Massachusetts Primary Preview Part I

statewide, state senate, and local offices

After a high-profile 2020 cycle and a hectic 2021 Boston municipal election, Massachusetts has receded into the background nationally. While all nine of the state’s U.S. House seats are safely Democratic, none have meaningfully contested primaries, and the gubernatorial primary is a foregone conclusion. You could be forgiven for missing the trio of competitive statewide primaries or the bevy of state legislative contests—but they’re happening today, and we’re here to tell you about them. As we did in 2020, we’re putting our preview of the primaries for Massachusetts’s 160-member state House in a separate issue to cut down on length, particularly for our email readers; you can read that here.

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Statewide

Governor

Maura Healey vs. Sonia Chang-Díaz (withdrew)

Massachusetts’s blockbuster primary was over by summer. State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, one of the legislature’s top progressives, had a solid campaign going in 2021, but once incumbent Charlie Baker announced his retirement, AG Maura Healey entered and immediately became the presumptive nominee. Chang-Díaz’s fundraising dried up and polls consistently showed her not only losing, but losing horribly. Though she earned enough support at the state convention to make the ballot, Chang-Díaz unofficially withdrew from the race not long after. Maura Healey is basically fine, and would be Massachusetts’s best governor since at least Michael Dukakis, but there’s considerable room to her left, and it’s disappointing to squander a free gubernatorial seat on a standard middle-of-the-road Democrat, without even having a primary to offer a more bold and transformative option. A decent number of voters might be voting for Chang-Díaz anyway, and any concentrations of her voters could show fertile ground for progressive candidates in the future.

Lt. Governor

Kim Driscoll vs. Tami Gouveia vs. Eric Lesser

Ever since being sworn in as mayor of Salem (pop. 44,000) in 2006, Kim Driscoll has been continually mentioned as a possible candidate for higher office every two years, but evidently didn’t want to make that leap until the time was exactly right, which appears to be now. Driscoll, despite her 17 years in politics, remains something of a blank slate. As mayor, she hasn’t been required to take many stances on issues, and she’s avoided tying herself tightly to any faction within the state party. In this primary, she’s the enthusiastic choice of the party’s liberal center and of much of its moderate flank as well. Some progressives are also supporting her out of what seems like a reading of the writing on the wall, but many are backing state Rep. Tami Gouveia instead. Gouveia could in many ways be confused for a number of unassuming representatives from the Boston suburbs, but, unlike most of Beacon Hill, she's refused to roll over for the moderate-to-conservative legislative leaders that have throttled progressive legislation for decades. Gouveia is a longshot in this race, propelled less by money (though she's not doing terribly on that front, just not Driscoll-level) than by a collection of progressive organizations, Boston politicians, and the state teachers’ union. Also running is state Sen. Eric Lesser, who is from Western Massachusetts and running on an inspiring message of being the candidate of Western Massachusetts. That's really all he's got going for him. It should be good enough for him to win Western Mass, and he may even come in second if Gouveia does particularly poorly, but he's a regional candidate and from the wrong region to win. Polling has shown Driscoll leading, but with an unusually high number of undecideds. The results could be anything from a Driscoll landslide to a Gouveia upset.

Attorney General

Andrea Campbell vs. Shannon Liss-Riordan vs. Quentin Palfrey (withdrew)

This is, against all odds, the top election of the cycle, pitting two familiar names against each other. You may remember labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan for her abortive campaign challenging Ed Markey in the 2020 senate election. She ran mostly on her biography and tangible aid to labor causes, and differentiated herself from the incumbent on more vocal support of some progressive issues (this was before Markey rebranded as the Green New Dealmaker) and procedural issues like abolishing the filibuster, which Markey was then ambivalent towards. To her credit, she dropped out of the race almost immediately after Joe Kennedy entered it, understanding the importance of uniting progressives in the election. Andrea Campbell is a former Boston City Councilor and a candidate for mayor in 2021, ultimately coming in third and making the runoff after a long campaign where she raised a tremendous amount of money but deservedly took heat for her long-standing support of, and ties to, the charter school industry.

