Massachusetts Primary Preview Part II

the state House

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 the first half of the preview, covering everything but the state House, here. By the way, did you know that the Massachusetts House of Representatives has had a giant wooden carved fish named the Sacred Cod hanging in its chambers since the 1700s? Fucking weird, man.

State House

4th Barnstable (Cape Cod)

Sarah Peake (i) vs. Jack Stanton

This extremely Massachusetts race pits one of the chamber’s few out gay members, from gay capital Provincetown, no less, against a socialist lobster fisherman. Sarah Peake is honestly a decent representative and doesn’t particularly “deserve” a primary challenge in the same way many members of the legislature do (beyond the baseline of most reps being beholden to House leadership and dismissive of allowing the public to see what goes on in the chamber.) Instead, this race is about Jack Stanton, who has worked with Act on Mass and the Bernie Sanders campaign in the past, and is running on a fantastic platform that includes Medicare for All, aggressive climate goals, and clamping down on short-term rentals undermining the economic base in this tourism-heavy section of the state. Stanton, who has been endorsed by the Cape Cod DSA and Run for Something, has experience campaigning after running in a different, Republican, district on the Cape in 2018; he’s also raised over $25,000 for this campaign. Peake has responded with concern, sending out batches of glossy mailers and even reversing her prior refusal to acknowledge Stanton by agreeing to a last-minute radio debate on 9/1. 

1st Berkshire (Rural Berkshires)

John Barrett (i) vs. Paula Kingsbury-Evans 

The state House is something of a political second life for John Barrett, who was first elected to county office in 1976, and spent 25 years (1984-2009) as mayor of North Adams (pop. 13,000), before a lost reelection and failed comeback attempt convinced him to try state government instead when a special election was called for this seat in 2017. Barrett, one of the legislature's most forgettable members—an impressive feat considering the competition—is now 74, over a half-century older than his competitor, 22-year-old Paula Kingsbury-Evans, who filed to run before she even graduated college. Like many other legislative challengers this year, Kingsbury-Evans supports the state taking bolder environmental action and implementing single-payer healthcare. Barrett, meanwhile, is one of many Democratic candidates backed by Massachusetts Majority, a PAC formed by allies of Republican Governor Charlie Baker to promote his legislative allies and defeat progressives.

9th Bristol (South coast - Dartmouth)

Christopher Markey (i) vs. Cameron Costa

It's not every day the MA AFL-CIO tries to knock out an incumbent, but Christopher Markey convinced them to try. Markey is one of the most conservative members of the House, and, particularly relevant to labor interests, he was one of the few Democratic No votes on moving the Fair Share Amendment (which will impose a 4% millionaire’s tax, if the state votes for it) to the November ballot, a top priority of many labor unions. His conservatism doesn’t just show on labor issues—he also opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses, and has a checkered record, at best, on abortion rights. Even after the Dobbs decision, he’s standing by his previous vote against codifying abortion rights into the state constitution over his belief that it went too far. Cameron Costa, who at 20 years old would easily be the youngest member of the legislature, isn’t running as a progressive firebrand (Southeast Mass doesn’t really have those), but he’s been very clear about his support of abortion rights and the Fair Share amendment. Markey, meanwhile, is one of the Democrats backed by Massachusetts Majority, a PAC formed by allies of Republican Governor Charlie Baker to promote his legislative allies and defeat progressives.

10th Bristol (South coast - Fairhaven)

William Straus (i) vs. Richard Trapilo

Who is Richard Trapilo? In his own words:

Trapilo described himself as a “moderate-conservative Democrat’’ with traditional values.

“I kneel at church and I stand to salute the flag,” he said.

He views today’s Democratic party as “so progressive that working families have lost touch with them. They’ve gone far, far too progressive for regular working families.”

Cool. 

While we’d normally just laugh at a retired business executive running in a Democratic primary while calling the state he lives in “Taxachusetts”, he has self-funded $20,000, which buys him a modicum of seriousness as a candidate in a district this small, and this historically moderate. But while Trapilo may be pissed off at state Rep. William Straus for being vaguely center-left, that doesn’t look like a popular opinion, and Trapilo’s attempts to weaponize police reform and the gas tax haven’t gone anywhere.

