A new election season began in East Providence and Middletown this week as veteran office-holders decided to seek new political futures or just not to run again.

In other East Bay communities, most incumbents are seeking reelection and many of the races are crowded.

Not everyone who declared by yesterday’s 4 p.m. deadline may actually get on the ballot. Candidates must take out nomination papers, beginning Tuesday, and return them with enough valid signatures by July 11.

In East Providence, Mayor Isadore Ramos, elected two years ago as the at-large member of the City Council, has decided to seek a seat in the state Senate. In Middletown, the president and vice president of the Town Council chose to bow out of public life for at least the next two years.

In another East Providence race, former City Manager Paul Lemont declared his candidacy to run for Ramos’s City Council seat, pitting himself against former Mayor Joseph Larisa.

The state’s primary election will be held on Sept. 9, with the general election on Nov. 4.

Here’s a town-by-town rundown:

Barrington

Republicans were unable to field a full slate of candidates as of yesterday’s 4 p.m. deadline for filing declarations.

In the race for three Town Council seats, the Democratic incumbents, Jeffrey S. Brenner, June S. Speakman and Kate G. Weymouth all declared. Their Republican challengers will be two former council members, Sharon K. Brinkworth and Mark Gillooly. But there is a third challenger in the council contest — Nicholas A. Paras, of 49 Appian Way, an independent.

The GOP also came up one candidate shy in its list for School Committee. That ticket is led by incumbent chairman Patrick A. “Buzz” Guida. He was joined by William C. DeWitt, of 4 Old Forge Rd., and Chad R. Mollica, of 4 River Oak Rd.

The Democrats are running incumbent Jim Hasenfus; Perri S. Leviss, of 7 Maxfield Court; Robert E. Shea Jr., who has served on the Appropriations Committee; and Thomas R. Flanagan, who made an unsuccessful bid for the seat in 2006.

In the contest for town moderator, incumbent Republican Allan C. Klepper is being challenged by Julia P. Califano, a Democrat and former member of the Town Council.

Bristol

Ten candidates will vie for five seats on the Town Council. All five incumbents — Republicans Mary A. Parella and Halsey C. Herreshoff along with Democrats David Barboza, Kenneth A. Marshall and Raymond Cordeiro — are running again.

Also in the race are independents John D. “Jack” Sylvester and Antonio F. Avila, Republican Thomas M. Carroll and Democrats Nathan T. Calouro and Michael A. DeMello.

Sylvester has run unsuccessfully for council, as has Carroll. Calouro is an auxiliary member of the Planning Board.

Town Administrator Diane C. Mederos is seeking reelection and will face independent Greg Raposa, who has run several times without success. Town Clerk Louis P. Cirillo is running again. He will not face an opponent.

Three of the town’s six nonpartisan seats on the Bristol Warren Regional School Committee will be contested. Incumbents David L. Dugan, Marjorie J. McBride and Karen A. Lynch are seeking reelection. They will be challenged by newcomers James I. Brackett III and Denise R. Arsenault.

East Providence

School Committee, check. City Council twice, check. General Assembly, it’s a possibility.

That’s the apparent new goal for Mayor Isadore S. Ramos. He declared his candidacy yesterday for the Senate District 18 seat being vacated by Paul Moura.

Ramos’ switch is a highlight of East Providence’s election filings this week. It also cancels the chance for another rematch between Ramos and former Mayor Joseph S. Larisa Jr. A recount was needed for their City Council at-large face-off in 2006, and Ramos managed to edge out Larisa by fewer than two dozen votes.

“I’m baaack,” Larisa jokingly told The Journal. On a more serious note, Larisa said he intends to finish what he started two years ago. He called himself the “taxpayers’ best friend” by telephone yesterday.

He may not have Ramos to compete with, but Larisa, the president of the East Providence Citizens League, does have two contenders.

The most prominent is former East Providence City Manager Paul E. Lemont. Lemont is a member of the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council and in December 2007, ended a nearly 18-month stint as the interim town administrator in Seekonk. Another opponent is Frank Duarte, of Ridge Drive, who has repeatedly vied unsuccessfully for state office and council seats in the past. Duarte, 83, frequently attends council meetings.

Three of the four other City Council seats will also be contested matches. Only Ward 1 Incumbent Robert Cusack is seeking reelection without opposition.

It will be the third matchup for former state Rep. Brian Coogan and Ward 2 incumbent Bryan Silva, a local flower shop owner. Silva handily defeated Coogan twice two years ago — in the general election in November and in a special election earlier that year after the death of Councilman Norman Miranda.

Incumbent Ward 3 Councilwoman Valerie Perry will need to beat Richard P. Smith for a third term on the board. Smith is chief of compliance and collection for the state’s Division of Taxation while Perry had been the city clerk for 14 years before retiring in 2004.

Finally, Ward 4 Incumbent Bruce R. DiTraglia has two opponents in his reelection bid. One contestant, Richard G. Croke Jr., was narrowly defeated in the 2006 primary against former Councilman Peter Midgley. Midgley was later beat by DiTraglia.