The contest between the two has been anything but straightforward. Initially it looked like the party’s moderate establishment would find someone of their own to run and not rely on a Boston politician being on their side merely because she had been friendly to corporate interests in the past. Campbell managed to box everyone to her right out, however, and took up the mantle herself, moving right on the issues in the progress. Progressives initially struggled to choose between Liss-Riordan, who drew concerns regarding her choice to self-fund her campaign, and Quentin Palfrey, who drew concerns over his viability as a candidate. Palfrey eventually won the battle for progressives’ support, and even rode it to an endorsement from the state party, but the viability concerned proved to be prescient, and he dropped out days before early voting was set to start…to endorse Campell over Liss-Riordan. The last-minute winnowing of the field gave permission to some big names to finally weigh in: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and former Boston Mayor Kim Janey, who all endorsed Liss-Riordan, in a big public event that will make them look like kingmakers if Liss-Riordan manages to pull this one off. It would also be a serious black eye to incoming governor Maura Healey, who has gone all-in for Campbell in the home stretch. Polls have shown a small but persistent Campbell lead for months, but this one could go either way.

Auditor

Chris Dempsey vs. Diana DiZoglio

It’s absolutely insane that Diana DiZoglio could win statewide office in Massachusetts. She was a Republican state House staffer and contributor to a Tea Party magazine when she caught an incumbent state representative napping in 2012 and beat him in the Democratic primary. Even though she ran on her support of voter ID, she was never too much of a thorn in Democrats’ side in the House, and even won a promotion to the Senate in 2018 without having to face a primary, but she’s still clearly on the party’s right flank. Most relevant to the office of Auditor, she opposed the state’s recent (already watered down) police reform package that was passed in the wake of the George Floyd protests. Chris Dempsey, a Boston activist and former director of the No Boston Olympics campaign, seems fine, somewhere on the spectrum of standard Democrat to anti-establishment liberal reformer, and he’s, improbably, struggling here, with polls showing a tight race, and ridiculously high undecideds in what seems like the least-watched race of the year. That shrug from the general public is all the more concerning when considering the power of the office. In addition to handling much of the state’s money, the Auditor, well, audits, and in many ways controls the flow of information the public sees about how the government functions. For an understanding of the differences on how the candidates might use this power, look now further than policing. Chris Dempsey has an extensive plan to audit the state police, while DiZoglio only promises to report on whether they’re using implicit bias training.

Secretary of State 

William Galvin (i) vs. Tanisha Sullivan

William Galvin has spent 40 years in elected office, 28 of them as Secretary of State (technically in Massachusetts the term is “commonwealth” not “state”, but that distinction is too silly to play along with). Galvin made sense for the role in 1994, and 1994 remains the year he’s most suited to run the state’s voting systems, considering how opposed to changing them he is. Massachusetts lagged many other states in implementing modern voting reforms like same-day registration, and Galvin played no small part in that, even suing to avoid implementing it. This earned him a primary challenge in 2018, during which Galvin, feeling the heat, switched his public stance on the issue. That primary challenge fizzled out and Galvin won 67%-33% even after he’d lost at the party convention 45%-55%. It’s difficult to convey the stakes of procedural issues to voters, as it turns out. 

Still, progressives think he might be vulnerable this time around. They have a more inspiring candidate—Boston NAACP president Tanisha Sullivan, as opposed to 2018’s Josh Zakim, a Boston City Councilor with an impressive pedigree but bland presence—who has earned stronger activist consolidation behind them—Sullivan won the state party convention 62%-38%, and with it the party endorsement. Still, polling has shown Galvin far ahead all throughout August, posting leads of over 30% or even 40%. If Sullivan has any hope in this race it’s that her best poll happens to be the most recent, and she’s still losing 49%-30% in it.

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Massachusetts doesn’t quite number its state legislative districts—they’re named by the counties they include, then numbered as needed for counties with multiple districts. Forgive the confusing district names to follow; it’s not our fault.

State Senate

Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Hampshire (The Berkshires)

Paul Mark vs. Huff Tyler Templeton III

Incumbent Paul Hinds left the largest and most rural district in the state open this year to run for LG, only to fail to make the ballot. That’s actually better than his predecessor in this seat, Ben Downing, who briefly tried to run for governor this year and didn’t even make it to the convention. As to Hinds’s successor, he’d like it to be state Rep. Paul Mark, a lawyer and IBEW member (it’s complicated) who has spent the last 12 years in the house advocating for progressive policies. Promisingly, he’s been running on implementing Medicare for All at the state level. Business owner Huff Tyler Templeton III is the other candidate on the ballot, running an explicitly centrist campaign, saying voters should look to him if they don’t want Medicare for All or police departments to make reforms they don’t want to make. He’s had trouble gaining traction in this race, but we’re glad he’s sticking it through to election day to prove just how much the people are crying out for an alternative to the Loony Left (not very).

