Published in the August 31, 2018 edition.
By DAN TOMASELLO
WAKEFIELD — Get the popcorn ready. Election season is here.
The state primaries will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 4. Voters in all seven precincts will cast ballots in the Galvin Middle School cafeteria. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Wakefield’s schools won’t open until Thursday, so there will be plenty of parking.
Despite the Primary Election occurring on the day after Labor Day, Town Clerk Betsy Sheeran is optimistically predicting a 23 percent turnout locally. She observed that 2,160 people voted in the June 26 Special Election on the Public Safety Building. Based on that, she’s anticipating up to 4,000 of the town’s 18,000 voters to cast ballots in Tuesday’s Primary.
She observed that there really isn’t a hotly contested race in either party. She said that her office has gotten back about 150 absentee ballots so far, and she’s anticipating another 25-45 by the end of the week.
Sheeran said that her office is well-prepared for the election, the second in which everyone will vote at the centralized Galvin Middle School polling place. There will be 28 poll workers, she said, four for each precinct. Two will handle voter check-in and two will handle check-out. Two of the town’s precinct wardens will also be on hand to assist Sheeran, along with members of the Board of Registrars.
All poll workers will park off-site, she stressed, and the number of handicapped parking spaces will be increased for Election Day.
She said that voting machines have been tested and are “good to go.” She has gone over procedures with poll workers, and voting booths will be set up tomorrow in the Galvin Cafeteria.
“I think I’ve got it as streamlined as it can possibly be,” Sheeran said.
Following are those running in the two major party primaries.
Democratic candidates
There are five 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 State Senator. Winchester’s Jason M. Lewis, the incumbent, is being challenged by Melrose’s Samantha Hammar, leader of the City Democratic Committee.
The fifth race is for Middlesex District Attorney, with incumbent Marian T. Ryan of Belmont squaring off against Winchester’s Donna Patalano, a former assistant district attorney.
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 Rep. Paul Brodeur of Melrose also is running unopposed in Precincts 4-6. He won’t have a challenger in November either.
Matthew Crescenzo of Saugus is running for State Representative in Precincts 1, 2, 3 and 7. This is the Ninth Essex District currently represented by Republican Donald Wong.
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.
Donald H. Wong of Saugus is running again as State Representative in the Ninth Essex District, which includes Wakefield Precincts 1, 2, 3 and 7.
Erin K. Calvo-Bucci of Reading is running for State Senate.
There are no Republican candidates for District Attorney, Governor’s Councilor, Clerk of Courts, Register of Deeds or State Representative in Precincts 4 through 6.
— Mark Sardella contributed to this report.
