April 11, 2013
Less than three weeks. That’s how long the three Democratic candidates for Jack Hart’s vacant First Suffolk District state Senate seat have to bring voters to their side in the April 30 primary.
The winner of the primary will face a Republican in the May 28 special election, but due to the district’s heavily Democratic make-up, the winner of the Democratic nomination will likely be the person taking the oath of office later this year.
The Democratic field includes two South Boston candidates – state Rep. Nick Collins and Maureen Dahill – and one contender from Dorchester – state Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry – who hope to represent a district that includes those two neighborhoods and Hyde Park. Collins, a former Hart aide, and Dorcena Forry, who is married to Reporter editor Bill Forry, are widely considered to be the contest’s frontrunners. The race’s lone Republican is Joseph Ureneck of Dorchester.
The four candidates are expected at two forums scheduled for next week: South Boston’s civic organizations are holding a forum at the Lithuanian Club on West Broadway on Tuesday (April 16) from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. The other session, set for Wednesday (April 17) has been set up by MassVOTE and a number of other organizations. It starts at 6 p.m. at the Lee School auditorium on Talbot Avenue in Dorchester.
In this week's Reporter, each of the four candidates are profiled in articles by Reporter news editor Gintautas Dumcius and correspondent Michael Deehan. As part of our coverage, the Reporter also asked candidates to complete surveys about their positions on issues— which three of the four candidates did.