1st Essex (Lawrence, Methuen, and Haverhill)

Pavel Payano vs. Doris Rodriguez vs. Eunice Zeigler

This district is one of the biggest changes in redistricting, owing to the growing Hispanic population that finally reached a level in the 2020 census as to allow mapmakers to draw a majority Hispanic district. This would seem to benefit Lawrence City Councilor Pavel Payano, who ran for Senate under the old maps and won the majority-Hispanic city of Lawrence easily, but lost thanks to high turnout and landslide margins in the white neighboring towns. Payano is pro-charter schools and defended his school system’s use of windowless cinder block cells for misbehaving special needs elementary school students when he was on the Lawrence School Board, making him less than ideal for the state Senate, but he’s likely to win anyway, leading the field in fundraising and touting endorsements from presumptive governor Maura Healey and outgoing incumbent Sen. Barry Feingold.

Voters hoping for a more progressive candidate can’t look to Doris Rodriguez, a workforce development specialist trying to, if anything, outflank Payano from the right on criminal justice issues. No, the only suitable alternative is Methuen Town Councilor Eunice Zeigler, daughter of Haitian immigrants and affordable housing specialist. Zeigler begins at a disadvantage not only from the establishment backing another candidate, and from her worse financial situation than him, but from geographic problems—Methuen has about half as many Democratic primary voters as Lawrence, and this district’s portion of Haverhill has fewer than either. Zeigler will need landslide margins in Methuen, and she’ll need Payano to do worse in Lawrence than he has in the past. It is possible, though. Payano’s charter school advocacy has split labor in the state, pushing not only the AFT and MTA, but the entire AFL-CIO to Zeigler’s side.

2nd Essex (North Shore)

Joan Lovely (i) vs. Kyle Davis

Kyle Davis is a nonprofit consultant and musician taking on a 10-year incumbent on the sleepy northern shore of Massachusetts. Claiming inspiration from Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-cortez, Davis, who, at 27, would be the youngest member of the Senate, is running on a similar platform of reducing police funding and responsibilities, passing a Green New Deal, single payer healthcare, and building public housing. Davis would go further than the typical Squad-type policy proposal in some areas, though, wanting to raise the minimum wage to $24/hr, ban military contractors from the state, and have the state ignore Supreme Court rulings on Citizens United vs. FEC and Janus v. AFSCME. It’s a bold platform that would make him the furthest left member of the body—it’s just a shame he’s clearly going to lose. Joan Lovely is a boring incumbent who has yet to make anyone mad, this is an establishment liberal-friendly area, and Davis has self-funded over $20,000 to run the campaign owing to a lack of outside donors. Lovely doesn’t appear to be taking Davis seriously, and no one else seems to be worried about him either. Davis has a slick campaign set up, but it’s extremely difficult to run as a leftist in a large district without a correspondingly large organic base of volunteers to help you.

Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester (Springfield area)

Sydney Levin-Epstein vs. Jacob Oliveira

Eric Lesser is vacating this district to run for LG. While Lesser was first elected in a frantic 5-way free-for-all, the race to succeed him only has two candidates: state Rep. Jake Oliveira and former Ed Markey staffer Sydney Levin-Epstein. Press coverage of the campaign keeps noting how little the two seem to disagree on anything, making for a low stakes election. The better choice is probably Oliveira, given how he’s been endorsed by a few progressive groups like Mass Alliance and has more labor support (Levin-Epstein has more moderate groups like building trades and firemen). But again, these are shaping up to be differences in degrees.