DiTraglia and Croke, who was vice chairman of the city taxpayers association two years ago and may still hold the same title, will also face Floyd Avenue resident George A. Parker.

The School Committee seats aren’t as contested as the council’s spots. Three current members are vying for another term without opposition. They are newly appointed Ward 1 member Anthony A. Carcieri, Ward 3 representative Robert Faria and Ward 4 member Steven E. Santos.

Chairwoman and at-large member Mildred Morris and Ward 2 representative Stephen DeCastro are not seeking reelection. DeCastro’s seat may be filled by Brian Monteiro, of Leonard Avenue, or Shannon L. Barbosa, a 31-year-old parent from Roma Street. Two women, Luisa A. Abatecola and Francine Brelsford, will battle for the at-large spot vacated by Morris.

Little Compton

Little Compton will see little action in the fall election.

The five Republican incumbents for Town Council will have only one Democratic challenger. The incumbents are President Robert L. Mushen, Charles N. Appleton Jr., Fred M. Boddington, III, Paul J. Golembeske and Gary S. Mataronas. The only challenger on the all-male slate is William Brett McKenzie. One person will not be elected.

The School Committee members have staggered terms, with two ending this year. Incumbent Cheryl A. Cady is running for reelection while Paul Desilets is not. The two challengers are Lynn A. Brousseau-Lebreux and Micah J. Shapiro. Two of the three will be elected.

The following incumbents have no opponents: Town Clerk Carol A. Wordell, Treasurer/Collector Mary-Jane Harrington and Town Moderator Lawrence G. Anderson. William Monahan is running unopposed for the vacant tax assessor’s job.

Middletown

It’s a crowded field for the Middletown Town Council race, with 14 candidates vying for seven seats.

At least three of the seats will be filled by new faces come November, as Town Council president Paul M. Rodrigues and vice president Shirley R. Mello are not running for reelection, and Councilman Louis P. DiPalma is making a bid for the state Senate.

The Democrats who have declared are Frank Arakel Bozyan, a retired radio astronomer who serves on the Board of Tax Assessment Review; Richard P. Cambra, a Raytheon engineer, a member of the town’s Economic Advisory Committee and an alternate on the Zoning Board of Review; Christopher T. Semonelli, an entrepreneur who owns the Sears store on Aquidneck Avenue; incumbent Edward J. Silveira Jr., seeking his third term; incumbent Robert J. Sylvia, seeking his second term; and Ellrony Williams, who works in the defense industry and is a former Middletown School Committee member.

On the Republican side, the candidates are incumbent Barbara A. Barrow, seeking her third term; Cheryl Foster, a retired state social worker and a former Sister of Mercy; incumbent M. Theresa Santos, seeking her fifth term; and Antone C. Viveiros, chairman of the Concerned Island Taxpayers Association.

Four unaffiliated candidates have declared their intention to run: Helen P. Christy, former executive director of the Middletown Senior Center and former employee of the state Department of Administration; Morris G. Hirsch, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2002 and 2004; Eileen R. Spillane, who twice ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate seat held by June N. Gibbs; and Barbara A. VonVillas, former Burrillville schools superintendent and chairwoman of the Middletown Charter Review Commission.

Three people are running for the two available four-year terms on the Middletown School Committee: Kellie E. DiPalma, daughter of Councilman Louis P. DiPalma; Francis A. Forgue, a former Middletown teacher who ran unsuccessfully for the council in the last two elections and most recently served on the town administrator search committee, and William R. O’Connell, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in the last three elections and ran unsuccessfully for the school board in 2000.

The School Committee race is nonpartisan. Incumbents William R. Coogan and Edward K. “Ned” Draper are not running for reelection.

Newport

The city should have a lively election for School Committee and City Council this fall.

The School Committee, in particular, has attracted 12 candidates for 7 seats. Five incumbents will be joined in the race by seven challengers at a time when the committee has been criticized for failing to make progress on addressing the city’s antiquated elementary schools.

The five incumbents are chairman Charles P. Shoemaker, Jo Eva Gaines, Hugo J. DeAscentis, Robert J. Leary and Thomas S. Phelan. Incumbents Thomas Galvin and David R. Carlin announced previously that they would not seek reelection.

The challengers include Lynn Ceglie, of 36 Tilden Ave., who serves on the Charter Review Commission; Jacob Cykert, of 6 Andrew St., a retired Newport teacher and former president of the Teachers Association of Newport; Sandra J. Flowers, of 16 Keeher Ave., a retired Newport teacher; and David C. Hanos, of 133 Van Zandt Ave., a city firefighter and president of the department’s union.

The other challengers are Rebecca Bolan, of 4 Channing St.; Patrick Kelley, of 57 Kay St., who served on a committee that studied the future of the elementary schools; and Robert T. Oliveira, of 39 Bellevue Ave., who lost a bid for School Committee four years ago.

The City Council contests include a six-way race for the four at-large seats. The incumbents seeking reelection to their citywide seats are Mayor Stephen C. Waluk, Stephen R. Coyne, Mary C. Connolly and Jeanne-Marie Napolitano. Coyne announced in February that he would not run again, but said on Tuesday that he had reversed his decision.

