Poll workers at the Southwick Town Hall assist residents during yesterday’s Special Election Primary for 2nd Hampden and Hampshire State Senator position. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
(AP/WNG/WWLP) – Republican State Rep. Donald Humason Jr. and Democratic City Councilor David Bartley of Holyoke will face off in the Nov. 5 election to succeed longtime western Massachusetts state Sen. Michael Knapik and to represent 11 cities and towns in the State Senate. The district includes all of the cities and towns of Agawam, Easthampton, Granville, Holyoke, Montgomery, Russell, Southampton, Southwick, Tolland, and Westfield; as well as parts of Chicopee.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports that Bartley defeated Easthampton Mayor Michael Tautznik in Tuesday’s preliminary election in the 2nd Hampden-Hampshire District. Humason defeated Michael Franco, Holyoke veterans’ services officer.
Knapik, a Republican, served 22 years in the Legislature. He stepped down in August to become Westfield State University’s executive director of university advancement.
Bartley won with 52% of the Democratic vote, and Humason received 87% of the vote in the GOP primary.
In Westfield, out of 23,809 registers voters, 2,991 voted, which would be a 12.56 percent turnout.
Bartley received 473 total votes, and Tautznik received a total of 490 votes for the Democrats while Franco received 121 votes to Humason’s 1,774 for the Republicans.
Bartley was first elected to the City Council in 2011. He is the son of former Massachusetts House Speaker David M. Bartley, who led the House of Representatives from 1969-1975.
Humason has been in the House of Representatives since 2003, representing the 4th Hampden District, which includes all of the city of Westfield. Prior to being elected to the State Senate, Knapik had represented Humason’s district in the House.
Both will now run to compete in a district that stretches across nine Hampden County communities and two communities in Hampshire County; a district that includes small rural towns with fewer than 1,000 people, such as Tolland and Montgomery, and some of western Massachusetts’ most populous cities, such as Westfield and Holyoke.
