Current Mayoral Executive Assistant Lindsi Sekula has announced her bid for mayor of Easthampton.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
EASTHAMPTON — A kickoff event for the campaign of mayoral candidate Lindsi Sekula will take place on Saturday, June 28, from 2-4 p.m. at Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton. The first-time candidate for mayor indicates she is looking forward to the challenge of campaign season.
Sekula, a mother of three, noted that anything done for her campaign will be a family-friendly atmosphere and she encourages any and all to come by to the free kickoff event, whether they are a supporter or a resident looking to learn more about the candidate. There will be food and activities for children available at the event.
“Anything I’m doing in my campaign, it’s going to involve my family and my kids. Kids, seniors, college kids, everyone is welcome to be there. I want as many people there as possible that support me, or even people that don’t know about me and want to learn more,” said Sekula. “It’s just an opportunity to do a meet and greet and talk about what my hope is for Easthampton and where I plan to go.”
Sekula connected with Reminder Publishing to talk about the announcement of her campaign and what she hopes to communicate to voters as she runs for mayor.
Sekula is one of three candidates — so far — running for mayor of Easthampton this fall, along with City Councilor JT Tirrell and resident Robert Laferriere. Current Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle has been in office since 2018, but announced in 2023 that she would not be seeking reelection for a fourth term.
Sekula has served as the executive assistant to LaChapelle for the last seven years and said her experience in the position has given her first-hand perspective of the area that comes with being mayor of Easthampton.
“Truly just my lived experiences are what started to get me thinking about it. It was certainly never my intention when I took the position that I would ever run for mayor. It was always in the back of my mind that there would be a day when Nicole wouldn’t be my boss, but it wasn’t a reality until it was a reality. That’s something that’s been a learning curve for me because I always imagined myself working at City Hall and being in public service and working for her,” explained Sekula.
When the reality settled in that LaChapelle was not seeking reelection, Sekula said her mindset began to change in part to her love for the community and feeling like she was capable of filling in the role.
“When she announced that she was stepping down, I started thinking about what my role looked like moving forward. And it started to make sense to me, and it started to become more of a calling that I belonged in that office no matter what capacity I was in at — whether I was in the seat I’m in now, or in the office adjacent to it,” Sekula said. “There was a lot of motivating factors. I had some elected officials outside of City Hall encouraging me. I had my family’s support. I had friends, residents saying, ‘You’d be great for this.’ So, I started to entertain the idea more and more until it became clear to me that that was going to be my path forward.”
Sekula began her career working in early childhood education for a decade, mostly in preschool settings at local day care facilities. Eventually, she made a career change to Baystate Health, where she worked another decade as a practice associate and in finance management. Then, in 2018, she took on the current role as executive assistant.
“Corporate life didn’t call to me. It wasn’t emotionally fueling me. I really missed being in education. I really missed that direct public service and the hands-on [element], so I decided to apply for a job with the city and bring my experience there,” Sekula said.
The role has only helped Sekula feel comfortable making a run for mayor as she has overseen every department head and helps support all city staff in her current position under LaChapelle.
While the experience can only mean so much in comparison to actually having the position, she said she is committed to prioritizing constituents’ voices and that running the city is a collaborative effort regardless of mayor.
“When people ask ‘are you sure you’re ready for this?’ Well, no I don’t think I’m ever going to be ready. I mean anyone going for any position, you get nervous, so imagine going for the most public facing position in your municipality,” Sekula said. “It’s not easy, but I’ve seen what we’re able to do, I’ve seen what we shouldn’t do. Our job is really to help everyone and that’s what I enjoy doing.”
Sekula said she plans to open more up on her campaign goals and aspirations with the kickoff event and throughout campaigning during the summer. She shared that housing is an important issue to her as someone who lived in federal subsidized housing for a decade as a single mother. She reiterated though that this was just another example of something that will take collaboration from many — specifically state and federal partners — to properly address and she hopes to be part of the charge led there.
Sekula added one of her main priorities in this pursuit of becoming mayor is to focus on and listen to what constituents have to say. Seeing herself as not so much a politician and more of a person who wants what’s best for her community, Sekula said she will always be conscious that the decisions that have to be made for the city of Easthampton are made with input from everyone in Easthampton.
“I’m not a politician. I’m really here as your average human being. My platform is really practical and rooted in constituent listening and I’m not going to make promises that I can’t keep. I think Easthampton in the future years, we are going to be looking at as taxpayers, as residents, as employees, what we want our services to look like. That has to be a decision that we make together. And I want to be very clear — if elected, my role as mayor is not to decide who sits at the table. We all sit at the table together. We all make these decisions together. It’s not my decision to make alone. My role as mayor is to be accessible, to be transparent, to be accountable, and to be listening to all constituents.”
Sekula continued, “I could sit here and say, yes, I want a new senior center. I do. My mother needs a space. I would love to say I’m putting in a senior center. I would love to say we’re going to rebuild the infrastructure, that we’re going to do these things. But at the end of the day, that comes down to the taxpayer dollars. It’s their decision where they want their resources to go. Do we want to start fixing aging infrastructure? Do we want to put in affordable housing? How are we going to make this work for Easthampton? We need to make it a space where residents of all ages can live.”
Becoming mayor would present many moving parts and issues to focus on, but Sekula made clear her vision if elected will have constituent voices at its core and part of the process.
“I am doing this because I have seen what works for Easthampton and I have seen what doesn’t work for Easthampton, and I want to use a platform to help support the voices of people who don’t have that privilege,” Sekula said. “I want to make Easthampton a place where everyone feels comfortable living regardless of age, race, sexual orientation. I’ve truly found a home in Easthampton and I want other people to find that too.”
To learn more about Sekula’s campaign for mayor and additional details of the kickoff event, visit lindsisekula.com.
