It was a nail-biter of an evening for a number of shut county-level races in Massachusetts, with one district legal professional’s workplace showing to carry for the state GOP, and a DA’s workplace and a sheriff’s seat showing to flip for the Democrats.
In certainly one of solely two district legal professional contests Tuesday, Republican Tim Cruz, Plymouth County’s high prosecutor for greater than twenty years, held a commanding lead over ACLU legal professional Rahsaan Hall, a Democrat, after 1 a.m. — 111,585 to 59,551 — with 75 % of precincts reporting.
“I think that we really found out exactly what it is the people in Plymouth County want,” Cruz mentioned on WATD Radio earlier within the night. “They want to be safe in their homes, they want to be secure in the street. I think they’re happy with the work that we’ve been doing here, and we’ll go forward from there and continue to do that job.”
The veteran prosecutor mentioned his opponent “wanted to either defund or abolish the police” and mentioned there have been main cities elsewhere within the U.S. that elected “progressive” district attorneys and noticed escalating numbers of violent crimes.
“And they don’t want that here, and I don’t blame them,” he mentioned of Plymouth County voters.
Cruz is ready to develop into the one Republican prosecutor in Massachusetts.
Longtime Cape and Islands DA Michael O’Keefe didn’t run for reelection this cycle — and Democrats had been capable of flip that workplace for the primary time in a long time.
While the AP had not known as the shut race Wednesday morning — it stood at an 11-point margin with round three quarters of precincts reporting — WCAI reporter Eve Zuckoff wrote at 11:08 p.m. that Republican Dan Higgins had conceded to Democrat Robert Galibois.
The candidates are each Barnstable residents and each had expertise as assistant district attorneys within the DA’s workplace; Galibois was a Cape and Islands prosecutor earlier than opening his personal non-public observe.
Among the a number of uncontested DA races, Rep. Paul Tucker of Salem was elected as high prosecutor in Essex County, the place he’ll substitute retiring DA Jonathan Blodgett. Former prosecutor and protection legal professional Timothy Shugrue, who knocked off incumbent Berkshire County DA Andrea Harrington within the Democratic main, additionally coasted to election unopposed.
In a bitter contest for Bristol County sheriff, Democrat Paul Heroux, the mayor of Attleboro, declared victory over Republican incumbent Thomas Hodgson within the wee hours of Wednesday morning, WJAR-TV’s Jodi Reed reported after 1 a.m.
Hodgson has served as sheriff for 1 / 4 century. He was appointed appearing sheriff by Gov. William Weld earlier than profitable his first election to the publish in 1998. A Trump-aligned Republican, he additionally scored the endorsement of reasonable Gov. Charlie Baker.
The AP was reporting Heroux, a former state consultant, forward of Hodgson by round 3,300 votes at 1:30 a.m. with round 67 % of precincts reporting.
On Cape Cod, the open race for sheriff of Barnstable County was caught in a single-digit margin between Republican Rep. Tim Whelan and Democrat Donna Buckley, a former common counsel within the sheriff’s workplace.
Around 20 minutes to midnight, WCAI’s Ryan Bray reported that Whelan “says the race continues” whereas awaiting outcomes from three cities. WCAI declared Buckley the winner by 7:30 a.m., and retiring Republican Sheriff Jim Cummings tweeted out his congratulations to Buckley, saying she could be Barnstable’s thirty fifth sheriff. “The Men and Women of the BCSO will continue to do the difficult work of corrections and look forward to this new chapter. #SheriffBuckley,” he wrote..
Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis, a Republican who beforehand served within the House, was keeping off Democratic challenger David Fontaine by greater than 35,000 votes early Wednesday morning, with outcomes nonetheless being tabulated.
And Nantucket Sheriff James Perelman, a Democrat, disregarded a problem from unbiased David Aguiar with practically seven instances his opponent’s vote depend.
The eight-member Governor’s Council, an elected physique that has last approval energy over the governor’s judicial and quasi-judicial appointments, is poised to stay all-Democrat when the Healey administration takes workplace in January.
The 4 incumbent Governor’s Council members going through Republican challengers — Councilors Robert Jubinville of Milton, Christopher Iannella Jr. of Jamaica Plain, Eileen Duff of Gloucester, and Paul DePalo of Worcester — all held sizeable leads early Wednesday morning, though the AP had solely known as a victory in Iannella’s race.
The closest of these contests appeared to be Duff’s and DePalo’s.
Duff was practically 40,000 votes forward of Michael Walsh, a Republican legal professional from Lynnfield who represented MassGOP Chairman James Lyons and others of their court docket problem of the brand new mail-in voting regulation earlier this yr. And DePalo was greater than 38,000 votes forward of Sturbridge businessowner Gary Galonek.
Democrat Tara Jacobs, a North Adams School Committee member, held an almost 45,000-vote lead over former welfare fraud investigator John Comerford of Palmer, a Republican, within the race to fill the open Western Massachusetts seat that retired decide Mary Hurley is vacating.
Councilors Joseph Ferreira, Marilyn Pettito Devaney and Terry Kennedy had been all unopposed Tuesday.
— Sam Doran / State House News Service
Source: www.bostonherald.com”