Kim Scott wins South Lowell City Council seat

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Lowell Election Day, the first with districts. District 5 City Council candidate Kim Scott, with supporter Jeff Thomas of Lowell, left, and her daughter Madison Scott, 16, outside the Butler Middle School polling place. SUN/Julia Malakie

LOWELL — Former School Committee member Kim Scott secured the South Lowell City Council seat against Tooch Van, one of the plaintiffs of the voting rights lawsuit and the outreach and translation services coordinator for the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.

Scott, sales manager for the Epilepsy Foundation of New England, said she is ready to get to work. Standing outside of Butler Middle School, Scott read the results, saying “Just glad my hard work paid off. I really, really worked very hard for this. I met so many people and that’s always the best part of it. I have a list of stuff that people have been asking me about for the last seven months.”

Earlier in the day, Scott said public schools are very important to her. She wants to hone in on the facilities’ lack of investment in the infrastructure.

“The schools are a small percentage of the Lowell budget,” she said. “They really need to be made a priority at this point.”

The same goes for fire stations and police stations.

“We need long-term planning. Not just quick fixes — preventative maintenance plans,” she said.

Being in municipal office is a learning curve, Scott said.

“With an election every two years, by the time you’ve gotten comfortable and learned how things work and get things done, you’re out campaigning again, so that’s a little crazy,” she said.

Van has lived in the community for over 20 years.

“South Lowell is my home and my home’s been neglected for a while,” he said Tuesday morning. “I’m running to connect South Lowell to City Hall, which has never happened.

“I would like to congratulate Kim Scott. I’m very happy for her and to see a woman representing South Lowell. My campaign has always been about including other voices,” Van said. “Thanks to my campaign team, my family, my wife for working so hard. We ran a very good campaign.”

Van prides his campaign on including multigenerational people and multiple languages. He plans to continue civic engagement with new voters and feels like he made an impact already.

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