On Tuesday, September 6th — the day after Labor Day — Massachusetts Democrats will go to the polls to select candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Auditor in the November general election. Similarly, they will select a U.S. Representative, a state senator and a state representative. They will also select candidates for various county posts: a District Attorney, a Sheriff, a County Commissioner and a Register of Deeds. Click here to see a sample Democratic Primary ballot. To see who the winners will face in November, click here to see a sample Republican ballot.
Although Sonia Chang-Diaz and Quentin Palfrey appear on the Democratic Primary ballots, they have withdrawn from the election and Palfrey has endorsed Andrea Campbell. The Massachusetts Republican party is now firmly in the grip of MAGA Republicans, who (I agree with Joe Biden) are openly semi-fascist. No need to restate the obvious – now even primaries are elections of consequence.
Governor
Maura Healey will most likely face Geoff Diehl, whose Republican challenger is Chris Doughty. Diehl's politics, say Doughty, are straight out of Alabama, which is undeniably true. Doughty, who was educated at Brigham Young University, paints himself as a moderate Republican yet his political views are closer to those of evangelical "anti-CRT" zealots now trying to take over school boards.
Lt. Governor
After November, Karen Polito can kick back in her gated community in Dartmouth because a Democrat will almost certainly occupy her old office. Three Democrats – Salem mayor Kim Driscoll, state rep Tami Gouveia, and state senator Eric Lesser – are running for her old job. According to a Republican poll (caveat emptor), Driscoll maintains a slight lead over Gouveia. Both Democrats have similar platforms but Gouveia's voting record is exceptionally progressive. On the Republican side there is Leah Cole Allen, a Trump-endorsed former state rep who was fired from her nursing job because of her refusal to be vaccinated, versus Kate Campanile, another former state rep who used to be a substitute teacher. Both Republican women are anti-abortion.
Attorney General
Democrats Andrea Campbell and Shannon Liss-Riordan will face off for the AG's job, although Quentin Palfrey's name is still on the ballot. Liss-Riordan is a white, uber-wealthy, self-funded labor lawyer while Campbell is a woman of color with an incredible personal story. Despite a disappointing position on charter schools, Campbell is the obvious choice if you care about racial justice and police accountability. Running unopposed in the Republican primary is James McMahon III, whose platform is straight out of the MAGA playbook.
Secretary of State
Democrat Tanisha Sullivan is challenging Bill Galvin for Secretary of State. In recent years Galvin has made a number of bone-headed decisions in restricting ballot signature-gathering and limiting voter options. Sullivan, in the wake of unprecedented national voter suppression, wants to shore up voting rights in the Commonwealth. Opposing the Democratic winner in the Fall will be Rayla Campbell, like Sullivan also a woman of color. But Campbell wants to crack down on virtually non-existent "voter fraud" while focusing on making the office more business-friendly. On her campaign website Campbell writes,"here in Massachusetts, there has been a flavor of communism and socialism mixed in and I don’t like it." Another MAGA wingnut heard from.
Auditor
Democrats Chris Dempsey and Diana DiZoglio will battle it out for state Auditor. Dempsey wants to do more than simply issue performance audits. Donna DiZoglio's dishonest smears against Dempsey are bad enough, but her voting record is even worse. As a state senator DiZoglio voted for subsidizing lobby groups, charitable deductions and tax breaks for the wealthy, and against a study to analyze the costs of the 2020 police reform bill. DiZoglio voted against increasing the frequency of reviews for adjusting education funding, actually voting to steer more school funding to affluent districts, voted against the plastic bag ban, for an amendment that attempted to paint the state Climate Policy Commission as a shady group, for a bill to expand surveillance of school children, for a bill to disallow counting ballots after 5PM, and against a provision to create a commission on the use of force in juvenile facilities. DiZoglio also voted for a Republican amendment to neuter police accreditation and decertification procedures. If we are really interested in making sure the state operates in the people's interest, Donna DiZoglio is not who we want conducting half-hearted, corporate- and police-friendly audits of state agencies.
Opposing the Democratic winner in November will be Republican Anthony Amore, a colorful art theft expert who ran for Secretary of State in 2018, has investigated Nazi art thefts, written a book about his attempts to recover stolen work from the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, and penned another titled "The Art of the Con." Despite going after Nazis and con artists, Amore is incredibly an ardent Trump defender.
Unchallenged
There are no challengers from either party to Democratic incumbents for State Treasurer, U.S. 9th Congressional District, Governor's Council, Second Bristol state senator, County Commissioner, or Register of Deeds.
