Holyoke City Councilor David K. Bartley (son of former House speaker David M. Bartley) defeated Easthampton Mayor Michael Tautznik in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire State Senate seat (vacant due to the retirement of Sen. Michael Knapik. The vote was 3383 to 3140.
Meanwhile, in the Republican primary, Westfield’s State Rep. Don Humason defeated former Governor’s Council candidate Michael Franco with 3361 to 491. The special election will be on November 5th.
Source: http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/10/holyoke_city_councilor_narrowl.html
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dunwichdem says
My impression from Western Mass Politics & Insight’s summary of the debate is that Mayor Tautznik ran as more as a technocrat and problem-solver, whereas Bartley ran as an anti-Beacon Hill, anti-establishment candidate. I am not intimately familiar with the race, and have only been following it through the media.
http://www.wmasspi.com/2013/10/primary-looming-bartley-tautzniks-positionsstyles-on-display.html
mski011 says
Bartley did run as anti-Beacon Hill, but anti-establishment, I’m not so sure about. Anti-Beacon Hill establishment, maybe. Anti-Pioneer Valley establishment, not so much.
dunwichdem says
A fair distinction; again m only info came from WMassPI’s summary of the debate.
Mark L. Bail says
Democrat. Mike Tautznik is as well.
The key thing is beating Don Humason who is a Tea Party Republican. The seat has been traditionally Democratic, but Mike Knapik was moderate enough to appease independents and retain the seat. If Dave can win the seat, and I think he’s got a great shot at it, the number of state senate Republicans will dwindle to three.
mski011 says
Here’s my fear about Bartley and I hope I’m wrong. He ran as the more conservative Dem in the race and won. Now he’s got to distinguish himself from Humason. I’m not saying he can’t, but it is going to take more than just highlighting Humason’s anti-marriage equality vote to make the choice apparent. People need to have a choice, or they’ll go for what they know and that could be Humason. We can’t just say Humason’s an extremist and people will think it…although the shutdown hurts all GOP in Mass and there is a lot of government employees in the district.
Mark L. Bail says
I’m not that familiar with Dave’s politics, but he’s got to represent his ward. He doesn’t need to be a flaming liberal to win in Agawam or much the district.
It won’t be hard to get Humason. He’s got a record. It will all depend on how well the campaign does at bringing it out.
mski011 says
Holyoke is conservative, but not extremely so. Certain parts of the establishment may be conservative, but Holyoke is hardly about to swing to the right or vote Republican if their senator were an uber-liberal. Food for thought, blanks routinely outpolled Knapik, who was a moderate GOP, in elections.
No Bartley does not need to be flaming liberal, but I think he needs to distinguish himself and so far, I think he needs to do better. Nothing he has advocated seems terribly far off from Humason’s record. He has to step it up. Just calling Humason a tea partier is not enough.
wareinmass says
Being a western Mass Democrat I followed this race quite closely. In regards to David Bartley’s “conservatism,” I noted a few key differences between he and Mayor Tautznik that lead to him being labeled as such. One point was the candidate’s differences on abortion. Mayor Tautznik earned an endorsement from Planned Parenthood while Councilor Bartley was enforced by Mass. Citizen’s for Life and Democrats for Life. On the issue of taxation, Tautznik was in support of Governor Patrick’s transportation bill proposals while Bartley was neither content with this plan nor the deal made by Speaker DeLeo and Senator Murray put together. He is against an increase in the gas tax as well as the reinstatement of turnpike tolls in western Mass. On nearly every other issue however Bartley seems to be a traditional progressive Democrat. He is committed to restoring state aide for cities and towns to 2009 levels and working to complete infrastructure improvements and create jobs in the district.
It is important to realize, especially for those eastern Mass Dems reading this that the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District is not the most liberal district in the Commonwealth. Since 1994 it has been represented by a Republican in the State Senate and of the 3 state representatives whose districts are only comprised of cities and towns in the senate district, only one, Aaron Vega is a Democrat. In addition to Mr. Humason, Rep. Nick Boldyga, the other Republican is the Massachusetts Chair for ALEC. In state wide and national elections, the district has become increasingly conservative, with most of the communities save Holyoke and Easthampton strongly supporting Scott Brown, Gabriel Gomez, and Mitt Romney. Even Democrats in Holyoke tend to align more with the traditional Irish Catholic wing of the party, which gives credence to Bartley’s pro-life stance. I think that considering the reddening of this district, Bartley can win a solid victory in November if he focuses on economic populism and perhaps does some opposition research on how Humason may have sided against the voter’s interests on some bread and butter issues.