Holtschlag forced to run first campaign in nearly 20 years to defend 7th Ward alderman seat against Hills

QUINCY — Democrat Jack Holtschlag defended his 7th Ward aldermanic seat on the Quincy City Council Tuesday night against the first challenger he’s encountered in nearly 20 years on the council.

“It’s good to be challenged every once in a while, you know?” Holtschlag said in a phone interview after the results came in during Tuesday’s primary election. 

Holtschlag was appointed to the 7th Ward position in June 2006 as a replacement for Ken Sparrow, then ran unopposed in 2007 and earned the right to fulfill the remainder of Sparrow’s term. He ran unopposed in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021 in both the primary and general elections and will be running unopposed in the general election April 1.

“I think it was just a really big uphill battle fighting somebody who has been in office since before I started kindergarten,” Hills said. “I was 4 years old, so he’s got a lot more name recognition.” 

Hills’ campaign announcement caught Holtschlag off guard. 

“I never (thought) I’d be challenged in a primary by my own party but, you know, it is what it is,” Holtschlag said. “I was shocked, you know what I mean? From my own party that I stood behind and everything.”

Holtschlag won with roughly 72 percent of the vote, handing Hills his third loss out of the three races he’s campaigned in. He ran for mayor in 2021 at the age of 17 and was defeated by Nora Baldner in the Democratic primary. He ran a write-in campaign for the 7th Ward seat in 2023.

Hills estimated to have knocked on roughly 1,000 doors, 250 of which were on Tuesday. While he’s disappointed with the outcome, he hopes his campaign brought attention to the primary focus of his campaign — safe and livable housing, which he believes is the “most pressing” issue facing the city.

He’s a founding member of the group Q-RILE (Quincy for Registration, Inspection and Licensing Enactment), which secured enough signatures to get an advisory referendum on the ballot for the general municipal election that will ask voters if they approve or disapprove of the City of Quincy enacting an ordinance proposed by the group that would “require registration, regularly scheduled inspections and subsequent licensing” of residential rental properties in the city.

Hills acknowledged the progress Holtschlag has made in the Seventh Ward during his time on the council, but he said some issues have been ignored.

“There’s just a lot of very real issues that impact people on the daily that (Holtschlag) doesn’t even seem willing to talk about, so I hope that changes a little bit as a result of this,” Hills said.

Holtschlag said that Hills’ “tunnel vision” on housing might have hurt him.

“You can’t be focused on one thing, you know what I mean? Especially in the 7th Ward. We’ve got downtown, we’ve got our neighborhoods,” Holtschlag said. 

Holtschlag said he’s supported efforts to increase safe and livable housing in the city, but he’s concerned that the people living in condemnable structures have nowhere to go.

“We need a shelter for these people to go to instead of giving them a $20 pass to go to whatever hotel’s open. They need a place to go, especially for a family … Where are they going to go? On the street?” he said.

He says he’ll continue to support the issue “if it comes up,” but he has no plans to bring it to the council. 

“There needs to be work at both ends. You know, the tenants, they ain’t walking around with halos on their heads either,” Holtschlag said. “There’s no respect. You’ve got these organizations coming out bagging you, and then you got your tenants tearing up your units, not paying rent, you know what I mean? There needs to be work on both ends of it. There’s only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.”

Hills’ political future in Quincy is uncertain. He could soon be furthering his academic career outside of Quincy once he obtains his associate’s degree in sociology at John Wood Community College. In the short term, he plans to continue his work on local housing issues and advocate for the advisory referendum ahead of the April 1 election.

“I hope that our elected representatives are tired of hearing from me, because I don’t enjoy spending my Monday nights coming to a City Council meeting to talk about housing issues,” Hills said. “I genuinely hope that what I did in running and talking about these issues that are sort of denied as real issues, I hope that starts to change a little bit.”