BOSTON (State House News Service) – Three new Democrats are set to join the Massachusetts House after claiming victories in special elections Tuesday in Brockton, Peabody, Fitchburg and Lunenburg.
House Democrats will continue to represents voters in Brockton and Fitchburg and picked off a seat that former Republican Rep. Leah Cole gave up to pursue her nursing career. The results left Republicans with nothing to show at a time when Gov. Charlie Baker is working to build the GOP ranks on Beacon Hill and give voters more choices.
Former Rep. Thomas Walsh will return to the House in a district covering most of Peabody, and Fitchburg City Councilor Stephan Hay will take the seat representing his city and a precinct of Lunenburg.
Brockton’s Gerard Cassidy, the winner of a Democratic primary last month, earned his seat with no challenge from Republican or unenrolled candidates. Since the primary, Cassidy has joined city’s legislative delegation in advocating on local issues, testifying with a panel of Brockton lawmakers against a proposed charter school that was subsequently approved by the state Board of Education.
Cassidy will succeed Sen. Michael Brady in the House after Brady moved to the Senate after winning the special election to fill the seat formerly held by the late Sen. Thomas Kennedy. Cassidy was a longtime aide to Kennedy, who died last year.
The three special elections served as an undercard to the Massachusetts presidential primaries in which Republican Donald Trump scored a decisive Bay State victory and Democrat Hillary Clinton edged Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Super Tuesday results left Trump and Clinton as clear favorites for their party’s nominations.
The Peabody and Fitchburg races also produced winners to replace representatives who resigned in recent months. Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale, a Democrat, left the House in January to move to the municipal corner office. Peabody Republican Leah Cole resigned last September to focus on her nursing career.
The Massachusetts Democratic Party announced the Hay and Walsh wins Tuesday night in a statement.
“Congratulations to Peabody’s newest state representative, Tom Walsh and Fitchburg and Lunenburg’s newest state representative, Stephan Hay,” said party chairman Thomas McGee, a senator from Lynn. “Both Tom and Stephan ran textbook grassroots campaigns built on door-knocking, phone calls and one-on-one conversations about issues important to working families.”
Baker, who endorsed a slate of candidates in his party’s state committee races held Tuesday, had campaigned for Hay and Walsh’s GOP rivals, Dean Tran of Fitchburg and Stephanie Peach of Peabody.
Hay, an at-large city councilor for eight terms, ran with endorsements from groups including the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Fitchburg Firefighters Local 3128, the Retired State, County and Municipal Employees Association of Massachusetts, and the West Boylston-based Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 4. DiNatale, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas and state Rep. Harold Naughton of Clinton joined him in campaigning.
Walsh, who served in the House from 1987 to 1995, posted vote totals on his campaign Facebook page that showed him taking in 57 percent of the vote to Peach’s 37 percent, with 4 percent of voters backing unenrolled candidate Christopher Gallagher.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, state Rep. Paul Tucker of Salem and Attorney General Maura Healey were among those who stumped for Walsh in Peabody.
Three more specials are underway in Massachusetts. Candidates were required to submit nomination signatures by Tuesday in the races to fill seats formerly held by Robert Fennell of Lynn, Anthony Petruccelli of East Boston, and Robert Hedlund, who resigned from the Senate after being elected mayor of Weymouth. Fennell resigned from the House to take a municipal job and Petruccelli left the Senate to join a lobbying firm. The primaries in those contests are April 12 and the special elections will be decided on May 10.
In a statement Tuesday night, Massachusetts Republican Party Chair Kirsten Hughes didn’t mention Trump and pointed to news from earlier in the week that 20,000 Massachusetts votes had unenrolled from the Democratic Party.
“On behalf of the Massachusetts Republican Party, I want to congratulate and thank all of our Republican candidates on successful and energetic campaigns,” Hughes said. “As Democrats experience a mass exodus of voters from their party and Republicans see a record-breaking turnout here in Massachusetts, I’m excited about our Party’s growth and enthusiasm as we look toward November.”
Hughes also took a jab at Clinton. “Tonight, Hillary Clinton experienced a huge setback with an embarrassingly dismal showing in a race with a radical socialist in a state she won handily in 2008, because voters simply do not trust her,” she said. “Clearly, Democrats are weakened and bruised heading into the fall, as an energized Republican Party prepares to turn the page on the failed Obama years.”
As Hughes focused on Clinton, the Massachusetts Democratic Party, chaired by Sen. Thomas McGee of Lynn, focused on Baker and Trump.
“As reasonable Republicans in Massachusetts and across the country sound the alarm about Trump’s Super Tuesday victories, voters are disappointed that Gov. Baker raised $300,000 to try and take over the Republican State Committee rather than stand up to Trump’s politics of fear,” McGee said in a statement. “In reality, Gov. Baker’s refusal to get involved helped pave the way for Trump’s victory in Massachusetts. Massachusetts voters will be watching closely in the coming months to see if Gov. Baker’s continued silence helps Trump solidify his path to the Republican nomination and become his Party’s standard bearer.”
[Michael Norton contributed reporting]