Ninth Bristol District
With no Republican challenger, the winner of the Democratic primary for 9th Bristol District will take office at the State House. Cameron Costa is challenging Chris Markey for the Dartmouth/NB state rep seat. Public's Radio SouthCoast Bureau reporter Ben Berke has written an excellent piece on the race. From Berke's article we discover that Markey played a role in helping SouthCoast Health CEO Scott Hovan elude prosecution for wife-beating and illegal firearm violations. We learn that Markey's campaign has taken in $30K recently from cronies from what is colloquially known as the "Irish Mafia" – a group of predominantly Irish SouthCoast politicos aligned with Markey's family. We read that labor leaders are unhappy with Markey, who votes and talks precisely like a Republican, that they endorsed Costa and promised to knock on 900 doors for him. We learn that Markey voted against the Fair Share Amendment, a key plank in the state Democratic Party's platform. Markey, whose support for abortion rights is also lacking, is a former prosecutor whose positions on police reform and sentencing are also at odds with most state Democrats. Costa, a newcomer to the race, may be short on experience but is long in energy and, more importantly, has positions that actually sound like a Democrat's.
Bristol County District Attorney
Once again, the winner of this primary race will become the new Bristol County DA. Former Bristol County ADA Shannon McMahon is challenging Thomas Quinn for her old boss' job. McMahon is a long shot and lacks the "Irish Mafia" connections that have kept Quinn on the job since he was appointed by outgoing Republican governor Baker. Quinn was interviewed last night during an NAACP candidate forum. His answers were exercises in gaslighting the public. He took personal credit for solving police cases and multi-jurisdictional drug busts, and he defended his lobbying for a Republican bill to expand "dangerousness" hearings – another way of denying bail to those arrested. Sadly, his challenger also wants to expand “dangerousness” hearings.
Quinn has among the worst abuses of dangerousness hearings and pretrial detention in the state – including for 12-17 year old children in Bristol County who are held without bail at four times the state average. A 2018 state auditor’s report faulted Quinn's office for failing to track the success of its juvenile diversion programs, and Quinn doesn't even bother to collect or report on the demographics of those arrested, charged, prosecuted, and jailed. Quinn collects hundreds of thousands of dollars in forfeiture money and uses much of it for public relations programs. Quinn continues to defend Karen O’Sullivan, one of his ADAs who when employed by the Plymouth County DA’s office exchanged racist emails with another prosecutor and railroaded an Asian teenager for murder. Quinn refused to reopen an investigation of police officers involved in the Malcolm Gracia and Anthony Harden killings and balked at sharing video evidence with the lawyer for Malcolm Gracia’s family. In the Harden case, Quinn had a conflict of interest because one of the officers involved in the killing is a friend of Quinn’s son, yet Quinn refused to recuse his office from his investigation which eventually found the officers acted appropriately. Despite all this, Quinn's challenger is such a long shot that a vote for her really amounts to a "No confidence" vote on the incumbent. Nevertheless, this election represents an opportunity for voters to signal that Bristol County needs a new DA.
Bristol County Sheriff
Thomas M. Hodgson will finally have a Democratic challenger for Bristol County Sheriff. Three candidates – Attleboro mayor Paul Heroux, Fall River lawyer Nick Bernier, and former Somerset Police Chief George McNeil – square off for the important but frequently overlooked six-year position. Bernier boasts of his testimony against Fall River mayor Jaziel Correia, now serving time in federal prison for wire fraud, but Bernier was the CEO of Correia's shady racket for several years before he could no longer pretend that fraud was not being committed. At the very least, Bernier's judgement ought to be questioned. Bernier also thinks Hodgson is a nice guy and agrees with the sheriff that jail must be made to be as miserable as possible — even if it ends up killing people. More to the point, Bernier is a former prosecutor, not a corrections expert. And neither is George McNeil, who seems to be a much more decent human being than Bernier but in the end is simply a cop. Massachusetts sheriffs do two things: serve papers and run jails. It's time Bristol County finally elected someone who knows how to run a jail. Heroux is simply the best-qualified for this position.
While the sheriff’s race has mainly been about competence versus cruelty, let's not forget that Thomas Hodgson is also one of those "semi-fascists" Joe Biden has been talking about. Hodgson, who actually reported his own church to Trump's immigration advisor Steven Miller and who authored dozens of fawning emails to Miller and Trump, has a long list of connections to militia groups, white supremacists, Neo-Confederates, End Times wingnuts, Christian Identitarians, hate groups, and Oath Keepers. Hodgson's latest scheme, Protect America Now, has jumped on the election denial train and its spokesmen are now making noises about seizing voting machines. Whether this is likely to happen in Bristol County too is something that voters will have to decide in November.
With all this as prolog, here are my personal choices for the Democratic Primary: