This hasn't been your regular sleepy primary election season thanks to the very ugly Suffolk County District Attorney Democratic Party race.
The primary is Tuesday, September 6, but mail-in voting is ongoing and can be submitted until 8 pm on Sept. 6. For those who voted with mail-in ballots, you can track your vote via the state's website.
Not sure where you should vote? The state's website can help you figure that out.
In the Democratic Party primary there are elections for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer (uncontested), auditor, Congress (7th & 8th districts are both uncontested), governor's councilor (uncontested, state senator (2nd Suffolk District), state representative (15th Suffolk), district attorney, and sheriff.
In the Republican Party primary there are contested races for nominees for governor, lieutenant governor, Congress 8th district. The governor's race is between Geoff Diehl and Chris Doughty. Diehl is a former state rep and is endorsed by Donald Trump. Diehl avoided debating Doughty. The lieutenant governor primary race is between two former state reps: Leah Allen and Kate Campanale. Robert Burke and Hamilton Rodrigues are facing each other in 8th Congressional district primary, and the winner will face Congressman Stephen Lynch, who is unopposed.
Let's head over to the Democratic Party primary.
The ballot says that Maura Healey is facing Sonia Chang-Díaz, but Chang-Díaz dropped out of the race because she believed she couldn't win. It will be interested to see how many votes she garners.
The lieutenant governor race is between former Salem mayor Kim Driscoll, former state rep Tami Gouveia, and current state senator Eric Lesser.
The attorney general's race is between former Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell and Shannon Erika Liss-Riordan. Quentin Palfrey is on the ballot, but dropped out recently seeing they couldn't win.
Can current NAACP Boston president Tanisha Sullivan beat longtime incumbent William Galvin in the secretary of the state race? He just keeps going.
In the auditor race it looks like Christopher Dempsey is favored to beat Diana DiZoglio.
Then we get into the meatier races.
Let's start with the state rep race in the 15th Suffolk District. There are five candidates: Richard Fierro, Roxanne Longoria, Samantha Montaño, and Mary Ann Nelson. Read Jamaica Plain News' coverage of a JP Progressives' forum for this race.
The Second Suffolk senate race is between Miniard Culpepper, current state rep Nika Elugardo, James Grant, current state rep Liz Miranda, and former state senator Dianne Wilkerson. Elugardo has represented Jamaica Plain for two terms as a state rep. Current longtime state rep Liz Malia, who's retiring instead of running again, endorsed Miranda. Wilkerson was the first Black woman to serve in the Massachusetts senate, but then later served prison time for eight counts of felony extortion. Here is Jamaica Plain News' coverage of a JP Progressives' forum between the candidates.
The sheriff's race is between incumbent Steven Tompkins and Sandy Zamor-Calixte.
Here is video of the JP Progressives forum for the sheriff's race and the Suffolk County DA's race.
The DA's race has been really ugly, and for many people, there isn't a good candidate to choose. The race on the ballot is between current DA Kevin Hayden, who was appointed to the position after Rachael Rollins left to become US Attorney for Massachusetts, and current District 5 Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo.
The Boston Globe has done excellent reporting on both individuals and found unsettling information about both of them. Hayden's stalled prosecution of a case against two former MBTA cops, one of which who allegedly pulled a gun on a motorist, and subsequent mishandling of the case, has led to a belief that there was a coverup of the case by Hayden.
For Arroyo, the Globe discovered that the Boston Police investigated him twice for alleged sexual assaults when he was a teenager. When asked about it by the Globe, Arroyo said that was the first time he had ever heard of the charges. But within hours called one of the alleged victims. While Arroyo has denied the allegations, one of the victims felt that she needed to speak out and say that everything in the police report is accurate. After the woman spoke out numerous politicians pulled their endorsements of Arroyo including US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Congresswoman Pressley, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.