PEABODY — The race for mayor is shaping up to be a showdown between two former basketball teammates.
Sean Fitzgerald, the former chief of staff for Mayor Michael Bonfanti, announced yesterday that he's running for the job his old boss will vacate at the end of the year.
"I've grown up in Peabody. It's my hometown," Fitzgerald said. "I believe strongly Peabody is a great community. There's a lot going on and a lot that we need to accomplish."
Fitzgerald will square off against City Councilor Ted Bettencourt, who declared his intentions in January.
Both have deep Peabody ties and even played on the same men's winter basketball team last year, called "Murphy's," after a city firefighter, according to Fitzgerald.
"It was kind of a modified four-on-four," he said.
The one-time teammates on the court now find themselves on opposite ends of the political arena.
Fitzgerald will remain town manager of Plaistow, N.H. — a job he accepted in November 2008 — while he campaigns in Peabody at night and on weekends.
It will mark his second major campaign. He came within 500 votes of defeating state Rep. Joyce Spiliotis after a tight Democratic primary battle in 2006.
"You have to spend a lot of time listening and talking to residents about the issues important to them," said Fitzgerald, who claimed to have worn out three pairs of shoes crisscrossing the city during the '06 campaign. "I'm looking forward to getting out there and ... sharing a little bit of the vision I have for the city."
Fitzgerald, 40, is married with a 2-year-old son and has maintained Peabody residency since taking the New Hampshire job. He's a Peabody High School graduate who attended Central Connecticut State on a football scholarship.
Both Fitzgerald and Bettencourt have deep Peabody ties and even grew up near each other, but Bettencourt was quick to point out differences between the two.
"I certainly think both he and I have different experiences," Bettencourt said. "I believe my experience of being successfully elected four times and serving on the council for the past eight years, combined with my private-sector experience as a small business owner ... qualifies as strong experience for the job."
Meanwhile, Bonfanti said Fitzgerald had talked to him twice about a possible run for mayor shortly after Bonfanti announced he would not seek re-election. While the mayor said he hasn't endorsed either candidate yet, he didn't rule out throwing his support behind someone down the road.
His advice to the two candidates — pledge now to keep the campaign respectable in the fall.
"Have a meeting with no one else but the two of them," Bonfanti said. "Sit down and talk about the campaign. Show Peabody the class that they have. Have a couple of nice, solid debates. I think the public will find out they have two decent guys."
City Councilor David Gravel, who had been rumored to be a third candidate, announced earlier this year that he will not run and instead will focus on running his consulting firm.
Political analyst Michael Schulze said a competitive race for a vacant mayoral seat is good for both voters and politicians.
"People want them to earn it," Schulze said.
Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at ccassidy@salemnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisCassidy_SN.
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