Recently Rick Lipof’s campaign to succeed Rep. Ruth Balser gathered sufficient signatures to be on the ballot, and two campaigns hosted kickoffs – for Bill Humphrey to succeed Rep. Ruth Balser and Amy Sangiolo to succeed Rep. Kay Khan. Greg Schwartz is also running for Rep. Balser’s seat. Alexander Jablon has recently organized a campaign committee to run for Rep. Khan’s seat. Fig City News will interview Jablon in the coming weeks and cover kickoff events for candidates Jablon, Lipof, Schwartz, and others as they occur.
Amy Sangiolo Kickoff
On Saturday, March 23, approximately 70 people gathered at Bocca Bella’s Cafe & Bistro in Auburndale to attend Amy Sangiolo’s campaign launch for the 11th Middlesex District House seat Rep. Khan will be leaving at the end of this year. The crowd included people who were involved in her mayoral campaigns and her twenty years as a City Councilor.
Attendees included City Councilor Rick Lipof and former City Councilor Greg Schwartz — both residents of the 12th Middlesex district and candidates for retiring State Rep. Ruth Balser’s House seat. Both Lipof and Schwartz had been Sangiolo’s colleagues on Newton’s City Council. Also attending were Josh Krintzman, who succeeded Sangiolo as Ward 4 at-large City Councilor, and recently retired Ward 2 City Councilor Emily Norton.
Former Ward 4 City Councilor Chris Markiewicz, who has been involved in many of Sangiolo’s signature projects, including the Riverside development, spoke of her community involvement and government service as he introduced her.
Among her priorities, Sangiolo underscored the need for better public transportation and more incentives “to get off fossil fuels,” an overarching issue for her. She is also committed to increasing educational funding, especially now, she explained, because of the increasing need for mental health supports following Covid’s impact on students. “Education should meet each child where they are,” she told Fig City News later, noting that teachers should work with every student to help them reach their potential. Sangiolo praised Rep. Khan for bringing local funding to the district. “I’d like to do that, too,” she said.
As a state employee in the office of the State Attorney General, Sangiolo may not solicit political contributions. She left the room before City Councilor Tarik Lucas concluded the event with an appeal for donations to her campaign.
Bill Humphrey Kickoff
On March 26, Bill Humphrey’s campaign for state representative kicked off with an event hosted by former City Councilor Alicia Bowman. Humphrey is beginning his campaign for the 12th Middlesex district seat held by the retiring Ruth Balser. First-term City Councilor Martha Bixby was among the approximately 40 attendees. Humphrey’s former City Councilor colleagues Brenda Noel and Holly Ryan enthusiastically introduced him to the group.
In her comments, Noel described Humphrey as “the real deal,” and Ryan called Humphrey “an ally to the LGBTQ community.” During his prepared comments, Humphrey spoke of a lengthy list of problems facing residents including climate change, the lack of affordable housing, the cost of healthcare, and attacks on democracy, but said he remained “filled with hope and filled with a passion for changing the things that we find unacceptable.”
Humphrey described himself as a progressive Democrat who believes in the “power of government to serve the public and to lift up those who are struggling the most.” He listed the MBTA, roads, bridges tunnels, and dams as integral public goods that require attention. He stated a public responsibility for childcare, elder care, and for a vibrant public education system in every zip code. While acknowledging the number of problems facing society, he said, “There are so many solutions. They are not always easy, but we are not starting from scratch.”
When asked by Fig City News about his campaign approach, Humphrey said that he began knocking on doors in the district a month earlier and had continued nearly every day since then. He said he plans to talk face-to-face with as many voters as possible before the September 3 primary. Further Humphrey said that he was close to complete in collecting the required signatures to get his name on the ballot.