4th Essex (Lawrence and Mathuen)

William Lantigua vs. James McCarty vs. Estela Reyes

William Lantigua has a long, complicated history in Lawrence politics that’s too much to fit into any sort of summary. The man went from political outsider to independent state house rep, to the first Hispanic mayor of Lawrence, to the controversy-riddled subject of a federal probe who potentially married the key witness against him to get her testimony struck down, and then lost reelection in one of the nastiest campaigns anyone can remember. There was a special section of Boston.com just for his controversies. Willie’s made 3 comeback attempts since losing in 2013, and two of them got him within inches of winning, most recently in 2018—he’s no spent former politician running out of boredom, he’s a very real threat in this race, even if he’s less “campaigning” and more “hoping people recognize the name on the ballot”. Lawrence may be only about half the district, but the part of Lawrence that’s included is unambiguously his base (or at least it was as of 2017).

There are two non-Lantigua candidates, both serious. Estela Reyes is also experienced in Lawrence municipal government, having served on the city council since 2011, while James McCarty is a City Councilor for Methuen. There’s a concerning lack of consolidation behind either opponent—Methuen politicians are backing McCarty, while unions and other statewide groups are spending for Reyes. Both of them seem fine. Nothing special, but clearly better than Lantigua.

5th Essex (Cape Ann)

Ann-Margaret Ferrante (i) vs. Nathaniel Mulcahy

State Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante is a standard, moderate-ish Democrat who’s represented the fishing and resort towns of Cape Ann since 2009. She faces Nathaniel Mulcahy, the chair of the Rockport Democratic Town Committee, who’s very much challenging her from the left. Mulcahy is an idiosyncratic politician who ran for Congress last cycles as “a bold Bernie Sanders Democrat”, but also supports more military spending locally and pledged in that campaign to only serve one term if elected (huh?)

7th Essex (Salem)

Gene Collins vs. Manny Cruz vs. Domingo Dominguez

Manny Cruz, a staffer for outgoing state Rep. Paul Tucker who also serves on the Salem School Committee, has the Salem establishment firmly behind him, including Kim Driscoll. However, his issue positions are great (single-payer healthcare, tuition-free public college, taxes on the rich, living wages, all the good stuff), and it’s not just Salem politicos who want Cruz in the legislature; organized labor and progressive groups are backing him as well. His main opponent, Salem City Councilor At-Large Domingo Dominguez, is not as great, backing the preservation of some abortion restrictions and expressing hesitancy about taxing corporate profits. Cruz has significantly outraised and outspent Dominguez, but Dominguez’s campaign hasn’t been fundraising terribly or anything, so he could still pull it off. A third candidate, former Salem Planning Board member Gene Collins, hasn’t had much of a presence in the race, and he hasn’t reported raising or spending anything.

8th Essex (North Shore - Marblehead and Swampscott)

Jenny Armini vs. Diann Slavit Baylis vs. Tristan Smith vs. Theresa Tauro vs. Doug Thompson vs. Polly Titcomb

Oh, look who’s running! Iiiiiit’s…everybody. Really, we shouldn’t complain—Massachusetts has stricter ballot access laws that keep most joke candidates off the ballot, so this would be a normal field in a state like Tennessee or Michigan with easier ballot access. Still, it is a lot for a district this small, and, infuriatingly, out of 6 options none are particularly progressive. Based solely on Progressive Mass questionnaire responses, either attorney Doug Thompson or former Swampscott Select Board member Polly Titcomb might be the best of the bunch, but Thompson has self-funded $40,000 and sure doesn’t talk like he’s going to be pushing progressive legislation in office, while Titcomb has the opposite problem of barely raising any money and is an underdog. The favorite here is probably Tristan Smith, an insanely well-connected recent law school graduate who has pulled in endorsements from Ed Markey, Barney Frank, and John Tierney.

16th Essex (Lawrence)

Marcos Devers (i) vs. Francisco Paulino

Marcos Devers isn’t overtly terrible like his longtime rival William Lantigua (see 4th Essex), but he is mediocre, rarely backing any progressive idea that doesn’t already have overwhelming support from the Democratic caucus, and sometimes voting with Republicans. Devers still looks like the better choice here because his opponent, Lawrence Human Rights Commissioner Francisco Paulino, is supported by too many worrying figures: the charter school lobby, Lawrence’s business community, and moderate Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña.

