Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Updating our left-hand sidebar

By

For quite a while, we had a “special elections” box in the left-hand sidebar that was designed to keep everyone apprised of when these below-radar races were coming up, and who was running.

Now that special election season seems to be over, we’ve updated the box to focus on some key elections coming up in the fall that offer good chances to dislodge distasteful incumbents.  Paul Casey, one of the lege’s most conservative members and a true DINO, faces a strong challenge from Jason Lewis.  Challengers are lining up around the block to take on the anti-marriage, anti-rule-of-law Paul Donato.  And Sara Orozco promises to run a strong general election campaign against Scott “Hey kids! Go f&%$ yourselves!” Brown.

Those are the three contested races that immediately came to my mind.  Of course, there will be lots of open seats to be filled as well — among others, Senators Pamela Resor, Ed Augustus, and Robert Antonioni are all stepping down.  We’ll figure out the best way to track those too.  For now, if you know of other key contested primaries or general election seats, drop ’em in the comments and I’ll update the box.

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  1. Rep. Frank Hynes is retiring after 26 years in the House representing Scituate and Marshfield. Announced candiates are:
    Democrat Jim Cantwell http://www.jimcantwell.com/
    Democrat Mike Maresco
    Independent John Valienti

  2. Rep. Eldridge, previous recipient of BMG “Kiss of Death”, is running for State Senate for the seat currently held by Senator Pam Resor (who is not running for reelection).  Jamie is a true progressive voice.  BMG members may be interested in attending a fundraiser for Jamie in Wayland on April 1.  Rep. Tom Conroy is a featured guest at this event.  Jamie has a lot of support in Rep. Tom Conroy’s district from people he met during his race for Congress, although only part of Tom’s district is in the MW Senate District.  It is not confirmed but Sara Orozco, who David mentions, told me that she hoped to stop by. Wayland is in the Senate District where Sara is running.

    <

    p>Fundraiser for Rep. Jamie Eldridge with Rep. Tom Conroy
    Tuesday, April 1, 7 PM
    Home of Diana Warren 34 Decatur Ln, Wayland, MA.
    Suggested donation $500/ $250 / $100/ $50 forward to The Committee to Elect James Eldridge P.O. Box 641 Acton, MA 01720 or donate online at http://www.repeldridge.com .
    This event is hosted by Wayland, Sudbury, Lincoln, and Concord residents inspired by Jamie’s strong campaign in the area over the summer and excited about his campaign for the state senate. RSVP to David Emer at 508-274-0055 or david@emer.org .  

  3. is challenging Rep. Paul Loscocco, R-Holliston. The district is a perfect example of the exurban swing areas where we have to bring the fight to the Republicans.

    <

    p>Carolyn is the incumbent chairwoman of Holliston’s town planning board, and an expert in the planning and development management issues that this exurban district faces. This will be a race to watch.

  4. Veteran’s affairs committee chair and strident marriage equality opponent Rep. Tony Verga, D-Gloucester, has two primary challengers on his hands:

    <

    p>-Gloucester city councilwoman Astrid Klinteberg

    <

    p>and

    <

    p>Fishing industry advocate and local attorney AnnMargaret Ferrante

    <

    p>Coverage:

    <

    p>Globe:

    <

    p>http://www.boston.com/news/loc…

    <

    p>Wickedlocal:

    <

    p>http://www.wickedlocal.com/man…

  5. ….. former Selectperson from Groton is challenging long time GOP incumbent Robert Hargraves for the First Middlesex Representative seat. Towns of Ayer, Groton, Dunstable, Pepperell and Townsend, AKA one of the reddest districts in the State.

    <

    p>No website up yet but keep an eye on the Groton Democratic Town Committee website for updates.

  6. Having only six weeks between the primary and the general election seems like too little time for challengers to effectively raise money and campaign.  I’ve made a little map of when other states have their non presidential primaries:

    <

    p>  

      • We had this conversation before.

        <

        p>What I realized after that was that a certain troll, whose name I don’t now recall, had been repeatedly posting images from flickr, so you probably told Firefox to block it.  If you select options from the Tools menu and click on the content button, there’s a checkbox that says automatically load images on the left with a box labeled exceptions on the right.  Click on the exception button and remove farm4.static.flickr.com. If that doesn’t work, I’m not sure what’s wrong.

        • “farm4…” to the allowed list.  thanks, i’d forgotten about the blocking thing.

    • Most of the truly contested races in Massachusetts happen in the Democratic Primary.  So in our State I think it isn’t so bad to have the Primary in September.

      • Take the Senate race, for example.  Ogo and Beatty are going to spend all Summer arguing who would have a better shot at upsetting John Kerry and by the time September 16th rolls around they’ll find they only have six weeks left to actually do that.  So while it’s true that the Democratic primary is often the main event, the late primary helps ensure that it stays that way.

  7. William “Bill” Bowles is running to take a long held GOP state seat (John Lepper has retired). His opponent is George Ross a long term GOP city counselor.

    <

    p>Bill has many years of experience and political capital built up from his excellent fiscal management skills and his leadership on the Attleboro City Council and in area political affairs is a huge beneit to citizens in SE MA.

    <

    p>Kick Off Event State Rep Candidate ( 2nd Bristol) Bill Bowles

    <

    p>KICK OFF for Bill Bowles, Democrat for State Representative, 2nd Bristol

    <

    p>Monday, March 31, 2008 7 PM

    <

    p>American Legion Hall, Route 123, 437 Newport Ave, Attleboro

    <

    p>Donations accepted but not necessary.

    <

    p>For more info call 508-399-7401, 508-222-3062. Elparker2@gmail.com
    Contact: Ellen Parker
    Phone: 508-222-3062
    Email: Elparker2@gmail.com

    <

    p>Location: American Legion Hall 437 Newport Ave, Attleboro MA  

  8. The Norfolk Bristol Middlesex Senate seat is not a Primary Race to watch. Both Brown and Orozco are unopposed to this point for their party’s nominations. Perhaps you could note the general election date of Nov 4 as well as the primary date to make that less confusing.

    <

    p>Others to note:
    John Tobin facing Marian Walsh in Suffolk & Norfolk State Senate; Dianne Wilkerson, Sonia Chang-Diaz, and Robert Patton Spruill in Second Suffolk State Senate.

    <

    p>In all there are (may be) 4 Democratic primaries for Senate Seats: the above two plus Middlesex & Worcester (Resor) and Second Worcester (Augustus).

    <

    p>In the House, there are at this point the following potential Democratic primaries:
    Barnstable, Dukes & Nantucket (Turkington); 2nd Bristol (Lepper); 5th Essex (Verga); 15th Essex (Campbell); 16th Essex (Lantigua); 2nd Hampden (Rogeness); 11th Hampden (Swan); 3rd Middlesex (Walrath); 4th Middlesex (vacant/LeDuc); 6th Middlesex (Richardson); 22nd Middlesex (Greene); 25th Middlesex (Wolf); 28th Middlesex (Smith); 31st Middlesex (Casey); 34th Middlesex (Sciortino); 35th Middlesex (Donato); 37th Middlesex (Eldridge); 5th Norfolk (Driscoll); 14th Norfolk (Peisch); 4th Plymouth (Hynes); 5th Suffolk (Wallace); 6th Suffolk (Allen); 7th Suffolk (Fox); 10th Suffolk (Rush); 4th Worcester (Flanagan); 8th Worcester (Kujawski); 10th Worcester (Fernandes)

Archives