Norfolk, Plymouth, and Bristol (Southern Boston suburbs)

Walter Timilty (i) vs. Kathleen Crogan-Camara

Walter Timilty is a gross outlier in the Democratic caucus. Dating back to his days in the state House, he’s always been a retrograde social conservative, supporting amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage four years after it was legalized in Massachusetts, and unlike many social conservatives who’ve outlasted the actual voting base for socially conservative Democrats, he hasn’t been smart enough to adapt. In 2019, he was the only Democrat in the state Senate to vote against funding for family planning clinics; in 2020, he was one of just four Democrats to vote to sustain Charlie Baker’s veto of the ROE Act, a package of abortion rights protections. (Because there are so few Republicans in the Massachusetts Legislature, the veto was overridden anyway, and the ROE Act is law.

Unfortunately, Timilty faced a serious primary challenge from former state legislative staffer Jarred Rose in 2020, and he got almost 70% of the vote. Kathleen Crogan-Camara, a nurse, is Timilty’s challenger this time, and like Rose she’s running against Timilty’s atrocious social conservatism. Crogan-Camara doesn’t have the financial resources Rose had; to win, she’ll need Democratic voters to be far more attuned to abortion rights post-Dobbs than they were two years ago.

2nd Plymouth and Norfolk (Brockton)

Michael Brady (i) vs. Katrina Huff-Larmond

Randolph Town Councilor Katrina Huff-Larmond seems like a great candidate to take on state Sen. Michael Brady. Brady’s district snakes from Randolph to Brockton, and it’s a pretty clear gerrymander to dilute the influence of Black voters, splitting majority-minority Randolph in order to fit more overwhelmingly white towns south of Brockton in the district. That could speak to a weakness among Black voters for Brady, an old white machine type, as Massachusetts Democrats draw state legislative maps to protect their incumbents. If Brady really is vulnerable with Black voters, Huff-Larmond, who is Black and was the first woman of color elected to the Randolph Town Council, could be poised to capitalize on that. She has the endorsement of Ayanna Pressley, who currently represents Randolph in Congress, so it’s probably a safe bet that she’s more progressive than Brady, who is a party-line vote but nothing more. Unfortunately, Huff-Larmond’s campaign hasn’t taken off in terms of endorsements (aside from Pressley) or fundraising, so this seems like a missed opportunity.

2nd Suffolk (Roxbury and Mattapan neighborhoods of Boston)

Miniard Culpepper vs. Nika Elugardo vs. James Grant vs. Liz Miranda vs. Dianne Wilkerson

An open Senate seat in Boston is rarely going to be given up without a fight, and what a fight we have here. A primary between state Reps. Nika Elugardo and Liz Miranda would already be a showdown for the ages, and that’s without former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson trying to make a comeback, or the wildcard factor that is the Rev. Miniard Culpepper.  Elugardo and Miranda are both in their second terms in the house, have progressive reputations, and are fighting for dominance in a very Democratic part of the city. Elugardo is the more left-leaning of the two, and in fact one of the leftmost members of the legislature, but she’s made some awkward political decisions that didn’t always endear her to the city’s progressive politicians; as a result, she wound up with the support of, for instance, former mayor Kim Janey, but not Michelle Wu (probably relating to how Elugardo endorsed Janey for some reason in that election), and the Arroyo family but not outgoing state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz.

Elugardo is a favorite in her home turf of Jamaica Plain, but things look tougher for her in Miranda’s territory. In a 1-on-1 race, the better-financed Miranda might have an edge, but Elugardo lucked out with the entry of state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who (barely) lost reelection to Sonia Chang-Díaz in 2008 amidst some nasty corruption charges that she eventually went to federal prison for. Wilkerson’s base overlaps with Miranda’s, and any voters she wins will likely come from her. That also may be true of Miniard Culpepper, a reverend and retired New England Regional Counsel at HUD who lives in Miranda’s turf of Roxbury, which is also where his church is. At least, it feels like Culpepper and Wilkerson should be playing spoilers, but we’re only like 90% sure of that. Coverage of this race has really played up the possibility that any of them could win, and on-the ground-campaigning is valuable in Boston.

1st Worcester (Worcester)

Robyn Kennedy vs. Joe Petty

Worcester Mayor Joe Petty, who has held the office since 2012, and who has been on the Worcester City Council since 1998, has the inside track in this district where the vast majority of votes are going to come from his city. Like most long-serving municipal officials, Petty is no friend of progressives or activists, at one point memorably calling protesters “morons, morons, morons” for coming out to protest Trump’s Muslim ban. He’s also generally sided with the council’s more business-friendly, moderate faction when contentious issues arise. Naturally, he’s sided with the city’s police department on matters of criminal justice reform. There’s also the logistical problem that if he wins the Senate race, Worcester’s mayorship would revert to the 2nd place finisher in the last election, a Republican. It’s a prospect that probably doesn’t concern him too much considering his loose party affiliation before running for office.

