(Never a dull moment 'round here! - promoted by David)
The Herald reports:Cambridge city councilor Anthony Galluccio abruptly dropped out the race for state senate today, saying he wanted to avoid a "divisive" battle with Sen. Jarrett Barrios.
Galluccio, a former Cambridge mayor, denied that recent revelations about a pair of drunk driving convictions and a suspicious late-night crash in December were a factor in his decision. I'm not very surprised, I've been at least half-expecting this ever since Barrios decided to run for re-election. We can speculate about whether or not the car crash was "a factor" in his decision, but I would've had the same expectation even if he'd been completely exonerated with no further suspicion.
We've had a fascinating season of phantom elections here in Middlesex County this winter... |
| We started out with four candidates for Middlesex DA, one of whom was opening up a state rep seat in Melrose, and the other opening a state senate seat. Initially, three candidates were going to run for that senate seat, one of them opening up a state rep seat in Cambridge. Two of them were Cambridge city councilors, leading to the high likelihood that we'd have an open seat on the council for next year's election. And candidates were beginning to line up for the state rep seats in Melrose and Cambridge, waiting for the official announcements.
Supporters began to line up behind candidates, and activists looked on with hope and fear and the many opportunities but also the prospect of so many campaigns all at once to demand their time :)
And then, one by one, candidates dropped out, or decided not to run for higher office. And now we're left with all of the legislators involved in this drama running for re-election to their current seats, unopposed, one candidate for DA, and the high likelihood of all 9 incumbents on the Cambridge City Council staying put. All of the decisions have been made, and we didn't even have a primary, or a caucus.
That doesn't quite mean democracy didn't happen. The candidates campaigned, raised money, spoke to citizens groups, and courted the support of activists. People got involved, and their involvement affected candidates' prospects, and their decisions. All in all, though, it's quite the anticlimax! |
