In regionwide races voted in a Democratic primary held Tuesday, Cambridge and Somerville went for Marian Ryan for Middlesex district attorney and agreed on reelecting Ed Markey to his U.S. Senate seat, in agreement with the wider vote. In Cambridge, voters wanted Katherine Clark reelected to her U.S. House seat, also matching districtwide results. Where things diverged was in Diann Baylis for governor’s councilor against incumbent Terrence Kennedy – who kept his seat with Somerville bucking the trend.
These are unofficial results. With no known Republican or third-party candidates named for November’s general election, it’s likely this primary is the last Somerville voters need to consider issues around the DA’s office, council race and Clark’s return to the House and her role as minority whip. Markey will go on to face Republican John Deaton of Bolton in November.
There were 17,250 ballots cast in Somerville out of 54,377 registered voters, for 31 percent turnout.
There were 20,206 votes cast in Cambridge out of 70,250 registered voters, for 29 percent turnout.
Middlesex district attorney
David Solet, 49, a Cambridge resident, worked under 13-year incumbent Marian Ryan as a prosecutor and cold-case investigator, but quit to run against his boss, saying she was letting politics influence her decisions. He framed himself as an apolitical alternative who will make decisions based solely on the law, and drew many endorsements; a spokesperson for Ryan’s campaign team said that she joined other incumbent attorney generals in refusing to accept endorsements from police unions. The county encompasses 847 square miles and 54 cities and towns, and at 1.6 million is the biggest in New England in population.
In Somerville, the vote went 10,808 for Ryan, for 74 percent of the vote. Solet got 3,731 votes, or 26 percent.
In Cambridge, the vote went 11,800 for Ryan, for 68 percent of the vote. Solet got 5,636 votes, or 32 percent.
Solet released a statement at around 11 p.m.: “We do not have complete numbers, but we have enough numbers to know this is not our night,” he said.
“For us, this race started with us at zero. We had no name recognition, no people, no money, no office. We committed ourselves to raise important issues, and won the support of tens of thousands of people across Middlesex County. We’re proud of the race we ran, and thankful for the support of The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and more than 50 police, fire and labor unions who represent the working men and women who help protect our communities,” Solet said. “We plan to capitalize on the support we earned and get back to work tomorrow to continue raising these issues to fight for the changes we championed during this campaign.”
U.S. Senate
Incumbent Ed Markey, 80, was widely favored to win over challenger U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (an early primary challenger, teacher and sportswriter Alex Rikleen, dropped out) and go on to the November general election and likely another six-year term. Moulton, 47, polled badly behind the incumbent in largely blue Massachusetts, where Markey has long been an energetic and popular campaigner and Moulton lost favor over remarks seen as throwing trans people under the bus.
In Somerville, the vote went 12,972 for Markey, for 80 percent of the vote. Moulton got 3,254 votes, or 20 percent.
In Cambridge, the vote went 14,339 for Markey, for 76 percent of the vote. Moulton got 5,477 votes, or 29 percent.
Statewide, the percentage was just over 69 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press. Moulton conceded the race within an hour of polls closing, media reported.
U.S. House
Incumbent Katherine Clark, 62, faced Jonathan Paz, 32, of Waltham, founder of an immigrant aid group called the Fuerza Community Defense Network; and Tarik Samman, 27, a Harvard Law School researcher in Cambridge. Clark has been in Congress since 2013, and survived this latest challenge handily with 74 percent of the vote overall to the 20 percent won by Paz and 7 percent won by Samman.
In Cambridge, where there were 10,147 ballots cast in the three-way race, Clark took 7,209 of them for 71 percent of the vote. Paz’s turnout in Cambridge roughly matched the wider results at 1,909 ballots and 19 percent of the vote. Samman, the Cantabrigian, saw a bump to 1,019 votes, or 10 percent.
Sixth Governor’s Council District
This district covers Somerville and nearly all of Cambridge as well as parts of the cities of Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, Malden, Medford, Melrose and Revere and towns of Lynnfield, Marblehead, Nahant, Reading, Saugus, Stoneham, Swampscott, Wakefield, Winchester and Winthrop. The seat has been held by Terrence Kennedy since 2000, but he drew a challenger this year in immigration attorney Diann Baylis.
Kennedy won reelection over Baylis, getting 58 percent of the district’s overall voter compared with the 42 percent won by Baylis.
Baylis declared in February, arguing that while most immigration proceedings take place in federal courts, there are important determinations at the state level, including for special immigrant juvenile status and a path to citizenship for unaccompanied minors. That’s done with probate courts affected by the eight-member council – it provides advice and consent on gubernatorial judicial appointments, pardons and commutation as well as playing a role in the certification of state election results. Baylis’ knowledge of the courts and progressivism won the endorsement of the Somerville Democrats, Somerville mayor Jake Wilson and Somerville city councilor Ben Wheeler last month.
The cities diverged in this election:
In Somerville, the vote went 7,270 for Baylis, for 53 percent of the vote. Kennedy got 6,491 votes, or 47 percent.
In Cambridge, the vote went 7,458 votes for Kennedy, or 56 percent of the vote. Baylis got 5,813 votes, or 44 percent.
