The 1st Bristol district (Foxboro/Mansfield/Norton) has been held by Republicans since it was drawn 15 years ago. Naughton was the only Democrat who stepped up to run for this district in the special election last winter, after the death of incumbent Rep Michael Coppola. Although Coppola’s widow, Ginny Coppola, won the election to serve out the remainder of the term, Claire Naughton got 45%, the first time a Democrat broke 40% in this district. This time, two other Democrats ran, I think in part because she showed the district was winnable. Naughton won the 3-way primary in a landslide, with 60%.
Although Naughton got into the race expecting a rematch with Ginny Coppola, Coppola decided not to run for re-election. Instead, she’s facing Republican activist Jay Barrows, a Mansfield businessman and former George W. Bush delegate. They differ on many issues. He intends to vote for the constitutional amendment on marriage, just as Coppola did, while Naughton will vote against it. His top priority is an immediate rollback of the income tax to 5%, while her top priority is schools, police, firefighters, and local services. On taxes, Claire Naughton’s position has always been that we need to focus on restoring local aid and cutting property taxes, and we can’t afford to do that if we cut the income tax now. You can learn more about Claire’s views in this video, where she discusses the issues with US Rep Barney Frank.
But perhaps the biggest contrast is in their commitment to doing the job and representing the community. When asked whether he’d be a full time Representative, Jay Barrows said “it’s not full time pay.” He apparently intends to continue relying on his business for that “full time pay.” Claire has been campaigning full time for almost a year, and if she wins, she will devote her full attention to the job of representing her district.
Claire Naughton spent 30 years teaching public school in Brookline, Attleboro, and Warwick. She’s the elected Democratic statecommitteewoman from the 1st Bristol district and former chair of the Foxboro town committee. She wants to go to the state house to work on the problems she’s seen in local communities.
At the beginning of her campaign, Claire pledged to attend every town meeting in all three towns in the district. As a couple of Norton residents wrote in a letter recently,
True to her pledge, Claire has attended every town meeting in the district since she began her campaign. Case in point: on the rainy evening of Oct. 11, there was a town meeting in Norton. There were five candidates there and a sea of signs – until 7 p.m. Then all of the candidates and their supporters melted away into the night – except Claire Naughton, who went into the Norton town meeting and listened to what people in our community were saying.
I’m convinced that Claire Naughton would be the kind of Representative I most want: Accessible, open, smart, an advocate for progressive reforms, not just another Democratic vote in the house.
This is going to be a very close election. Claire has built on her support from last winter by going door to door all year, and she can win this time. How close will it be? It feels like the kind of election that will be decided on the ground, on election day, possibly by a handful of votes. Every volunteer means more votes. Wanna help get out the Democratic vote tomorrow in Massachusetts? Do it in Claire’s district – join us!
I’m back at the office, but spent part of the morning in Foxboro. The polling place is crazy, solid traffic jams in the parking lot and at both entrance roads. But it’s not just a polling place, it’s a middle school, and parents were dropping off their children. So how high is turnout for voting, rather than turnout for school?
I voted in Foxboro at 10:30 and it was still very busy. I usually wait for the school crowd to leave and thought I wouldn’t have a problem at that time. I ended up having to park down the access road because the parking lots and grassy areas were full. Hope this spells good things for Naughton as she is a much better candidate that burrows.
We’re in the lull (sort of) after the precinct captains all checked in after the morning rush, and all the morning volunteers got sent to their precincts or to hold signs. More volunteers trickle in over the course of the late morning – a couple of Wheaton students just dropped by, unexpected, and we sent them out to canvass. More volunteers means more voters, and in this district, a lot of people are home or voting during the day, so afternoon is a great time to help. (Of course, so’s the evening, 5-8)
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eek, I got confused thinking I was picking up the wrong phone, when really I had the right line but two of the phones were out of charge. Gotta remember to put them back in the chargers! Little things are sometimes hard to remember when everything’s happening at once đŸ™‚
They’ve been doing road construction in Foxboro all morning, which slowed down my trip to the polling place and precinct this morning (the Naughton office is in Mansfield). Just now, I went back up there to give some of our Foxboro polling place volunteers a short break, and discovered they’ve closed a portion of route 140 northbound from Mansfield to Foxboro. The detour was easy to get through, thanks to Google Maps on my Treo. Without a good map, it might be confusing. Time to make some new directions in case we send any more people from here out there.
I was poll-checking in the morning and going door to door in the evening of the special election earlier this year.
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At the after-election party, I told Claire that, if she’d run again, I’d donate another $500 to her campaign. A couple of months later, she called me to say that she would run again. I was happy to contribute.
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She’d make a great addition to the State House. I’ll be checking in tonight for the election result. I’m sure you’ll help make it one to celebrate!
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~Simon
Claire lost by about 325 votes (unofficial tally). She won Norton narrowly, and Foxboro by a couple of hundred – outperforming Deval, who won Foxboro by about 50 votes. Jay Barrows won his hometown of Mansfield by over 500 votes. Republican turnout in Foxboro was very good. And Massachusetts has missed an opportunity to add a great representative to the legislature.