Another Republican may join the race for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, several sources have told NewBostonPost in recent weeks.
That Republican is Agawam city council vice president Cecilia Calabrese.
Calabrese has been a city councilor in Agawam since 2012. Last year, she served as president of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. The web site for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts says that it’s a “non-profit organization that works to help city and town officials work together on advocacy and developing policy.”
In recent times, Calabrese has had involvement on the conservative side of ballot questions in Massachusetts. She opposed Question 2 last year, which unsuccessfully pushed ranked-choice voting. The Massachusetts Democratic Party, Massachusetts Libertarian Party, and Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party all supported the question while the Massachusetts Republican Party opposed it. The initiative failed, 45 percent to 55 percent.
Calabrese spoke out against the idea in an interview with New England Public Media last October.
“It’s a system of counting votes that seeks to solve a problem that really doesn’t exist and I’ll explain why I say that,” Calabrese said. “We have been using the one person, one vote system since John Adams drafted the Constitution of Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It’s worked very well for 240 years.”
Additionally, she attended an event put on by the Massachusetts Republican Party in Westfield last week where the party trained people on how to collect signatures for the voter ID ballot initiative that the party supports. Former GOP state representative candidate Tatyana Semyrog of Duxbury is leading that initiative.
So far, there is one declared Republican candidate in the lieutenant governor race in Massachusetts: Republican Rayla Campbell of Randolph. Campbell ran a write-in campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Seventh Congressional District last year against U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Dorchester).
It’s unclear if incumbent lieutenant governor Karyn Polito, also a Republican, will seek a third term in the position. Many observers expect Polito to run for governor if incumbent Charlie Baker does not seek a third term.
Calabrese could not be reached for comment on Friday last week or Tuesday this week.
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