County Candidate Says He’s Target Of Smear Campaign

BARNSTABLE – One of the three Democratic candidates vying for a seat on the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners in the Sept. 1 primary is pushing back against questions about whether or not he is a full-time Cape Cod resident.

 Eric Schwaab, who owns property on Melbourne Road in Hyannis, also owns a residence in Brighton, for which he has been granted a residential tax exemption for the first two quarters of the current fiscal year.

 “We have factored into your Q1 and Q2 tax bills a preliminary residential exemption based on your fiscal year 2027 approval,” according to language on the address’ property card. The amount of the exemption has yet to be determined, according to city records.

 According to the city, property owners may apply for a residential exemption if they own and live in their property as “a primary residence.” But reached by phone last week, Schwaab maintained that he is a permanent resident of Hyannis.

 “I live here. I vote here,” he said.

 According to assessing records, Schwaab purchased his Hyannis property in 2004. He purchased the Brighton property in August 2005. He has not applied for or received a residential tax exemption for his home in Hyannis, staff with the Barnstable assessor’s office confirmed. He is registered to vote in Hyannis, according to the Massachusetts Secretary of State website.

 Schwaab, who is running in the Sept. 1 Democratic primary for a seat on the regional commission alongside incumbent commissioner Ron Bergstrom of Chatham and Dan Gessen of Falmouth, a member of the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, said he is the victim of a “smear campaign” and a “deliberate effort to undermine [my] candidacy” by a group of people online in Wellfleet.

 Property records on file with the city of Boston show that Schwaab is being assessed an estimated net tax of $683.33 on property he and his wife own on Colliston Road so far this fiscal year. But Schwaab said it is his wife who lives full time in Brighton, where she cares for her elderly parents. As the head of household, he said, his wife is allowed to choose which of the two properties the couple own she wants to apply for an exemption for.

 “She maintains her residence in Boston primarily to take care of her parents,” he said. “And any suggestion that anything else is going on is inappropriate.”

 Schwaab’s Brighton address is also listed as the address for his county commissioner campaign, according to records with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance. That’s because his wife is his campaign treasurer, a decision he said was made to help ensure that he wouldn’t overspend on his campaign.

 “I told her the best way to do that is to be my treasurer, and she agreed to do that. And I’m lucky she did,” he said.

Debra O’Malley, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office, said in an email that candidates for elected office “must be a registered voter of the community in which they are running,” and that voters “should be registered and voting at their primary residence.”

But what constitutes a primary residence? According to Gerry McDonough, an attorney and election law expert who has worked on local, state and federal campaigns, a variety of factors together establish someone’s “intent to live somewhere permanently without moving to another location.” That could include factors such as where someone votes, where their car is registered and insured, where someone spends the majority of their time and where they socialize.

It could also include someone’s receipt of a residential exemption, he said, but cautioned that that alone would not disqualify someone from seeking elected office in another community.

“It happens,” he said. “When somebody uses one of those homestead declarations, that is some evidence of where their primary residence is. But there's not a single criteria for that.”

All of the relevant criteria for establishing a primary residence would be considered in the event that a candidate’s residency is formally challenged with their respective town clerk’s office. McDonough said it is on the complainant to present “very specific facts” in support of a claim.

 “To object to somebody’s residence is very, very hard,” he said.

 Barnstable Assistant Town Clerk Janet Murphy last week said that nothing has been filed with the town clerk’s office challenging Schwaab’s residency or candidacy for county commissioner.

Schwaab said nomination papers submitted to five different Cape town clerks as part of his bid for the commissioner’s seat have all been accepted without issue, as have more than 600 signatures certified by the state elections board. He also serves on the Barnstable Housing Authority, and noted that his residency similarly went unchallenged in his bid for election to that board last year.

Despite this, Schwaab last week said he received a letter from the town of Barnstable’s legal counsel just “hours” after the publication of a story in another newspaper that made note of his tax exemption in Brighton. Schwaab did not elaborate on the contents of the letter, but in an email Monday said he believed it to be a “hoax.” Barnstable Town Counsel Karen Nober did not return a call for comment. 

 On his campaign page, Schwaab said he is against expanding the role of county government. In particular, he cited efforts by the county assembly to enact a luxury real estate tax on properties valued at more than $1 million. Communities that opt into the tax through a vote at their respective town meetings can set the tax anywhere from .5 to 4 percent, with revenue going to support local housing efforts.

 “I’ve been active in Cape Cod civic life for more than 20 years,” according to his campaign page. “In all that time, I can count on one hand the number of residents who have told me, ‘County government is really working well for us.’”

 Bergstrom is seeking re-election to the commissioner seat he has held since 2019. Prior to joining the county commission, he spent 12 years as Chatham’s representative to the county assembly of delegates, and was a select board member in Chatham from 1998 to 2010.

 “Under Ron Bergstrom's leadership, Barnstable County is as proactive and financially sound as it has been since the current county charter was enacted in 1989,” his campaign page states.  

 On his campaign page, Bergstrom pledges to continue his advocacy for the county on a number of fronts, among them the environment, housing, transportation, climate change and the threat of “overdevelopment and sprawl.” 

 Gessen, a 2018 Falmouth High School graduate, is the deputy speaker on the assembly of delegates. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he holds a masters degree in business analytics from the Isenberg School of Management and is an infantry platoon leader in the Army National Guard. 

 Gessen touts his accomplishments as a delegate on his campaign page, including work to secure $1.3 million in federal funding for regional wastewater initiatives, negotiating dredge rate increases and “championing financial relief for homeowners burdened with septic system replacement costs.”

“I believe that those with a genuine desire to do good can always find common ground,” he said on his campaign page. “I am here to learn, listen, and work with others to address Cape Cod’s pressing challenges. Together, we can build a future where our community thrives for generations to come.”

 The winner of the Democratic primary will vie for the seat against Republican challenger Adam Hogue of West Hyannisport in the November general election.