Brad Smith Pulls Papers To Run For Select Board

Artist and musician Bradley Grant Smith has become the fourth candidate to enter the race for two open seats on the Nantucket Select Board.

Smith joins Finance Committee chair Jill Vieth, Sconset resident Amy Eldridge, and perennial candidate Clifford Williams in the contest for the seats currently held by Tom Dixon and Malcolm MacNab, neither of whom is running for re-election.

Smith, who works part-time at the Nantucket Food Pantry, believes his impartiality and fresh perspective could be an asset for Nantucket.

“The campaign, in my view, moving forward, is really going to be about listening,” he told the Current. “I'm hoping that the lack of baggage, and the lack of bias, and frankly the lack of previous allegiances to sway me one way or the other, will be seen as an asset.”

Smith said he was encouraged to run for Select Board because of his desire to get involved with local politics after organizing with the grassroots left-leaning political action group Indivisible since his arrival on Nantucket in 2022.

“The overarching umbrella idea would be that I want to help return a sense of optimism to island residents about this magical home and the future for it,” Smith said. “The most common sentiment people seem to express to me is that I missed Nantucket's heyday. And I love it here so much, and it makes me want to help a rebirth or revitalization to make the island seem like it values the people who live here and wants to keep them here.”

Smith’s work with Indivisible represents his most notable foray into the world of politics prior to his run for Select Board.

Like many candidates, Smith emphasized affordability as one of the issues central to his campaign.

“I just know how difficult it is to live and work here, and I hear people thinking about leaving all the time, and how difficult it is to find housing,” he said. “I do believe that there are solutions where the island can work for everybody.”

Smith visited Nantucket twice as a child, but moved to the island full-time after attending a retreat at the Almanack Arts Colony in 2022. He has worked as an artist and filmmaker, and is primarily known for his music, largely released under the stage name Sad Brad Smith. One of his songs, titled “Help Yourself,” was featured in the Oscar-nominated film Up in the Air, starring George Clooney and Anna Kendrick. Smith also plays in the local Grateful Dead cover band Doug & Co.