By SANDY McGEE

CUMBERLAND — The following local races for town offices, including a Republican primary race for Town Council, will highlight the Primary Election on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Polls will open Tuesday throughout town at 7 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.
One of the most closely watched races will be the contest for mayor. Running for the town’s top post are former Cumberland Mayor David S. Iwuc of 179 Little Pond County Road and incumbent Mayor Daniel J. McKee of 12 Hillside Road, both Democrats.
McKee, who is seeking his fourth term in office, served from 2001 to 2005 and was elected again in 2006. In 2004, Iwuc won the mayorship after defeating McKee in the Democratic primary and then staving off a write-in challenge from McKee in the general election.
See PRIMARIES, Page A-2
Iwuc, a Marine veteran, is a former state representative and a former member of the Cumberland Police Department.
He retired from the police department as a sergeant after 22 years in 2003. From 1997 to 2002, he was the representative of House District 68, but lost a re-election bid in the Democratic primary when districts were consolidated.
McKee, a former member of the Town Council, is the co-owner of the Woonsocket Health and Racquetball Club on Social Street in Woonsocket.
He is an active member of the Coalition of Communities Improving Rhode Island, a group of mayors and administrators from several Rhode Island communities. During this past term, he created the town’s Office of Children, Youth and Learning, an education initiative. 
McKee received a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He was recently appointed to serve on the House Pension Review Commission.
The following races for Town Council will also be featured on the primary election ballot.

Town Council, at-large:
Two incumbents, James T. Higgins of 25 Rhode Island Ave. and Bruce A. Lemois of 60 Mohawk St., and newcomer, James N. McLaughlin of 15 Garden St., are vying for two at-large seats on the Town Council.
Higgins, council president for the past two terms, is a lawyer and former member of the Cumberland School Committee. He is a graduate of Providence College, a trustee of the Boys and Girls Club of Cumberland and Lincoln and a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Democratic Town Committee.
Lemois, past president of the Berkeley Fire District, is employed as an operations manager for ASI Inc. in East Providence. He has attended Northeastern University in Boston.
McLaughlin, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, is a retired auto mechanic. He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a grand knight of the Knights of Columbus.
 
District 1:
Newcomer Thomas Paul Tougas of 46 Harrison St. is running against incumbent Antonio J. Albuquerque of 46 Howe St. for District 1.
Tougas, a warehouse manager for Central Paper in Pawtucket, is a 1985 graduate of the William M. Davies Career and Technical School in Lincoln. He is a member of the Elks Lodge in Warwick and the Knights of Columbus, St. Thomas Council, in Cumberland. He resides in town with his wife, Rhonda, and their three sons.
Albuquerque, the owner of the Third Base Bar and Sports Grill on High Street, is seeking his second term. He is a 1970 graduate of Central Falls High School. He has also served as president of Club Juventude Lusitana, as a former member of the town Planning Board and as an organizer for several fundraisers, including the Run for Kids benefit race and the Phantom Farms Road Race.

District 3:
Incumbent Kelley Nickson-Morris of 60 Country Hill Road is running for re-election against two newcomers, James C. Hartke of 9 Cargill Road and Paul Simoes of 21 Barberry Hill Road. 
Morris, a lawyer for the Providence law firm of Moses and Afonso, is the vice chair of the Board of Licensing and former member and chair of the Cumberland Zoning Board of Appeals.
She is a graduate of Cumberland High School, Rhode Island College and the Suffolk University School of Law. She lives in town with her husband and their daughter.
Hartke is a self-employed information technology consultant. He is a graduate of Anderson High School in Cincinnati, Ohio; Bowling Green State University in Ohio; and a graduate of the Keller Graduate School of Management in Atlanta, Ga. 
He and his wife are the parents of two teenage children.
Simoes is the owner of a liquor distribution business, Simoes Imports, in Cumberland. He attended Cumberland public schools before graduating from St. Ray’s Academy in Pawtucket. He is also a graduate of Providence College and the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.
A lifelong resident of Cumberland, Simoes resides in town with his wife.

District 5:
Both a Democratic and Republican primary will be held for the District 5 seat. This is believed to be the first Republic primary to be held for a town office in Cumberland in decades.
Whoever wins the Republic primary will go on to compete against the winner of the Democratic primary on Election Day.
Running in the Republican primary is Christine M. Avella of 200 Heroux Boulevard and Mark G. Dosdourian of 26 Alton Ave.
Avella, an office service manager for Rhode Island Housing in Providence, is a graduate of the National Graduate School in Falmouth, Mass., and a graduate of Johnson and Wales University. 
She has three adult children and four grandchildren.
Dosdourian, who is endorsed by the Republican Town Committee, is a project manager for a survey and septic system design company in Cumberland. He is a 1980 graduate of the University of Rhode Island.
He is secretary of the Republic Town Committee and a communicant of Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church in Providence.
Dosdourian has lived in town for 19 years with his wife, Deborah-Jane.

Facing off in the Democratic primary for the District 5 seat are Theodore R. Vecchio Jr. of 7 Camp St. and incumbent Mia A. Ackerman of 6 Shelter Lane.
Newcomer Vecchio is the vice president of operations for RALCO Equipment Co. in Cumberland and the business manager of the Dance Theater of Rhode Island in North Smithfield.
He is a 1993 graduate of Cumberland High School and a former coach for the Cumberland Colts Youth Football. He and his wife, Jennifer, are the parents of three sons and a daughter.
Ackerman, who is running for her second term in office, is a self-employed real-estate title examiner and a former member of the town Juvenile Hearing Board. She is a 1983 graduate of W.C. Mepham High School in Bellmore, N.Y., and a graduate of the State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton.
Ackerman is a volunteer for the Cumberland Land Trust, the Friends of Franklin Farm and the Cumberland Hill Elementary and North Cumberland Middle School PTOs. She is also a member of the Blackstone River Watershed Council.
She lives in town with her husband, Barry, and their two children.