Published in the August 29, 2018 edition
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Get the popcorn ready. Election season is here.
The state primary will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 4. Voters in all four precincts will cast ballots in the Lynnfield High School gymnasium. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Town Clerk Trudy Reid believes the turnout for the state primary will be higher than previous years.
“I think it will be a little bit higher than we normally see for a primary because of the number of requests we have had for absentee ballots,” said Reid.
Reid informed the Villager parking will be at a premium during the state primary because school will be in session. She said there will be designated handicap parking spaces.
Democratic candidates
There are four contested races in the Democratic primary.
Jay Gonzalez and Bob Massie are vying for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Gonzalez was the chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care during former Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration. He served as president and CEO of CeltiCare Health and New Hampshire Healthy Families.
Massie is an activist and author who works on issues such as global leadership and corporate accountability, social justice and climate change. He won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 1994 and ran on a ticket with former State Rep. Mark Roosevelt, but lost in the general election to former Gov. Bill Weld.
The race for lieutenant governor features Quentin Palfrey and Jimmy Tingle.
Palfrey worked as a senior advisor for jobs and competitiveness in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during former President Barack Obama’s first term. He previously severed as executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) North America and is the co-director of the Global Access in Action project at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
Tingle has been a comedian for three decades, and has written and delivered commentaries for “60 Minutes II” and was a regular contributor on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.” He attended Cambridge Latin High School and UMass-Dartmouth.
Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim is challenging Secretary of State William Galvin in the Democratic primary. The hotly contested race has been contentious.
Galvin has been the commonwealth’s secretary of state since 1995, and recently has come out in support of same-day voter registration and the recently passed automatic voter registration law. He has also highlighted issues such as fraud in the finance industry, credit card pressure placed on students and HMO costs.
Zakim, who was endorsed by state Democrats at the party’s convention, was elected to the Boston City Council in 2013. He is the City Council’s Committee on Civil Rights chairman. He previously served as chairman of the Committee on Housing and Community Development and the Special Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure, Planning and Investment.
The fourth contested race is for Registry of Deeds. Incumbent John L. O’Brien Jr. is facing off against Salem resident Alice Rose Merkl.
There are no other contested races in the Democratic primary. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is running unopposed for a second term. Attorney General Maura Healey is running for a second term. Treasurer Deb Goldberg is running for a second term as well.
State Auditor Suzanne Bump is running for a third term. Congressman Seth Moulton is running for a third term. Lynnfield resident Terrence Kennedy is running for re-election to the Sixth District on the Governor’s Council.
State Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) is running for a full two-year term. Crighton was elected to the seat formerly held by Lynn Mayor Tom McGee in March.
Jonathan Blodgett is running for Essex County District Attorney once again. Clerk of Courts Thomas H. Driscoll Jr. is running for re-election. There is no Democratic candidate for representative in the State House of Representatives.
Republican candidates
There are three contested races in the Republican primary.
The primary is headlined by a three-way race for U.S. Senate.
State Rep. Geoff Diehl of Whitman was elected to his seat in the House of Representatives in 2010. Diehl, who was endorsed by state Republicans at the GOP’s convention, was a strong supporter of a ballot question that led to the repeal of the Massachusetts gas tax indexing law in 2014.
Beth Lindstrom is also running for U.S. Senate in the Republican primary. She served as the director of consumer affairs during former Gov. Mitt Romney’s administration. She was the first woman to serve as executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party.
John Kingston is the third candidate running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. He previously worked for AMG, a global asset company management company, for 16 years. He launched the non-partisan group Better for America, a nonprofit organization that sought to get nationwide ballot access for an independent candidate to run for president in the 2016 election.
There is a two-way race for the Republican nomination for governor that includes incumbent Gov. Charlie Baker. Baker is facing off against Scott Lively, an activist and author who strongly opposes LGBT rights.
There are two candidates running for the Republican nomination for attorney general.
James McMahon is a Cape Cod-based attorney. He served in the military from 1971 to 1977, and also served in the Army National Guard.
Daniel Shores is a Boston-based attorney who previously ran for the Ninth Congressional District. He is the vice chairman of Massachusetts Maritime Academy’s Board of Trustees.
The remaining Republican candidates are running unopposed in primary. Anthony Amore is running for the Republican nomination for secretary of state. Keiko Orrall is vying to be the Republican nominee for treasurer. Helen Brady is running for auditor.
Beverly resident Joseph S. Schneider is running for Congress. State Rep. Brad Jones (R-North Reading) is running for re-election once again. Rockport resident Jonathan Ring is running for Register of Deeds.
There are no Republican candidates for district attorney, Governor’s Councilor and state senator.
Libertarian candidate
There is only one candidate running appearing on the Libertarian party’s ballot.
Beverly resident Daniel Fishman is running for state auditor. He previously ran for Congress in 2012.
