Pittsfield Democratic State Senator To Run For Lieutenant Governor

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2021/10/13/pittsfield-democratic-state-senator-to-run-for-lieutenant-governor/

By Michael P. Norton
State House News Service

Another senator is joining the list of members of that branch who have decided to run statewide in the 2022 election cycle.

Pittsfield Democrat state Senator Adam Hinds on Wednesday plans two campaign stops as he begins his run for lieutenant governor, he announced Tuesday night, joining a field that already includes Democrat state Representative Tami Gouveia.

All senators face the prospect of running in substantially reconfigured districts in 2022 and if even more incumbents opt to run statewide or retire, the branch could be in for more turnover than usual come January 2023.

Senate Democrat Sonia Chang-Diaz of Jamaica Plain is already running for governor and Diana DiZoglio of Methuen is running for state auditor.

Redistricting could already be affecting choices. With the state’s population base shifting further east, western Massachusetts state representatives Paul Mark and John Barrett could end up in the same House district, but Mark is said to be considering a run for Senate if, as now appears the case, Hinds is not in the field.

The changing shapes of legislative districts will likely be determined over the next month, as legislators scramble to get new district maps to Governor Charlie Baker’s desk, aware that candidates for state representative face a one-year district residency requirement ahead of the November 2022 elections.

Gouveia, a Democrat from Acton, kicked off her campaign for lieutenant governor in June, calling for universal pre-kindergarten, debt-free higher education and Medicare for All as she became the first to jump into the 2022 field.

Hinds joined the Senate in 2017 after stints working as executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition and founding director of Pittsfield Community Connection. From 2005 until 2013, Hinds was a United Nations political affairs officer in New York, Jerusalem, Switzerland, and Iraq. Earlier in his career, Hinds worked on then-U.S. Senator John Kerry’s campaign for president in 2003 and 2004, and as campaign manager for then-Congressman John Olver in 2001-02.

Last session, he led a 21-member working group assembled by Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) to conduct a sweeping review of the state tax code. That panel did not publicly release any findings, although Senate leaders repeatedly pointed to its work when asked about tax policy matters pending before lawmakers.

Hinds currently chairs the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Revenue and the Senate Committee on Reimagining Massachusetts Post-Pandemic Resiliency.

Hinds holds a 9 a.m. event outside Pittsfield City Hall, followed by an 11:30 a.m. stop with state Senator Adam Gomez at Latino’s Kitchen in Springfield. He then makes his way west to Beacon Hill where he hopes to talk with Boston-area media sometime between 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday, October 13.

 

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