The at-large challengers are Marvin L. Abney, of 12 Summer St., who lost bids for the Ward 1 seat in the previous two elections, and Herbert R. Armstrong, chairman of the Newport Beach Commission. Four out of the six who return nomination papers will be elected.

The other council contest is in Ward 3, where James A. Dring, of 58 Bateman Ave., is challenging incumbent Kathryn E. Leonard, who was first elected to the council in 1995 and has served all but two years since then.

Ward 1 Councilman Charles Y. Duncan and Ward 3 Councilman Justin S. McLaughlin have no opponents.

Portsmouth

Democrats are fielding a full slate of endorsed candidates for all seven seats on the Town Council in November in a field that also includes an unendorsed Democrat, four Republicans, and two independents.

The endorsed Democratic line-up includes Town Council President Dennis M. Canario, the top vote getter in the last election, as well as incumbents Leonard Katzman, William E. West, and James A. Seveney.

Two former School Committee members, Albert Honnen and David Croston, help round out the endorsed Democratic slate, as well as Mark Katzman, Leonard Katzman’s brother, who made an unsuccessful bid for Town Council in 2006. Mary Correia is running as an unendorsed Democrat.

Incumbent Republicans Peter J. McIntyre and Hubert E. “Huck” Little will seek reelection, along with GOP newcomers Jeffrey Plumb and Joseph Robicheau.

Robicheau is an outspoken member of Portsmouth Concerned Citizens who has objected vigorously to the way the Democrat-controlled council went about paring the town budget after the special Financial Town Meeting engineered by the PCC in 2006.

Independent Karen Gleason, who has served one term on the council, will seek reelection. Philip Driscoll and Judy Staven have also declared their candidacy for Town Council as independents.

On the School Committee, chairwoman Sylvia Wedge and Terri Cortvriend, both Democrats, will seek to keep their seats.

The third seat up for grabs on the seven-member committee became vacant recently with the death of Douglas Wilkey, a Republican.

Other Democratic candidates for School Committee are Marilyn King and Angela Volpicelli. No Republicans declared their candidacy for School Committee.

Meanwhile, incumbent Town Clerk Kathleen Viera Beaudoin, a Republican, is running for reelection unopposed.

Tiverton

In a town where elections are nonpartisan, a crowded field of 16 candidates is running for the seven seats on the Town Council.

Seeking reelection are council President Louise Durfee, vice president Donald Bollin, and incumbents Joanne M. Arruda and Hannibal F. Costa.

Councilman John G. “Jay” Edwards will run unopposed for the House from District 70. And incumbents Paul S. Carroll and Brian Medeiros have decided not to seek reelection to the council.

The vice-chairman of the School Committee, Michael S. Burk, will run for Town Council.

Christopher Cotta, who for years has headed the elected Budget Committee and once served as an interim town administrator, will also seek a seat on the council, as will another Budget Committee member, Alexander J. Cote.

Other council candidates are former Town Council member Cecil Leonard, who was narrowly defeated in 2006; and Mark DeMello, Kevin G. Goulet, Jay J. Lambert, Randy J. Lebeau, Christopher A. Perry, Edward A. Roderick, Roger Winiarski and Judith Zeramby.

Three of the five seats on the School Committee are at stake in the November election; those held by Burk, the committee chairwoman, Denise deMedeiros and Sally Black.

Challenging deMedeiros and Black are Richard E. Bush 3rd, Danielle R. Coulter, Carol J. Hermann, and Deborah Anna Pallasch.

Three people will vie for the position of Town Treasurer: Laura L. Epke, Philip DiMattia and George Alzaibak.

Town Clerk Nancy L. Mello will run unopposed.

And candidates for the Budget Committee are Robert D. Coulter, Danielle Coulter’s husband; Raymond J. Joubert and Thomas A. Parker. Eleven Budget Committee members serve six-year terms, with no more than four terms expiring at any one time.

Warren

Nine people have declared their candidacy for five seats on the Town Council. They include five Democrats: David S. Frerichs, Rita C. Galinelli, John W. Hanley, John J. Rego, and Catherine A. Tattrie; one Republican: Christopher W. Stanley; and three independents: Frank Alfano, Davison Bolster, and Joseph DePasquale.

Frerichs, Hanley, Alfano and DePasquale are all incumbents. Alfano is council president. The only incumbent who is not seeking another two-year term is Democrat Louis Rego.

Some of the other names will be familiar to townspeople. Galinelli is the former town clerk, who retired in February 2007 after leaving her post the previous June complaining of harassment. Bolster was a member of the Planning Board until the council decided not to reappoint him last December. Stanley is a former council member who lost his seat in the 2006 election.

Two of Warren’s three nonpartisan seats on the Bristol Warren Regional School Committee are up for grabs this year. Incumbent John Saviano is seeking another term but committee chairman William A. Estrella Jr. is not running again. Two newcomers — Emily Anness and John Bento — declared their intention to run.