One man one vote; and one journey
He lost an election by a single ballot (or two), but momentum overwhelms a setback
Hanging out at the Hyannis skating rink and youth center on election night, November 7, awaiting results in his race to become a Barnstable Town Councilor and represent Precinct 9 (Hyannis proper), of course Michael Mecenas was nervous. But never did he imagine what would happen next:
He lost to Charlie Bloom by one vote, 100 to 99.
“I went through a lot of emotions,” remembers Mecenas. “Obviously I wanted to win, but none of it was like, ‘You suck! You’re a loser!’ I stayed much more positive than that. Then I started getting phone calls along the lines of, ‘Man, one vote? Really? Wow!’ My neighbor was all upset; ‘Michael, four of us were supposed to go vote and we didn’t!’ Other calls were like, ‘Michael, I feel so terrible and guilty that I didn’t get to the polls!’”
A recount found that one ballot had jammed in the machine, so had to be pulled out to run through again -- but by mistake was counted twice. That could have tied it, but no, it was a vote for Mecenas, so the final tally became 100 to 98, with three ballots blank.
“I came away with one thought for sure,” says Mecenas. “I’m definitely doing this again.”
That sentiment comes as no surprise given what it took Michael Mecenas to qualify to be on that ballot in the first place, how he came to be founder and CEO of Health Ministry in Hyannis, providing services to the Cape’s immigrant communities. His journey from Brazil has not been about giving up.
When Michael arrived on Cape Cod in 1999, six-month visa in hand, coming from Rio de Janeiro via Miami, “I couldn’t speak a word of English,” he recalls, but something about Cape Cod made him want to stay, start a new life. His first job was far from where he is now:
Housekeeper for the infamous former “Cuddles and Bubbles” motel on Main Street, Hyannis.
Promotions followed, as did working three jobs; motel, a restaurant kitchen, and delivering daily hard copy of The Cape Cod Times, driving dark streets at 3 am.
“But what my mother told me stayed with me,” he says. “Education. Education is the key.”
There was another key: In 2000, President Clinton announced a pathway to citizenship for immigrants. Michael got a lawyer, got his green card, and five years later became a United States citizen.
He had started at Cape Cod Community College, taking English as well as psychology and other technical courses. Those credits parlayed at Springfield College with weekend-only courses (given his work schedule), staying one night a week in Western Mass. It took seven years but he got his Bachelors as well as a Masters in clinical health, becoming a certified tri-lingual health care interpreter at Cape Cod Hospital because he could translate Spanish as well as Portuguese.
He focused on what mattered most – “safety and health, education and food insecurity” – and came to feel that “there’s something missing, something specific for this (immigrant) community.” So in 2017, building partnerships and working out of a Brazilian church, he started the Health Ministry. By 2019 he had moved to Center Street in Hyannis with a facility big enough to offer health clinics and language classes, manage a food pantry, advise on immigrant status and process, host community meetings.
Already on Barnstable’s Planning Board, Mecenas heard in October that the incumbent Hyannis councilor had made a late decision not to run for re-election. He had less than 72 hours to decide whether to go for it, and get enough registered signatures to qualify for the ballot. He did, leaving three and a half weeks to campaign.
“I knocked on over 1500 doors – three times!” he says. “First, to introduce myself. Second, to drop off literature. Third, to ask if anyone had questions, and remind them that the vote was in a week.
“Here’s the thing,” he continues. “In my precinct, a lot of people are not documented so can’t vote. And many who are would say something like, ‘Oh, I only vote for President, I don’t get involved in local politics.’”
One consequence of losing a race in the closest way possible, he says, is that maybe people will reconsider that. The vote total, 198, also speaks to a perennial issue in Hyannis: Very low turnout.
Post-election, Mecenas’ community work continues with focus on Brazilian arrivals as well as Haitian and Spanish-speaking immigrants. There was no hard feeling between him and the newly elected councilor; the recount took less than 20 minutes, the result clear. Mecenas wished Charlie Bloom well, but he’s “definitely doing this again,” he repeats.
As a United States citizen, with status achieved rather than inherited, that’s his hard-won right.
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Great story!
Wow. Two thoughts: (1) I'm glad Mecenas is planning to "do it again," because he'll be an asset to whatever body he gets elected to; and (2) as a poll worker in my town (West Tisbury, on the Vineyard), I see that abysmal turnout in every local election, even when there are contested races on the ballot -- which too often there aren't. The usual is 20% or so. Logically it makes no sense: Your vote never counts more than in a local election (as the Mecenas supporters who didn't vote discovered), and in local elections it's usually easy to meet candidates in person and learn about them without having to rely to campaign ads. But most of us don't do it.