Keller @ Large: Primary election results to keep an eye on in Massachusetts
BOSTON -- We're two weeks away from primary night here in Massachusetts. More than 630,000 voters have asked for mail-in ballots this year, and about a third of them have already been returned.
Primary contests traditionally draw relatively low turnout, but that doesn't mean there's nothing at stake.
If you care about the future of the Massachusetts GOP, the gubernatorial race between Geoff Diehl and Chris Doughty is where the action is. Maura Healey's competitors in the Democratic primary dropped out months ago, leaving Doughty, a Charlie Baker-like technocrat, to run an uphill battle with the Trump-endorsed Diehl for the party nod.
"For the last 30 years, these unenrolled voters in Massachusetts have voted for people just like me," said Doughty in a July debate on the Howie Carr radio show that was the only direct encounter between the two candidates. Doughty claims that appeal makes him the more electable candidate in November.
But Diehl has enjoyed comfortable leads in the polling, as the party's pro-Trump wing continues to flex its muscles. "That's the really exciting part of this campaign, a red wave as we've all known nationally, right here in Massachusetts," said Diehl during the debate.
Despite the lack of a gubernatorial contest, Democratic primary voters will have some choices: between transportation activist Chris Dempsey and State Sen. Diana DiZoglio in the Auditor's race; former Boston City Councillor Andrea Campbell, and attorneys Shannon Liss-Riordan and Quentin Palfrey for Attorney General; Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, State Rep. Tami Gouveia and State Sen. Eric Lesser for Lieutenant Governor, and former Boston NAACP President Tanisha Sullivan challenging longtime Secretary of State Bill Galvin.
Galvin is the only male incumbent running on September 6th. How he and the three other men fare against five female candidates could be a marker of how far women have come in Massachusetts politics - or of how far they still have to go.
Two of the more interesting local races are happening right here in Boston.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, Governor Baker's appointee to serve out the term of Rachael Rollins, is facing Boston City Councillor Ricardo Arroyo in a race that will be somewhat of a referendum on the prosecution priorities Rollins pursued.
And the four-candidate race for the open Roxbury-area state senate seat features a generation gap between two older civic leaders, including former State Senator Dianne Wilkerson and former federal housing official Miniard Culpepper, and two younger state reps, Niko Elugardo and Liz Miranda.
In both races, there's no Republican running so win the primary and you're in.
Don't forget to apply for and mail in or deliver your ballot, or go to the polls on September 6th. Then join me and the entire WBZ news team that night to watch your vote count.