8th Hampden (Chicopee)

Shirley Arriaga vs. Joel McAuliffe

Chicopee City Councilor Joel McAuliffe and former Richard Neal staffer Shirley Arriaga differ little on the issues, and this race has turned into a tug of war between various political factions in Chicopee. Outgoing state Sen. Eric Lesser is backing McAuliffe, who happens to be a former staffer of his, and McAuliffe is also seeing some support from traditional power brokers in the city; meanwhile Latino leaders and outgoing state Rep. Eric Wagner are supporting Arriaga. Labor is backing McAuliffe, but that’s probably just because they like incumbents. Maura Healey is backing Arriaga, but her motives for doing so are unclear. What does all of this mean for how they would govern? Unclear—again, this race is more about local politics than anything else.

11th Hampden (Springfield)

Bud Williams (i) vs. Jynai McDonald

Bud Williams is another former local politician who decided to make the jump to state politics after realizing local politics was a dead end. Williams served twice on the Springfield City Council: first from 1993 to 2008, before he left to make an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2009, and again from 2011 to 2017. Rather than trying to advance in city politics in his second city council tenure, Williams just ran for the state House as soon as his district’s seat opened up. Since winning and moving over to the legislature, Williams has been a thoroughly underwhelming legislator, and he’s cast (and defended) votes against abortion rights. Community activist Jynai McDonald’s campaign has apparently been dominated by a personal grudge against Williams and his chief of staff, Springfield City Councilor Malo Brown, whom McDonald unsuccessfully challenged for his city council seat. However, she does correctly object to Williams’s anti-abortion votes, which makes her the better candidate. (Charlie Baker’s Massachusetts Majority PAC has spent on Williams’s behalf, never a good sign.)

6th Middlesex (Framingham)

Dhruba Sen vs. Margareth Shepard vs. Priscila Sousa

Maria Robinson, a fantastic progressive, is leaving this seat to take a job in the federal government, and replacing her will either be Framingham City Councilor Margareth Shepard or Framingham School Committee Chair Priscila Sousa, both of whom are members of the large and growing Brazilian population in Framingham. The biggest issue in this race may once again be education, as the charter school lobby has spent thousands to promote Sousa, and teachers’ unions have spent in favor of Shepard, though not as much. Even aside from that, Shepard is clearly the more progressive of the two, also touting endorsements from Progressive Mass and multiple environmental groups (and she hasn’t said that taxes are too high.)

8th Middlesex (Western Boston suburbs)

James Arena-DeRosa vs. Connor Degan 

Nonprofit and government consultant James Arena-DeRosa and Hopkinton Town Clerk Connor Degan are equally matched in this race in terms of fundraising and endorsements, and are both quite progressive, the biggest policy difference between them we could find being that Arena-DeRosa supports expanding voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds and prisoners, while Degan opposes those groups being allowed to vote.

9th Middlesex (Boston suburb of Waltham)

Thomas Stanley (i) vs. Heather May

Thomas Stanley has been in the House for 22 years, and in that time had exactly one primary challenger. While few representatives from MetroWest are conservatives like you’d find in some other parts of the state, Stanley’s voting record has looked more and more moderate compared to the rest of the state as time has gone on. The most glaring example of this was when he voted against the 2020 police reform package passed in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests. Now, facing another Democrat for the first time since 2004, he seems uninterested in courting progressives, and progressives are who Waltham Democratic City Committee Chair Heather May is hoping will propel her to victory today. Though she’s raised considerably less money than Stanley, May, who supports single-payer healthcare, a public bank, and criminal justice reform, has strong connections in the world of Waltham politics.

14th Middlesex (Northwest Boston suburbs)

Vivian Birchall vs. Simon Cataldo vs. Patricia Wojtas

Progressive incumbent Rep. Tami Gouveia is leaving this seat open to run for governor, and both candidates to replace her appear poised to continue her work once in office—“appear” being the key word here. While nonprofit leader Vivian Birchall and lawyer Simon Cataldo both answer the same on policy questions and present themselves as strong progressives, Cataldo is one of the candidates backed by Charlie Baker’s Massachusetts Majority PAC, something he hasn’t disowned, despite personally raising far more money than they spent for him. That’s probably why nearly every progressive organization in the state has endorsed Birchall instead.

