Around New England

Special Election Dates Set To Replace Plymouth State Senator – A Rare Republican Seat in Massachusetts

December 18, 2019

Dates in March 2020 have been announced for a special election primary and general election to replace former Massachusetts Republican state Senator Vinny deMacedo.

DeMacedo represented the Plymouth and Barnstable District covering six towns:  Kingston, Pembroke, and Plymouth in Plymouth County; and Bourne, Falmouth, and Sandwich in Barnstable County.  According to CapeCod.com, the primaries will occur on Tuesday, March 3 and the general election will take place on Tuesday, March 31.

Initially elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1998, deMacedo served eight terms there before getting elected to the state Senate in 2014. He formally filed his resignation on November 29, according to the Cape Cod Times.

DeMacedo resigned to take a job as the director of regional partnerships at Bridgewater State University.

There are currently seven candidates running to replace deMacedo. Two of them are Republicans. One is Jay MacMahon, a Bourne resident who ran for Massachusetts Attorney General against Maura Healey last year. The other is fellow Bourne resident Jared MacDonald, a self-employed electrician; MacDonald was a Bourne police officer until he got shot in the line of duty in 2015.

Candidates for the Democratic Party include Falmouth Selectman Susan Moran, Plymouth Selectman John Mahoney, commercial lobster fisherman Jack Stanton of Sandwich, Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office employee Thomas Moakley of Falmouth, and Pembroke town planning board chairman Becky Coletta.

With deMacedo’s resignation, there are now four Republicans in the Massachusetts Senate. The other 36 state senators are Democrats.