in the redrawn 24th Middlesex House District, Arlington's own Sue Sheffler formerly a maacher on the School Committee has pulled papers to run for the seat.
The district has been redrawn to include Arlington Precinct's 8, 10 & 12 all known for heavy democratic turnout. So presumably, Sheffler starts with a strong geographic base within the district. She also benefits from a field that seems divided (something like two democrats from Belmont are vying for the sinecure alone with two republicans and a likely independent candidacy with more out in the wings shooting their cuffs and adjusting their ties). The math here is simple, make some inroads somewhere outside your base voting every last woman and child on primary night and squeak thru with a plurality.
There are other modalities at play, money coming immediately to mind, it still costs 50 to 60 thousand dollars to make a credible State Rep's race, from what I can see that sort of long green seems like a big step up for almost the entire field.
Meanwhile the Ron Paul faction of the GOP (who just scored a tactical victory over Romney having packed the Massachusetts RNC delegation with their own true believers) are allegedly looking around for a race to contest.
Belmont is not like Arlington it's GOP Committee is a little more active and will likely try and make this a competitive race in the general election.
Primary fights like this revolve around organizational strength, debate performance, a constant drumbeat of mailings, endorsements (State Senator Will Brownsberger's among others) and plain luck.
Well it is a new district and I'm glad to see one of the Spartans has stepped up to the plate, if we don't get out there and electioneer a bit, the Arlington part of the electoral map could get taken for granted...and we would not want that, would we?
:D
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