‘Toilet guy’ is flushed in Portsmouth Town Council race

Michael DiPaola, whose anti-town government signs have angered many residents, comes in last in Democratic primary

By Jim McGaw
Posted 9/10/24

PORTSMOUTH — The candidate whose display of broken toilets and anti-local government signs on a vacant East Main Road lot won’t be a Town Council member this year.  

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‘Toilet guy’ is flushed in Portsmouth Town Council race

Michael DiPaola, whose anti-town government signs have angered many residents, comes in last in Democratic primary

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — The candidate whose display of broken toilets and anti-local government signs on a vacant East Main Road lot won’t be a Town Council member this year. 

In Tuesday’s Primary Election, Michael DiPaola came in dead last in the race to determine which Democrats get on the November ballot for Town Council. There was no Republican council primary, as the GOP is not fielding a full slate of candidates.

Eight Democrats were on the ballot for seven available council seats, with DiPaola — known by many residents as the “toilet guy” — being the only unendorsed candidate. On Tuesday he garnered just 221 votes (2.9 percent), with all seven precincts reporting.

The top vote-getter in the Democratic Town Council primary was School Committee member Sondra A. Blank, with 1,058 (14.1 percent).

Tarah B. Woods was one of the original seven candidates endorsed by the Portsmouth Democratic Town Committee, but she had to drop out of the race after accepting a job with the Portsmouth School Department. The Town Charter prohibits town employees from holding town office. 

Due to the lateness of her withdrawal, Woods’s name could not be removed from the primary ballot. Despite being ineligible, she still received more votes than DiPaola.

Here are the full results for the Democratic primary race for Town Council. The first seven names will be on the ballot for the November election.

• Sondra A. Blank: 1,058 votes (14.1 percent)

• John Mark Ryan: 1,031 (13.7 percent)

• Tasha M. MacGibbon: 1,020 (13.6 percent)

• Juan Carlos Payero: 1,017 (13.6 percent)

• Timothy E. Grissett: 920 (12.3 percent)

• Charles J. Levesque: 852 (11.4 percent)

• David P. Fiorillo: 764 (10.2 percent)

• Tarah B. Woods (ineligible): 619 (8.3 percent) 

• Michael DiPaola: 221 (2.9 percent)

Other races

In the other contested races, incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse beat his challenger Michael J. Costa handily in the Democratic primary for Congress, capturing about 84 percent of the vote statewide. In Portsmouth, Whitehouse garnered 1,181 votes (88.8 percent).

In the Republican primary for the same seat, Patricia Morgan easily beat Raymond T. McKay with more than 64 percent of the vote statewide. Locally, Morgan collected 347 votes (77.1 percent).

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.