Canton follows local trend, backs runner-up Gomez
By Jay TurnerCanton voters joined a number of other area suburbs in backing Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez in Tuesday’s special state election for U.S. Senate, but it was not enough to defeat Democratic Congressman Ed Markey, who prevailed by a sizable margin on the strength of the urban electorate.
Markey, a 37-year member of the U.S. House of Representatives, easily carried Boston and also picked up local communities such as Sharon, Stoughton and Randolph; however, the majority of the south shore, including Canton, went heavily in favor of Gomez — an ex-Navy SEAL from Cohasset with no prior political experience.
All told, Gomez garnered 2,500 votes in Canton (53 percent), including four of the six precincts: 1, 3, 4 and 5. Markey picked up 2,223 votes as well as modest victories in precincts 2 and 6.
Gomez’ widest margin of victory came in precinct 4, where he edged his competitor by 137 votes (523-386). The closest race was in precinct 6, where Markey prevailed 362-354.
A third candidate, Woburn resident Richard Heos of the Twelve Visions Party, was a nonfactor in Canton, collecting just 10 total votes.
Markey, a liberal Democrat best known for his work on energy policy, will succeed Mo Cowan of Stoughton, former chief of staff to Governor Deval Patrick who was appointed in January to fill the vacancy left by longtime Senator John Kerry when he left to become Secretary of State.
For a June special election with a single race, the turnout was relatively strong, attracting 4,750 of the town’s 14,273 registered voters to the polls, which equates to a little less than one-third (33.2 percent) of the total electorate.
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Posted by Jay Turner
on Jun 27 2013. Filed under News.
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