A deeply Democratic district stayed Democratic on Tuesday — but it’s a lot less left wing than it was.
The successor to former House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) in the Massachusetts House of Representatives will be former Winthrop town council president Jeff Turco. The Democrat had no problem winning the Tuesday, March 30 special general election triggered by DeLeo’s December 2020 resignation to take a job teaching about legislation and public policy at Northeastern University. The seat has been vacant since then.
The self-described “moderate” Turco trounced his two opponents, Paul Caruccio, a Republican, of Winthrop, and Winthrop resident Richard Fucillo, an unenrolled candidate. Turco got 57.3 percent of the vote (1,861 votes) while Caruccio got 14.3 percent (466 votes) and Fucillo got 14.6 percent (473 votes), according to multiplereports.
The general election was much less competitive than the March 2 Democratic primary, which Turco won by 6.1 percent with a plurality of the vote.
Turco was one of four candidates in the primary; he won it with 36.2 percent of the vote.
The runner-up in the March 2 race was Revere resident Juan Jaramillo, who served as budget director for state Senator Joseph Boncore (D-Winthrop) and is the political coordinator for 32BJ SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Jaramillo got 30.1 percent of the vote. The third-place finisher was Winthrop resident Alicia DelVento, who served as a communications director and policy adviser to state Representative Danielle Gregoire (D-Marlborough) and as a legislative aide to then-state Representative Jeffrey Sanchez (D-Jamaica Plain). She got 26 percent. And Winthrop resident Valentino Capobianco, who served as the chief of staff for state Senator Paul Feeney (D-Foxborough) before running for state representative, came in fourth. He got 7.7 percent of the vote.
Capobianco was the only one of those three candidates who publicly supported Turco in the special election. He told NewBostonPost in an email message on Sunday, “Jeff is an honorable man and ran an honorable campaign. I’ll be voting for him Tuesday as the Democratic nominee.”
Turco was the subject of controversy during the primary for some of his conservative leanings.
Turco has said in the past that he voted for former President Donald Trump in 2016. He gave money to U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) in 2020. He has expressed opposition to abortion. He also has criticized U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and former President Barack Obama.
In response to his primary win four weeks ago, Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts said it will help run someone against Turco in 2022.
“Jeff Turco is dangerous and has no place on Beacon Hill,” the fund tweeted. “And if he wins, we’ll be there in 2022 to primary him and elect a candidate who will champion the sexual and reproductive rights of their community.”
The Nineteenth Suffolk District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives includes all of the town of Winthrop and parts of the eastern and central portions of the city of Revere (Ward 1, precincts 1 and 2; Ward 2; Ward 3, precincts 2 and 3; and Ward 5, precinct 3).
