SOMERSET — Unless you’re new in town, you probably won’t have any trouble recognizing the names of the two people running for Board of Selectmen in Monday’s election.

Patrick O’Neil, 36, the veteran selectman whose loss to Lorne Lawless last year was seen as political fallout over a lawsuit verdict against the town, is seeking to get back on the board by ousting another veteran, Selectman Eleanor Gagnon, 60, who has had her share of political controversies in recent years.

Turnout among the town’s 12,397 voters could be high, in part because people tend to have strong feelings for and against Gagnon, who is usually the most outspoken member of the board.

But there are plenty of other races where the incumbents could be ousted.

Patricia Hart, 71, who has been town clerk for 22 years, is being challenged by former Selectman Roger Benevides, 55.

Tax Collector Lisa Viana, 45, who slipped into office four years ago in a five-way battle, is facing her first serious challenger in Roberta Fisher, 55, a retired special needs paraprofessional for the School Department.

And there’s a four-way contest for a seat on the Playground and Recreation Commission featuring incumbent Raymond Frizado and challengers Joseph Duarte, Zachary Powers-Alves and Jeffrey A. Thompson.

The selectmen’s race has been far less volatile than anticipated because, in recent months, Gagnon, after a stormy run that resulted in her being ousted as the chairwoman of the board last July, has slipped into her caring-grandmother mode.

O’Neil has had little luck in shaking her out of it.

He tried at the second candidate’s debate, accusing her of being a disruptive force in the town, supporting the Pelletier sexual harassment lawsuit, and questioning Gagnon’s commitment to the fight against liquefied natural gas.

Gagnon has, instead, focused on painting herself as someone who isn’t afraid to stick up for what’s right, no matter what the cost.

She said yesterday that the mellowness she has shown in recent months is not a reelection ploy.

Even though she and her colleagues, Lawless and William Meehan, offer “a combination of three very different perspectives,” she said, “the atmosphere at the selectmen’s meetings, whether in public or in executive sessions, has been to forge ahead and get things done. There’s a respect for individual opinions” that was missing before.

Some of the jabs thrown in the race have come from the supporters of the candidates.

In the O’Neil camp, former School Committee member Kathleen Gunning has tried to remind voters of the headlines Gagnon has generated.

Gagnon “is the woman who insulted everyone when she called the people at Town Meeting ‘barbaric, brutal and dishonest;’ when she publicly called upstanding members of our community liars; when she said terrible things in a personal letter and then blamed [Town Treasurer Edmund] Lima for ‘making it a public spectacle.’ It was Mrs. Gagnon who encouraged a business owner to break the sign bylaw when it was her duty to uphold the laws that the other business owners have to follow,” according to Gunning.

In the Gagnon camp, Sandra Medeiros, moderator of the Somerset Scoop Web site and a staunch opponent of the Walgreen’s proposal, gave O’Neil flack for not supporting Tasers for the Police Department, raising health-care expenses for town retirees, and not trying to settle the Kim Pelletier sexual harassment lawsuit during the six years he was on the board.

“This is the same man who wants to do away with citizens’ input at selectmen’s meetings, yet he’ll stand on a stage and say how much he loves this town and wants to serve the citizens of this town,” Medeiros said.

O’Neil has also come under fire for not supporting the residents in the Walgreen’s fight. He has made it clear that he likes the project, and the neighbors are lucky the property hasn’t been turned into a fast-food restaurant instead.

In Wednesday’s issue of The Spectator, the town’s weekly newspaper, Gagnon has an advertisement saying, “I offer valuable experience, knowledge and the fortitude to help us, moving ahead in a positive manner.’

O’Neil, for his part, has one ad showing his wife and three children. Another says Gagnon is lying when she says she has always been opposed to the Hess LNG proposal at Weaver’s Cove in Fall River.

O’Neil says when he made a motion to fight the project, Gagnon did not support it. He says Gagnon testified on behalf of Hess LNG, supporting dredging in the Taunton River and an LNG facility in Somerset “even though a clear majority of town residents oppose LNG.”

He said yesterday that he is focusing on LNG because it’s “the most important issue she has been inconsistent on.… It’s just one issue where Mrs. Gagnon has tried to play both sides.”

Gagnon, who did reserve judgment on some LNG matters during the early stage of the project, has since become a staunch opponent.

The people know “I’m the kind of person who invites both sides of every issue,” she said yesterday.

At the time the dredging issue came up, she said, Congressmen Barney Frank and James McGovern were also trying to get dredging up to the Braga Bridge as a way to attract business to the area. LNG wasn’t on anyone’s mind.

“The whole idea for the dredging was to just dredge the channel to the depth it was designed to accommodate the larger cargo ships and the cruise ships,” she said.

“Regardless, it was the wrong decision,” said O’Neil. Despite her assertions of doing research first, “I don’t think it was a well-informed decision.”

O’Neil and Gagnon agree on one thing: they’re not going to try to predict who will win Monday.Polling Places

Polling places will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

•Precinct 1: Water Treatment Plant, 3249 County St.

•Precinct 2: Chace Street School, 538 Chace St.

•Precinct 3: Public Library, 1464 County St.

•Precinct 4: Somerset Middle School, 1141 Brayton Ave.

•Precinct 5: Wilbur School, 861 Brayton Point Rd.

gemery@projo.com