Robyn Kennedy, a former political staffer and current COO of the YWCA (formerly Young Women’s Christian Association), is the underdog candidate running on a more progressive platform and backed by a slew of progressive groups who both trust her to make the right decisions in the Senate, and trust Petty not to. The difference between the two was evident at their debate, where Kennedy backed progressive proposal after progressive proposal, while Petty demurred. Petty is taking this election seriously enough to fake an endorsement from the Massachusetts Nurses Association in a mailer, so it may be closer than it appears from outside.

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Governor’s Council

A quick reminder on what the Governor’s Council, a leftover from Massachusetts’s colonial charter, actually is—the eight-member body, elected by district for two-year terms, confirms gubernatorial nominees in the same way the US Senate confirms presidential nominees. Well, theoretically at least. The US Senate frequently rejects nominees, but the Governor’s Council is a notorious rubber stamp. They also approve pardons and commutations.

District 3 (Western Boston suburbs)

Marilyn Petitto Devaney (i) vs. Mara Dolan

Marilyn Petitto Devaney has been on the Council since 1999, longer than all but one of her colleagues. Speaking of her colleagues, she seems terminally unable to get along with any of them. More concerning is her recent vote for an anti-choice judge, which her opponent, public defender Mara Dolan, brings up frequently. Dolan also wants a wider variety of judges confirmed, not just the current stable of mostly prosecutors, though it’s unclear if she’d actually start voting down appointees to make that happen.

District 8 (Western Mass)

Shawn Allyn vs. Michael Anthony Fenton vs. Tara Jacobs vs. Jeffrey Morneau

Springfield City Councilor Mike Fenton and attorneys Shawn Allyn and Jeffrey Morneau are each running well-funded campaigns, though none take any sort of policy stances beyond general appeals to diversity being good. (Fenton would also like you to know about every single time he fought for more off-street parking in individual development projects on the city council.) North Adams School Committee member Tara Jacobs is running a more low-budget campaign as the only woman and the only Berkshire County candidate in the race. If there’s a candidate to root against, it’s probably Allyn, who was the only candidate of the four to respond in the negative when asked at a candidate forum if he’d make abortion rights a litmus test when voting on nominees, giving a very lawyerly answer as to why.

District Attorneys

Berkshire County

Andrea Harrington (i) vs. Timothy Shugrue

Berkshire County DA Andrea Harrington has made small but necessary steps to reducing over-incarceration, including ending cash bail for misdemeanors and increasing the use of diversion courts. This has prompted a furious backlash from the tough-on-crimes types, and Timothy Shugrue, an attorney running on “Prosecuting Criminals to The Fullest Extent” is looking to harness that pure rage. Backed by the cop union, Shugrue has been lying even more brazenly than most politicians and soliciting Republicans to switch registration and vote in the Democratic primary. While progressive DAs have largely survived reactionary challenges in elections, there’s always some amount of concern in a post-Chesa Boudin recall world.

Bristol County

Thomas Quinn (i) vs. Shannon McMahon

In traditionally moderate Bristol County, former prosecutor Shannon McMahon isn’t trying to pick up the progressive DA mantle, but she is criticizing incumbent Thomas Quinn, who was originally appointed to the office in 2015 by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, for underfunding drug treatment courts and refusing to prosecute a police officer after a particular shooting, which is all better than nothing, we guess. Quinn, seemingly very scared of his first real election, is spending like crazy and getting backup from Massachusetts Majority in the closing weeks of this election, even though, on its face, it doesn’t look that competitive.

Suffolk County (Boston)

Kevin Hayden (i) vs. Ricardo Arroyo

Uhhh, pass?

Okay, fine, we’ll talk about this goddamn race. Two weeks ago we would have been happy to talk about Charlie Baker appointee Kevin Hayden making vague rhetorical gestures at being a progressive prosecutor while very much acting in office like a Charlie Baker appointee. Then we’d introduce the savior of the story, Ricardo Arroyo, Boston City Councilor. Not exactly a lefty or “of” the criminal justice reform movement, he’s still who everyone decided on to try and reclaim this office for progressives after Rachel Rollins moved to the federal government. But then the story hit. 

