Ahern Seeks Uncontested Assembly Seat

ORLEANS – Voters will weigh in on a seat on the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates at next week’s state election.

Neal Ahern is running uncontested for the town’s assembly seat currently held by Jon Fuller, who has opted against seeking reelection to the county panel. 

A razor clam harvester, Ahern, 47, divided his time growing up between Orleans and Florida, and also spent some time living in Brookline. He is a graduate of Nauset Regional High School. 

“I’m not going there with any kind of a platform,” he said of his decision to seek the assembly seat. “I don’t even know really how much my own opinion on things matters. Orleans is my hometown. I want to be a good advocate for it.”

Ahern admits that he’s far from an expert in the workings of county government. But he said he believes that there are many people in Orleans and around the Cape who similarly lack an understanding of what county government does. He said he was inspired to seek the assembly seat to “fill the void,” but he hopes that if elected, it will “empower” younger residents to get involved in county politics. 

“I’m not trying to sit on the assembly of delegates for the next 30 years of my life,” he said. “I’m just trying to open the door here for somebody to come behind me, ideally pretty quickly, that’s younger.”

If elected, Ahern said he’s interested in learning more about the county dredge program and how it works.

“I don’t know a lot about the program, but I feel like it’s certainly one where it’s less unfamiliar than some other things,” he said. “And I feel one degree separated from a lot of fishermen, so in terms of being an advocate or just a source of information for people, I think that’s certainly one topic I could be useful on.”

Another topic of interest to Ahern is housing. In recent years, he has emerged as a vocal housing advocate in Orleans, including plans for the development of housing on the site of the former Governor Prence Inn. Ahern, who lives in town with family, said he has a personal stake in the region’s housing crisis.

“I do live it,” he said. “I’m not imagining what the situation is like.”

Ahern also spoke of what he saw as growing “anti-housing energy” in Orleans, and said he’s happy to lend a voice against that sentiment for others who might feel uncomfortable speaking out publicly.

“I’m not intimidated by that way of thinking,” he said. “I’m happy to push back on it. I know a lot of people my age and younger who do not advocate for things on social media. A lot of them are afraid of pushback.”

Ahern’s is the lone name on the Nov. 3 ballot for the Orleans assembly seat, but a write-in campaign has also been launched in support of another candidate, Lynn Bruneau. During the zoning board’s Oct. 22 hearing on the Prence project, resident Ed Peppin noted the effort in support of the write-in campaign.

At the Oct. 22 hearing, Peppin alluded to comments made at the zoning board’s previous meeting in which he said a “caller” made “political threats” against the board. He did not indicate who he was referring to, but Ahern at that Sept. 23 hearing, speaking via Zoom, criticized what he saw as the board drawing out its review of the Prence project over concerns about parking.

“The mail-in ballots just arrived to people’s houses. I assume someone just saw my name for Barnstable County [Assembly] and had a little bit of a freakout,” Ahern said of news of the write-in candidacy.

Separately, Bruneau is running uncontested for election as Orleans’ representative to a proposed county charter commission. That position is linked to Question A on the ballot seeking to create a charter study commission “to consider and make findings concerning the form of government and make recommendations thereon.”

Bruneau declined to comment for this story.

Polls will be open at the Orleans Senior Center from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.