WESTFIELD – Primary elections are an integral part of the democratic process in the United States of America and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, enabling registered members of a party to select a candidate for political office from a pool of party members.
But what if the race for a particular seat is a “mano y mano” duel between two candidates from opposing political parties?
According to a state statute, a primary must be held prior to every election in the Commonwealth, regardless of whether a candidate is running unopposed or not in their party.
The reasoning behind this, according to Brian McNiff, spokesman for Secretary of State William F. Galvin, is to allow for party candidates running a write-in, or sticker, campaign to have a shot at the nomination.
However, with Democrat John Velis and Republican Daniel Allie the only candidates to take out papers for the April 1 special election for the 4th Hampden District seat in the State House of Representatives, the question remains: are primaries, which cost the city thousands of dollars, really necessary when candidates are running unopposed?
“It’s been a state law since we’ve been having primaries, over 100 years ago,” said McNiff. “But it only becomes startling in a situation like this (when two candidates run unopposed).”
Westfield City Clerk Karen Fanion said the state reimburses a large chunk of the money the city spends to hold an election, but that it still costs the city to hold this election.
“For the last U.S. Senate special election primary between Ed Markey and Gabriel Gomez, the state reimbursed us $38,072,” she said, which is “pretty close” to what the city spent in total. “Special elections are different The state has certain formulas that we’re bound by for reimbursement.”
“We’ve had so many special elections recently, but this was the first time we really recognized there wasn’t a need, so we double-checked with the state,” Fanion said. “But unless they change the law, we have to do this.”
The city’s primary will be held on March 4 in all 12 city precincts, which each have a warden, clerk, and deputy.
“Wardens are allowed to choose how many workers they want, and usually have their own crew of workers,” Fanion said, adding that wardens, who may choose up to 12 workers, may be using smaller crews due to the timing of this particular primary, as many of the usual workers may be spending their winters elsewhere. “The last special election we had was a dual election, so we allowed wardens more workers.”
In addition to workers, supply deliverers and police, the city must also pay for the polling equipment, and programs and memory cards for processing of the ballots, but Fanion says the most frustrating aspect of running a special election primary are the differences between state and city guidelines for paying that help.
“We pay our ‘checkers’ $60 a day, but the state rate is $4 an hour. It’s hard to break it down the way the state wants it,” she said. “It’s about $38,000 on average to run one of these (primaries).”
Fanion also acknowledged that police officers are a necessity, albeit one with a differing payscale.
“Obviously a sergeant is going to make more than a lower-ranking officer,” Fanion said, adding that Westfield’s finest earn between $40 and $50 an hour to supervise the polling. “We know it’s not going to be that busy this year. But you still have to have police.”
“I’ve never thought about that. I’ve run unopposed when running for state rep before, but that was always for something like my opponent not turning in their papers,” said State Senator Don Humason, Jr. (R-Westfield). “If we had a November election, we had a September primary.”
Humason, who vacated the seat that Allie and Velis are now running for, won a special election himself last fall for the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District Senate seat, defeating Holyoke Democrat David Bartley after coasting through a Republican primary against Mike Franco, also of Holyoke.
“I know the Secretary of State reimburses the city some cost, but it still seems like a waste,” Humason said.
“My guess is that they’ll say it’s ‘part of the electoral process.'” he said when asked what the reaction would be to proposing a change to the statute on Beacon Hill. “My thought is leave the seat open till September, but I know they (the House) wouldn’t want to keep it vacant that long.”
