WESTFIELD – John C. Velis took a second decisive victory in November of 2014 to keep the state House of Representative seat for a full two-year term. Velis initially claimed that seat with a special-election victory last April.
Velis faced the same opponent in the November election, Dan Allie, but his margin of victory was more substantial. Last April Velis won by 300 votes, in this election for a two-year term his margin of victory was more than 2,200.
The special election was called to fill the House seat vacated by Don Humason, who won the Nov. 4, 2013 special election to the state Senate.
The November election margin of victory reflected the fact that 52.64 percent of Westfield registered voters cast ballots in this election which not only had state and federal position, but a number of hotly contested referendum questions.
Velis won the April 1, 2014 special election by a margin of only 300 votes as residents turned out in far greater number than the preliminary election held in March.
The House seat was vacated by Humason, who won a special election to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Michael Knapik who took the position as executive director of university advancement at Westfield State University.
Velis took 2,697 of the April special election ballots cast, according to the results released by the City Clerk’s office, while his GOP opponent, Dan Allie took 2,354 votes.
City residents voting to fill the house seat in that April special election, cast 5,056 ballots, a 21.06 percent turnout of the city’s 24,013 registered voters casting ballots. Voter participation was much higher than in the meaningless preliminary election held in March because both Velis and Allie, as the sole Democratic and Republican candidates, were assured spots on the April ballot.
Velis, who is an attorney, was named to the Joint Judiciary Committee which covers all matters relating to the courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, such as criminal procedure and sentencing, following the special election.
Velis is a captain in the Massachusetts Army National Guard (MANG) and an Afghan war veteran, and also serves on the staff of the MANG Judge Advocate.
“I worked very hard to solidify my role as Westfield’s State Representative over the last year and a half,” said Velis. “Westfield is a great city, and it is an absolute honor for me to represent my constituents down in Boston”
“Although I am the Representative of the 4th Hampden District which is comprised solely of the city of Westfield, it is critical that the entire western Mass. delegation works together,” he said. “It is evident that we are repeatedly ignored by Boston (they believe Worcester is western Mass.) and we must work to combat that notion and bring money and resources back to our struggling communities.”
“I’m looking forward to going into a new session so that I may file legislation to propel Westfield and all of western Mass. to new heights,” he said. “I am ready to dive head first into this charge as we begin the upcoming session.”
