweak around edges. ... We need someone who’s going to fundamentally challenge a status quo that’s not working for working people.”
At-large city councilor Jake Wilson, in contrast, says he has executive management experience from serving as Somerville Youth Soccer’s full-time volunteer president — experience that his opponent lacks.
In that same debate, Wilson put it this way: “Both of us have some lofty goals. ... I’ll be a mayor who’s going to be able to implement my policy plans.”
But between the sniping and line-drawing, those “lofty goals” are often quite similar. Wilson and Burnley are both pushing progressive platforms for the 80,000-person city: Each wants to build bike lanes, and focus on supportive services instead of law enforcement for people in mental health crises and active addiction.
Wilson and Burnley finished first and second, respectively, in September’s preliminary mayoral election. Current mayor Katjana Ballantyne, who was first elected in 2021, finished third and did not advance to the final.
The Somerville Theatre debate closed with a lighting round in which both candidates were asked to say “yes” or “no” — by holding up signs rather than speaking — to an assortment of propositions about the city.
Both men said police shouldn’t arrest people for injecting illegal drugs in a public park; that Somerville should complete 29 miles of planned protected bike lanes by 2030, even if it takes parking away from local businesses; and that they’d implement rent control in Somerville if it were legalized in Massachusetts. They also both said they wouldn’t support an anti-camping ordinance for public areas, and that they’re in favor of automated red-light cameras for speeding and red-light violations.
Both Burnley and Wilson say social housing, involving the construction of affordable homes on city-owned land, could help alleviate Somerville’s housing crunch, though only Burnley has a plan to create a brand-new Office of Social Housing. And both say they want to wage war on Somerville’s burgeoning rat population, though only Wilson’s website dedicates two separate pages to his strategy.
All of which raises a question: where are the biggest fault lines between these two candidates?
Broadly speaking, Burnley’s endorsers tilt more to the left, and include U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, Somerville YIMBY, the Boston Democratic Socialists of America and Somerville for Palestine. Wilson’s endorsers include a slew of unions, the Boston Globe, the Somerville Democrats, and former Somerville mayors Mike Capuano and Dorothy Kelly Gay.
The candidates are also a demographic study in contrasts. Wilson is white, straight, married and the father of two daughters; he grew up on a farm in Iowa and attended the University of Pennsylvania before settling in Somerville. Burnley is queer, polyamorous and would be Somerville’s first Black mayor if elected. He grew up in California, went to Emerson College and, at 31, he’s 17 years younger than his opponent.
But outside of self definition and lived professional and personal experience, where do the two candidates actually diverge on the issues?
Based on interviews in the campaign’s home stretch, the candidates’ websites, and statements made at other points in the race, here’s what stands out:
Upzoning to increase housing stock
Both candidates support letting developers build denser housing in Somerville as a way of dealing with the city’s ongoing affordability crisis. But they part ways on how sweeping that change should be.
Wilson says it makes sense to upzone near Somerville’s many public-transit nodes, but not across the entire city, arguing that the latter approach would disproportionately impact “our most vulnerable residents — our immigrant community [and] low-income households.”
Burnley, in contrast, believes citywide upzoning is the right approach. Limited upzoning, he argues, would mean East Somerville would shoulder much more of the associated development burden: it has much better T access than West Somerville, but it’s already been the site of extensive development for years.
Divestment from companies involved in Israel’s war in Gaza
A nonbinding question on this year’s Somerville ballot would direct the city’s mayor and leaders to end all current city business and refrain from engaging in future business “with companies [that] engage in business that sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine.”
Burnley supports the measure and says he’d implement it as mayor.
“I think people being able to have a say over where their tax dollars go is the kind of democratic value that we are in deep, deep need of in this particular moment,” he said.
But while Wilson has described what’s happening in Gaza as “an atrocity,” he also says Ballot Question 3 couldn’t be implemented under state law and that he’ll be voting “no” on the measure.
Police’s place in society
Both candidates want Somerville to implement alternative emergency response teams that would divert some emergency calls to unarmed units staffed by psychiatric professionals and others. But Wilson also says he’d beef up community policing in Somerville, and that police have an essential role to play in the city.
“I am not a police abolitionist,” he said. “I believe that we need to have police at this point. We’d all love to live in a world where we don’t need the police. We are nowhere close to that.”
Burnley has a different perspective.
“I would identify as an abolitionist, certainly,” he said — though he added: “I want to be clear that in my role as mayor, I would not be abolishing the Somerville Police Department. ... What I would do is invest in unarmed emergency response, which is something that I’ve championed on the council for years.”
Homelessness in Davis Square
The candidates agree that the growing homeless population in and around Davis Square is a serious challenge for Somerville. Wilson calls it a “huge issue,” Burnley describes it as a “public health and safety crisis,” and both men argue that both shelter beds and permanent supportive housing need to be made available to Somerville’s unhoused.
But Burnley is adamant that, as mayor, he wouldn’t preside over any sweeps aimed at clearing the area like Boston Mayor Michelle Wu conducted around the intersections of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, the epicenter of Boston’s homelessness and housing crises. Burnley describes such sweeps as inhumane and bad public policy.
Wilson, in contrast, suggested in an August 2025 newsletter that he’d use sweeps as a last resort. “It’s clear a voluntary removal of the encampment would be the best possible outcome here,” he wrote. “But if these efforts fail, then the response by the City should be to remove this personal property from public land. Public space is for the public and should not to be made private in any way, for anyone’s exclusive personal, extended use.”
Wilson added that any property removed in such an exercise should be preserved and returned to its owners rather than discarded.
School funding
Burnley says he’d increase the budget for Somerville’s public schools by 10%. Wilson has been a proponent for new school construction and better pay for teachers and paraprofessionals, but hasn’t committed to a specific budget-increase amount for the entire school department.
Somerville’s mayoral election takes place on Nov. 4, 2025, with all polling locations open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 30 is the last day to vote early in-person at Somerville’s City Hall.
Find your poll site through the city government’s website here. Deadlines to register to vote and vote by mail have already passed.