16th Middlesex (Lowell and Chelmsford)

Zoe Dzineku vs. Rodney Elliott

Former Lowell Mayor and 26-year Lowell City Councilor Rodney Elliott has the inside track for a district that’s mostly his city of Lowell, even if ⅓ of it is in the neighboring town of Chelmsford. As expected for someone who’s spent half his life in municipal politics, Elliott is a moderate, cozy with local establishment interests. So cozy, in fact, that he slipped up recently and made the (basically true) claim that the city’s police department was supporting his campaign, realizing after the interview how insanely illegal that would be if it were official and clarifying that he’d only meant he got a lot of support from the officers. Elliott is the “more of the same” choice in a very obvious way, which is why we’re hoping Zoe Dzineku, a former staffer to state Sen. Edward Kennedy and current employment agency owner, can pull off the upset. Dzineku, an immigrant and strong progressive, is supported by more than just the usual suspects of progressive advocacy groups in this primary—the SEIU and AFT have both broken with the AFL-CIO and building trades unions to back her. Elliott, meanwhile, is one of the candidates backed by Baker’s Massachusetts Majority PAC.

18th Middlesex (Lowell)

Rady Mom (i) vs. Tara Hong vs. Dominik Hok Y Lay

It’s a sign of the political strength of Lowell’s Cambodian community that only a few years after electing the first Cambodian representative in the state, Rady Mom, he’s now locked in a competitive primary, and all three candidates are Cambodian. Rady Mom was first elected in 2015, and has had few easy reelections. His 2018 reelection, which he won with a narrow plurality, was marred by his opponent, Mom’s former campaign manager, accusing him of assault. Mom’s softness (or, some claimed, warmth) towards the dictatorship in Cambodia caused fissures in Lowell’s Cambodian political community at the time, though he avoided a similar challenge in 2020. On Beacon Hill, Mom has been a fairly moderate member, and was one of the Democratic no votes on the police reform package passed by the House in 2020, as well as a rare Democratic no vote on strengthened gun control laws this year. His two opponents are Tara Hong, who came to America from Cambodia in 2013, and now, just out of college, is running for House as a progressive reformer, backed by a few progressive groups including the local Solidarity Lowell; and Dominik Lay, a Lowell School Committeemember. If Mom could survive 2018, then he’s probably favored this year, but that’s far from guaranteed.

21st Middlesex (Boston suburbs of Burlington and Bedford)

Kenneth Gordon (i) vs. Timothy Sullivan

Timothy Sullivan is one of the longest of long-shot progressive challengers this year. He hasn’t raised a lot of money, and while the incumbent, Kenneth Gordon, may be on the moderate side, he doesn’t stick out like some do (he even filled out the Progressive Mass questionnaire, though his answers leave something to be desired.) Additionally, the farther-flung suburbs of Boston you find in this district are tough territory to challenge an incumbent in. Still, Sullivan, who is the executive director of PHENOM (a group which pushes for free public college) is a good candidate and worth a second look. We may be seeing more from him in the future.

27th Middlesex (Somerville)

Erika Uyterhoeven (i) vs. Jason Mackey

Erika Uyterhoeven is one of the furthest left members of the legislature. With endorsements from everyone from DSA to labor unions, she won this seat, in the heart of Somerville, in 2020, and has stood by her principles in the two years since. Jason Mackey is, uh… certainly on the ballot. He says he’ll “be a better advocate for Somerville’s progressive values at the State House” but doesn’t really expand on how he believes anything different from Uyterhoeven, and couldn’t even be bothered to fill out the Progressive Mass questionnaire, generally the lowest bar for calling yourself a progressive in a Massachusetts legislative race. We’d normally suspect he’s a cynical business-backed moderate posturing as progressive to knock out one of their enemies, but he’s barely raised any money, so it’s probably not that either. Either way, his prospects in this race look dim.

28th Middlesex (Everett)

Joseph McGonagle Jr. (i) vs. Guerline Alcy

Joseph McGonagle isn’t going to hold onto this seat forever. A relic of the older white establishment, McGonagle represents a majority-minority city that has been getting more and more progressive over time. After his initial 2014 election, he made it through his three reelection primaries 61%-39%, 42-38%, and 61%-39%. It’s only a matter of time. This year, his challenge comes from community activist Guerline Alcy. Alcy came just a few votes away from winning a City Council at-large seat in Everett in 2021. Like in that election, she’s raised very little money, and is relying more on community connections, especially among Everett’s Hatian population, than financial resources. McGonagle is relying on those establishment connections to save him—including funding from Baker’s Massachusetts Majority PAC.

