Vineyard Backs Deval Patrick
Following Commonwealth Trend, Island Democrats Throw Support to
Gubernatorial Front-Runner in Hotly Contested Primary
By IAN FEIN
Dukes County voters mirrored the rest of the commonwealth and
offered strong support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval L.
Patrick in the state primary election on Tuesday.
A corporate attorney and political newcomer in Massachusetts, Mr.
Patrick captured half of the Democratic votes statewide, and two-thirds
on the Vineyard, to convincingly defeat venture capitalist Christopher
F. Gabrieli and state attorney general Thomas F. Reilly for the party
nomination.
Mr. Patrick will now face current Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who did not
face a primary challenge for the Republican nomination, in the state
election Nov. 7.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/09/22/content/primary_phyllis_brown_sm.jpg" Voters on the Vineyard, however, broke with the statewide trend in
the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. Worcester mayor Timothy
Murray outpaced his opponents with 43 per cent of the commonwealth vote
to join Mr. Patrick on the party ticket, but on the Vineyard garnered
only 18 per cent support. In fact, West Tisbury, Chilmark and Tisbury
were three of the five towns in the state where Mr. Murray gathered the
lowest percentage of Democratic votes.
Island voters preferred Harwich businesswoman Andrea Silbert (with
45 per cent support on the Vineyard) and former Brookline selectman
Deborah Goldberg (37 per cent) for the lieutenant governor nomination.
Statewide, Ms. Goldberg came in second with 34 per cent, and Ms. Silbert
came in third with 23 per cent.
On the Republican ticket this fall, Ms. Healey is running with
former Hampden County state Rep. Reed V. Hillman, who also did not face
a primary challenge for the Republican lieutenant governor nomination.
Turnout across Massachusetts was the highest for any primary since
1990, driven largely by the three-way Democratic governor race -
the most expensive gubernatorial primary campaign in state history. On
the Vineyard, more than 2,700 people - or 22 per cent of
registered voters - turned out at the polls on one of the warmest
days of the month.
Though a majority of Island voters are not enrolled in any political
party, those who cast Democratic primary ballots on Tuesday outnumbered
Republican votes on the Vineyard by a margin of nearly 10-to-one. Only
one person in Aquinnah voted in the Republican primary, compared to 77
who filled out Democratic ballots. Town clerk Carolyn Feltz echoed other
Island election officials in saying the day went smoothly, and that she
was pleased with the primary turnout.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/09/22/content/primary_blodgetts_sm.jpg" In the two contested Republican races for state and U.S. senate
nominations, Dukes County voters were in step with the rest of
Massachusetts.
For the U.S. seat, Kenneth Chase of Belmont earned the opportunity
to face off against longtime Democratic incumbent Sen. Edward M. (Ted)
Kennedy in the general election this fall. Mr. Chase narrowly edged
Wakefield businessman Kevin Scott by only two percentage points
statewide, but garnered stronger support on the Vineyard, with 56 per
cent of the vote.
For the Cape and Islands state senate party nomination, Centerville
attorney Ricardo Barros defeated Nantucket selectman Doug Bennett with
59 per cent of the vote, and will now challenge Democratic incumbent
Sen. Robert O'Leary in the November election. Mr. Bennett lost by
10 percentage points on the Vineyard, but suffered a searing defeat on
his own island, where Nantucket voters chose the Cape attorney over
their own selectman by almost a four-to-one margin.
West Tisbury resident James Powell did not face a Republican primary
race in his second bid for a state representative seat, and for the
second time will face Democratic incumbent Rep. Eric T. Turkington in
the state election this fall.
In another contested Democratic primary race, Cape and Islands
voters went against the grain in selecting a nominee for the
governor's council, an eight-member elected body that approves
gubernatorial judicial appointments. Incumbent councillor Carole A.
Fiola of Fall River fended off a primary challenge from Kelly Kevin
Lydon of Barnstable. And though she carried the southeastern
Massachusetts district with 56 per cent of the vote, the Vineyard and
Nantucket chose Mr. Lydon instead. Ms. Fiola will now face Philip C.
Paleologos, a Republican from New Bedford, this fall.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/09/22/content/primary_numbers_sm.jpg" Secretary of state William Francis Galvin also sailed to victory in
his Democratic primary race, defeating John Bonifaz of Boston with 83
per cent of the vote statewide, and 79 per cent on the Vineyard. With no
Republican candidate for the position, Mr. Galvin will seek to continue
his 12-year tenure against Green-Rainbow candidate Jill Stein in the
fall election.
The next seven weeks likely will see a grueling, divisive race for
Massachusetts governor. On Tuesday night Mr. Patrick and Ms. Healey
squared off against each other even before all of the primary votes had
been counted. Independent candidate Christy Mihos and Green-Rainbow
candidate Grace Ross also are running for governor, but are not expected
to upset the two major party nominees.
The election may bring either the first female or first
African-American to serve as governor of commonwealth. Mr. Patrick this
week became the first African-American to secure a major party
nomination for the state's highest post.
Massachusetts voters will also have a clear choice between the two
party candidates. In Ms. Healey, they have an integral part of the
Republican political establishment - the second in command under
the current administration of Gov. Mitt Romney, who did not seek
reelection and is widely assumed to be weighing a presidential run in
2008. Republicans have held the Massachusetts gubernatorial seat for the
last 16 years.
In Mr. Patrick, they have a former U.S. justice department civil
rights attorney who is running a grass-roots campaign as a political
outsider.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/09/22/content/primary_stuffin_sm.jpg" The proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm is shaping up to be a central
issue in the gubernatorial race. As lieutenant governor, Ms. Healey has
joined with other Romney officials in their staunch opposition to the
Cape Wind proposal, while Mr. Patrick was the first gubernatorial
candidate of any party to support the offshore renewable energy project.
Mr. Patrick during his primary victory speech in Boston on Tuesday night
took a swipe at the current administration's opposition to Cape
Wind.
Before this week, some people speculated that Mr. Patrick's
position on the wind farm might hurt his standing in the Cape region,
where public opinion on the project is more divided than it is
statewide. But Mr. Patrick on Tuesday swept every town on the Cape and
Islands by a substantial margin.
Mr. Reilly, who as attorney general opposes the Cape Wind project,
came in second among the three gubernatorial candidates in the region,
but still saw less support here than he did statewide. Mr. Reilly
garnered 19 per cent of the Vineyard vote, compared to Mr.
Gabrieli's 15 per cent. Statewide, Mr. Gabrieli earned 27 per
cent, compared to 23 per cent for Mr. Reilly.
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