Massachusetts voters will head to the polls Tuesday to vote in the state’s primary elections.
County, state, and congressional positions are on the ballot. Those offices include US senator, US representative, governor’s councillor, state senator, state representative, register of deeds, clerk of courts, and in some counties, county commissioner.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting information, including local ballots and poll locations, can be found on the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s website.
Here’s a quick look at key state and local races you may see on your ballot.
∗ Governor’s Council: Fourteen Democrats are running to fill the council’s eight seats, many of them challenging incumbents.
Particularly contentious has been the race for the council’s third district, which spans from Brookline to the rural Nashoba Valley, where Mara Dolan is challenging incumbent Marilyn Pettito Devaney. Dolan has made safeguarding abortion rights — and using it as a litmus test for judicial nominees — a central plank of her campaign, while Devaney, who has held the seat since 1999, has said the position should not be seen as a place for legislative policy.
In the fourth district, incumbent Christopher Iannella is facing two challengers: Stacey Borden, an advocate for the formerly incarcerated, and Ron Iacobucci, director of Quincy’s Workforce Development Department. Iannella points to his long record of “historic” judicial — having represented Boston and the South Shore on the council for nearly four decades — while his opponents say they will seek to confirm judicial nominees who prioritize alternative sentencing options and the expungement of certain nonviolent drug offenses.
Multiple candidates are also standing in the second district, which includes Milton, Attleboro, and Framingham: probation officer Tamisha Civil, attorneys Dave Reservitz and Sean Murphy, and former Hopkinton Select Board chairperson Muriel Kramer. The winner of that contest will go on to face a Republican opponent, Francis Crimmins, in November.
∗ State Legislature: As is typical in Massachusetts, very few incumbent legislators are facing primary challenges this cycle.
Among the few closely watched races,Cambridge Democrat Marjorie Decker is defending her Houseseat from Evan MacKay, a sociology graduate student at Harvard University. MacKay has centered their campaign on the lack of transparency from Beacon Hill, arguing that legislative committee votes — where bills stall and die at a rate higher than anywhere else in the country — should be a matter of public record, to keep individual lawmakers accountable. Decker has defended her personal record of transparency with her constituents.
First-term incumbent Erika Uyterhoeven is hoping to win the primary for her Somerville seat against Kathleen Hornby, a former legislative staffer for Decker. Uyterhoeven points to her progressive credentials as an activist and antitrust economist, as well as a string of endorsements from figures like US Senator Ed Markey and US Representative Ayanna Pressley, while Hornby has called for more pragmatic approach that she says will be more successful in passing progressive policy.
The primary for the State House’s 16th Essex District will feature a rematch between Democrats Francisco Paulino of Methuen and Marcos Devers of Lawrence; Paulino unseated Devers in the primary two years ago. Meanwhile, several candidates, four Democrats and two Republicans, are vying for the open House seat being vacated by Plymouth GOP Representative Matthew Muratore, who is running for state senate.
Muratore will face Kari MacRae in the Republican primary for the Plymouth and Barnstable Senate district; MacRae is a Bourne School Committee member who was fired from a teaching position over her controversial social media posts. The winner of that primary will face Democrat Dylan Fernandes in the November general election.
In the Democratic primary for the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district — the state House seat currently held by Fernandes, which he is giving up to run for Senate —housing advocate Arielle Faria is running against Thomas Moakley, a former assistant district attorney from Falmouth.
∗ Suffolk County clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court: The primary for a rather obscure post has been surprisingly hot.It is aposition that determines which emergency appeals are seen by a single justice on the state’s highest court, and the open seat has pitted Erin Murphy, a Boston city councilor, and longtime public defender Allison Cartwright. Both candidates have garnered endorsements from local and state politicians alike, including Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston for Cartwright, and a Boston city councilor, Ed Flynn, for Murphy.
Material from previous Globe coverage was used in this report.
Dan Glaun can be reached at dan.glaun@globe.com. Follow him @dglaun. Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @fonseca_esq and Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.
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Publish date : 2024-09-02 12:47:00
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