By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — As yesterday's deadline passed for filing nomination papers, a total of 26 candidates qualified to run for mayor and spots on the City Council and School Committee, canvassing authorities said.

If all goes according to script, the electoral season will begin with a five-way primary for mayor on Oct. 6 — minus a fixture of the political landscape for more than a generation, incumbent Mayor Susan D. Menard. The mayoral field now consists of incumbent City Council president Leo T. Fontaine; former state representative and retired police sergeant Todd R. Brien; businessman Steven J. Lima; private investigator Michael Mello; and volunteer organizer Raymond Riel.
Candidates are deemed qualified as long as they return their nomination papers along with the signatures of 100 properly registered voters, a bar all the mayoral aspirants save for Riel met as of press time. Canvassing officials were still counting and authenticating the signatures gathered by Riel, who returned his papers moments before the close-of-business deadline at City Hall yesterday, they said.
The two top vote-getters in the mayoral primary will fight to the finish in the non-partisan general election on Nov. 3, along with 12 contestants for seven seats on the City Council and nine for five vacancies on the School Committee. All terms are for two years, beginning Dec. 1.
Brien, who ran against Menard unsuccessfully in 2007 and 2005, is forecasting a hard-fought primary between himself and his opponents. As many observers predict, says Brien, it's quite possible that he and Fontaine, both with high name recognition and proven draw at the polls, will emerge as the final combatants in the general election. But Brien said it would be unwise to write off Lima, a newcomer who is working hard to get some attention.
Lima is a principal of a company that designs and installs telecommunications networks, but he is perhaps better known as the driving force behind the Bernon Mill condo conversion, a project nearing fruition after several years. Lima talks up his outsider status as an asset at a time when voters are disenchanted with the political establishment and rising taxes, saying he owes no one any favors and local government is sorely in need of a fresh approach to rehabilitate itself.
“I think it does,” Brien says when asked if the race shapes up as a Fontaine versus Brien contest. “But I'm not going to sell Steve Lima short. He's working hard out there to get some name recognition. It's going to be a race to the primary. I'm going to be working hard going door to door to get my message out.”
Six candidates, including Menard, initially filed formal declarations of candidacy. After failing to pick up her nomination papers, Menard issued a statement Monday announcing that she had opted not to seek another term, citing family priorities. Menard has been mayor for the last 14 years, but she has held public office in the city for 28, including stints on the School Committee and City Council.
Menard's ambivalence about remaining mayor have been apparent since March 2008, however, when she first announced her resignation – prematurely it turned out. Several months later, she said she had changed her mind. She bowed out again at a City Council meeting in June, then signaled she was in the race again last month by filing declaration papers. The last word came on Monday, and this time, it's for real, Menard says.
Another of the half-dozen candidates who initially announced for mayor, Raymond Riel, a community volunteer who had never run for elective office before, did not return nomination papers.
Though the remaining players appear to have satisfied all the requirements to be bona fide candidates, they're not official until the Board of Canvassers certifies the ballot. The panel is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. today to do so, said Estelle Corriveau, interim manager of the Board of Canvassers.
Normally, the Board of Canvassers has three members, but there is a vacancy on the panel since the lone Republican, Gil Perez, moved to North Smithfield recently.  With two remaining members, James Allam and Rita Rousseau, the panel still has a legal voting quorum to certify the ballot, officials say. Because Allam and Rousseau are both Democrats, whoever fills the vacancy must be a Republican because state law calls for a mixed-party panel – even if the local elections are non-partisan.
Meanwhile, in other campaign action, the candidates who qualified to run for City Council include six incumbents, Christopher A. Beauchamp, Stella G. Brien, Roger G. Jalette Sr., William D. Schneck Jr. Suzanne J. Vadenais and John F. Ward. Seven challengers, most of whom are comparatively unknown in political circles, are vying to unseat them, including David B. Ashworth, Daniel M. Gendron, Philip E. Labrecque, Kathryn LeBlanc, Michael E. Moniz and Thomas Wrona.
Robert M. Braden, who filed papers to run for City Council, did not return nomination papers, official said.
In the contest to fill vacancies on the School Committee, four of the five incumbents qualified for a spot on the ballot, including Chairman Marc A. Dubois, Linda M. Majewski, Anita McGuire-Forcier and Eleanor M. Nadeau. Five other hopefuls include Christopher M. Burda, Anthony Joseph Gabriele, George E. King, Evelyn G. Mack-Loggins and Vimala Vongsavanh – also a group consisting largely of political newcomers.
Incumbent School Committeewoman Michelle Williams is not seeking another term. Another person who initially filed declaration papers for a seat on the panel, Daniel P. Godin, did not return nomination papers.
Embroiled as the panel is in the possibility of litigation that could force a $5.5 million supplemental tax bill on voters this year, the School Committee race could be an uphill battle for incumbents, admits Chairman Dubois. But he says the panel is still pursuing cuts in the hopes of shaving down that figure or eliminating the need for a retroactive tax bill altogether.
School officials, he says, continue to negotiate with the state Department of Education for relief from costly state mandates as they pursue a reopener of contract talks with the Woonsocket Teachers Guild. The goal, he said, is to balance the quality education children deserve with equity for taxpayers, and he's hoping all the sitting members will  be  given another opportunity to keep pursuing it.
“I'm hoping the four people running to get reelected,” he said. “It's a tough time to be a school committee member right now, and it's important to have people in there who have some experience.”