35th Middlesex (Medford)

Paul Donato Sr. (i) vs. Nichole Mossalam

Paul Donato Sr. had a relatively close call in 2020 as a result of his long record of social conservatism, only defeating Nichole Mossalam 56% to 44%. Mossalam, an interfaith outreach official at her mosque and the former co-chair of Our Revolution’s Massachusetts state branch, is back for another go at Donato, who’s taking this primary more seriously than he did in 2020—spending heavily and calling in endorsements, including from Maura Healey. If the rage Democratic voters feel at the Dobbs ruling is trickling down into primary elections, this is one of the first places we’ll see it in the state—Donato’s record of social conservatism extends to abortion, and Planned Parenthood MA has endorsed Mossalam for that reason. (Massachusetts Majority, unsurprisingly, is backing Donato.)

1st Norfolk (Quincy and Randolph)

Bruce Ayers (i) vs. Casey Dooley

Bruce Ayers is a member of the moderate bloc in the legislature, and yet another Democratic no vote on police reform in 2020, though unlike some of the others with a similar resume, the conventional wisdom holds that he can afford to be. He represents the famously moderate south Boston suburbs, and has received little pushback in over two decades in office. Casey Dooley is putting that theory to the test. A LGBTQ+ leader, she was part of the Boston Pride organization, until a badly botched response to the George Floyd protests on the part of its leaders led her to split with them and help found Black Pride Boston, leading to a conflict with Boston Pride, ending with the original organization disbanding under the controversy. She says she was inspired to run after finding out Bruce Ayers voted against gay marraige in 2004. She hasn’t raised much money, but Ayers is still taking her seriously, sending out multiple rounds of mailers to fend her off.

This is as good a place as any to point out the blatant racial gerrymander that the 1st Norfolk district is a part of. Randolph is almost half Black, and nearly as big a House district. For decades, however, it’s been split in two, creating two majority-white districts represented by white politicians, both of whom got to office while losing Randolph in the primary. Dooley is Black and from Randolph, while Ayers is white and from Quincy.

6th Norfolk (Southern Boston suburbs of Canton and Staughton)

William Galvin (i) vs. Tamisha Civil

William Galvin the state representative is not related to William Galvin the Secretary of State, which is amazing because they are otherwise identical. Like his statewide doppelganger, this Galvin has been in office forever (since 1990) and is way to the right of the party consensus by this point in time. He was challenged in 2020 by Tamisha Civil, Victim's Witness Advocate in Suffolk Superior Court, and won 64%-36%. In the intervening two years, he was one of just eight Democrats to vote against putting the Fair Share amendment on the ballot, a position that regular Democratic primary voters are strongly in favor of. Civil is back, once again flanked by progressive groups, hoping to build on her prior campaign. Galvin is one of Baker’s Massachusetts Majority candidates.

9th Norfolk (Southwestern Boston suburbs)

Kevin Kalkut vs. Steve Teehan

It’s exceptionally hard to parse who’s the progressive in this race. Norfolk Select Board member Kevin Kalkut is running as a progressive in this election, but the charter school lobby is spending for him and he proudly lists Democrats for Education Reform as an endorser on his website—odd, to say the least, considering he publicly supports the cap on charter schools. Steve Teehan, meanwhile, has the support of labor unions and some progressive politicians like state Sen. Paul Feeney, but he’s the aide to conservative state Sen. Walter Timilty, and he proudly displays multiple police union endorsements on his campaign materials, something most Massachusetts Democrats won’t do.

15th Norfolk (Brookline)

Tommy Vitolo (i) vs. Raul Fernandez

Tommy Vitolo has been consistently above average for a Democrat in the House during his two terms in the body, though for a representative of eastern Brookline, aka practically Boston, an above-average voting record paired with a friendliness to House leadership may not cut it. Brookline Select Board member Raul Fernandez is challenging him in one of this year’s marquee races. Fernandez and Vitolo admit there’s little daylight between them on policy issues, but they see a huge gulf when it comes to strategy. Though procedural complaints are almost silly in some states, Massachusetts has one of the most top-down state legislatures in the county, and the top always manages to be a dyed-in-the-wool moderate. Vitolo’s support of the way things are done - secret committee votes, backroom negotiations, and freezing out the state’s progressives—have put him at odds with Fernandez and many other Brookline progressives, including 2020 congressional candidate Jesse Mermell, and even Joe Kennedy III. Fernandez has also pulled in labor support from multiple SEIU locals and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. This race has been expensive—over $300,000 of spending for a state house race is rare, but they blew past that number in July. It’s Massachusetts, so Vitolo has the edge here as the incumbent, but no one really knows how this one will turn out.

