SJC denies petition filed by Tassinari recall committee

Last week, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court denied a petition filed by the Committee to Recall Max Tassinari.

“The petitioner, the Committee to Recall Max Tassinari, seeks an order compelling the respondent, the Town Clerk for the Town of Winthrop, to prepare the November 2025 election ballot to include a question concerning the recall of Town Councillor Max Tassinari,” the ruling from SJC read. 

According to the ruling, the petitioner represented to this court that it “complied with the recall process established by the Winthrop Town Charter, submitting more than the required number of certified signatures.”

According to the petition, the process for a recall, as provided in the Winthrop town charter, requires that its proponents “collect signatures equal to 20% of the voters. The proponents of the recall petition at issue “collected 2,284 signatures. Of these, 1,994 were ultimately certified by the [respondent],” the ruling stated.

The Winthrop Board of Registrars initially ruled last month that the recall of Councilor-at-Large Max Tassinari should be placed on the Nov. 4 town ballot.

However, after taking advice from town counsel and the state, Town Clerk Denise Quist ruled that the recall question would not be placed on the ballot.

The SJC ruling on the recall committee determined that “the plain language of the Winthrop town charter is at odds with the petitioner’s interpretation of its terms and with the basis for the petitioner’s purported objection pursuant to G. L. c. 55B, § 7. See Appx., at Ex. 11. Article 5, § 5-1 (k), of the town charter requires in relevant part that, as to a recall petition ‘for any officer elected at large,’ the petition ‘shall have been signed by at least 20% of the voters of the town[.]’”

Diana Viens, one of the recall leaders, stated that the “appeal to the SJC Single Justice was narrow in scope, given the time constraints of the impending election. We will now seek a more in-depth analysis in Superior Court—one that takes all relevant factors of statutory construction into consideration (including constitutionality)—and aim to get the recall on the ballot next time.”

With the recall not on the ballot in November, Viens said the focus this year will be on getting other candidates who are on the town ballot this fall elected.

“Meanwhile, let this legal setback serve as the strongest motivation to absolutely rock this November’s election and get the right people on the Council from the start,” Viens stated. “We have a golden opportunity to elect six Winthrop residents who care deeply about you and about the future of this Town.”