You know the one. The Boston Globe article uncovering two separate police investigations into Arroyo for sexual assault in 2005 and 2007. It’s the worst kind of last-minute story, because there just isn’t enough time for clear resolution. One of the two women has since said that Arroyo never assaulted her, but that still leaves the other complaint, and yes, it was dismissed for lack of grounds to prosecute, but the reason was because the woman chose not to talk to police after filing the initial report. Yes, that could be because the initial report was bogus, but there’s also the very well known phenomenon of rape victimins not wanting to retraumatize themselves by going forward with a trial. Which scenario seems more reasonable? That’s not a rhetorical question—if you live in Boston, that could very well decide your vote. There’s a lot to be said for not judging someone based on a crime they weren’t even charged for, let alone convicted of, but evidently local politicians think there might be some fire with that smoke—Michelle Wu and Elizabeth Warren yanked their endorsements a few days after the story broke. But some other Arroyo backers, particularly his allies on the city council, are standing firm, and they’re leaning on the police report’s conclusion to provide support for their choice, while also insinuating that Hayden’s office was behind the leak of the initial police reports to the Boston Globe. Which, yes, he totally did. Okay, sure, we don’t “know” that, but it was a perfectly timed oppo drop using non-public materials Hayden’s office had access to, of course Hayden did it. It’s just kind of besides the point here.

Then there’s the comparatively small matter of whether or not Arroyo lied to the press about knowing the investigations happened. He’s been adamant he didn’t, but police records from the time show that he called the police to discuss the case. 

We have no summary here, it just sucks all over. The stakes are enormous and both options feel awful, in very different ways.

Sheriffs

In Massachusetts, sheriffs are mostly relegated to running county jails, bail, and 911 dispatch programs—police departments are run at the local or state level.

Berkshire County

Thomas Bowler (i) vs. Alf Barbalunga

Chief Probation Officer of Southern Berkshire District Court Alf Barbalunga promises a more empathetic jail system than incumbent Thomas Bowler, but he’s not looking to make any major changes, and in fact agrees on most issues with incumbent Thomas Bowler. Mostly, what he wants to do is stop housing female inmates in a neighboring county’s jail, often quite far from their families, and bring them back to Berkshire County. That’s better than nothing, we suppose.

Essex County (Lynn, Lawrence, Salem, North Shore)

Kevin Coppinger (i) vs. Virginia Leigh

Virginia Leigh is a social worker, not a cop. That, alone, is radical for a sheriff candidate. Leigh sees jails and inmates as better served through the lens of social work than police work, and is doing something not seen before in Massachusetts: asking to be put in charge of them. She clearly knows she’s a massive longshot, even if she’s raised a bit of money and has endorsements from some progressive groups and local activists. She’s not going to win, but it’s worth seeing what percentage of the vote she winds up with.

Hampshire County (Northampton, Amherst)

Patrick Cahillane (i) vs. Yvonne Gittelson vs. Caitlin Sara Sepeda

Patrick Cahillane is a typical sheriff, and normally we’d assume he was going to sail to a second term this year over two progressive but very underfunded opponents, the jail’s former education coordinator Yvonne Gittelson and Catilin Sara Sepeda, a nurse at the jail, but that was before one of his top deputies was caught last week photographing the home of a jail employee with a yard sign for his opponent, under the cover of night. It may be too late-breaking to make a difference, but that’s the kind of scandal that can seriously hurt a campaign.

Suffolk County (Boston)

Steven Tompkins (i) vs. Sandy Zamor-Calixte

Last summer, 4 people died at the Suffolk County jail. Steve Tompkins simply should not be sheriff after that. We don’t care how he tries to explain it away, that should be the end of his time as sheriff. Unfortunately, reality rarely bends to the will of what should and shouldn’t be, and he’s probably getting reelected. Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department Chief of External Affairs and Communications Sandy Zamor-Calixte is trying, and she’d clearly be an upgrade from the way things are currently run, but she’s way outgunned financially. Once Elizabeth Warren and Michelle Wu endorsed him, it was over.