11th Plymouth (Brockton)

Shirley Asack vs. Rita Mendes

This is more-or-less a new district in the fast-growing city of Brockton, giving progressives an opportunity at a pickup in the generally unfriendly territory of Southeastern Mass. Brockton City Councilor Rita Mendes may be that progressive. Backed by labor and progressive groups, Mendes is also the top fundraiser in the race, all while supporting the entire suite of legislation progressives are hoping to advance in the state house. But to make it there, she’ll have to defeat City Councilor Shirley Asack, an older, distinctly more moderate candidate. The candidates have only had one public forum, hosted by the NAACP, but Asack managed to cram her foot in her mouth during it. When asked what to do about the uptick in white supremacist violence, her response was to deny it was happening in Massachusetts, a statement that apparently sent gasps throughout the crowd.

5th Suffolk (Roxbury and Mid-Dorchester, Boston)

Althea Garrison vs. Danielson Tavares vs. Christopher Worrell

This election, in the heart of Boston, unusually doesn’t really have a progressive option. Christopher Worrell is the brother of Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell, a more moderate member of the body, who is backed by charter school interests. Christopher doesn’t seem much different from his brother. On the other hand, there’s Danielson Tavares, a former member of Marty Walsh’s administration, who derides the left as a “loud” minority of voters. This is the race that perma-candidate Althea Garrison chose to run in this year. We’re excited to see what she picks in 2023. Boston progressives are begrudgingly supporting Worrell in this race; Mayor Michelle Wu, and Councilors Julia Mejia and Ruthzee Louijuene have all endorsed him, though whether they actually want him to win or just want to stay on good terms with his brother are up to you to guess. 

6th Suffolk (Dorchester and Mattapan, Boston)

Russell Holmes (i) vs. Haris Hardaway

Russell Holmes isn’t being entirely fair to himself when he calls himself a “conservative Democrat”. On many issues, police reform especially, he’s well to the left of the Beacon Hill consensus. But when he’s conservative, he gets very conservative. For years he’s been voting against every abortion rights bill that comes to the floor, and if he ever dropped his opposition to gay marriage, he never said so publicly. It makes sense that he’s backed by Massachusetts Majority PAC. We sure hope someone defeats him for reelection before he gets made speaker, but Haris Hardaway, whose slogan is “No Politics...A Greater Boston, Today!” does not inspire confidence from us.

11th Suffolk (Chelsea)

Judith Garcia vs. Roberto Jiménez-Rivera vs. Leo Robinson

Redistricting finally united the majority-Hispanic suburb of Chelsea into one district, a move undoubtedly inspired by the portion of Chelsea nearly outvoting the section of Boston it was grafting to and coming close to unseating an incumbent in 2020. Though City Councilors Judith Garcia and Leo Robinson are both pledging to support progressive policy in office, it’s School Committee member Roberto Jiménez-Rivera who has the left’s attention in this race for the new, open, Chelsea-centrict district. The union-backed candidate is running with the support of just about every progressive and left group in the Boston area except DSA (not for lack of trying, but it’s hard to get an endorsement when you aren’t a member). The bulk of the Chelsea establishment has come down on the side of Judith Garcia, making her Jiménez-Rivera’s top competition and putting Leo Robinson in danger of also-ran status.

15th Suffolk (Roxbury and Jamaica Plains, Boston)

Richard Fierro vs. Roxanne Longoria vs. Sam Montaño vs. Mary Ann Nelson

Although this initially looks like an imposing 4 candidate field, it kind of looks like Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation organizer Sam Montaño is going to run away with it. Montaño, who could be the first non-binary member of the state’s legislature, has been working in the community for years, and has just about everyone in their corner in this race including outgoing state Rep. Nika Elugardo. Mary Ann Nelson has raised literally no money, generally a bad sign for any candidate; Richard Fierro is a grad student with a self-and-family funded moderate campaign in the literal worst district to do that in; and Boston HHS strategic director Roxanne Longoria seems like the best non-Montaño candidate, but even she doesn’t have a whole lot going for her, campaign-wise. Not to count our chickens before they hatch, but we’re looking forward to Rep. Montaño.