Bombshell! Or Two or Three....

A regular bombshell went off in the State Senate race earlier this week. Anthony Galluccio had been the presumptive heir to Jarrett Barrios' Senate seat until recent allegations involving a December car accident and a possible drunk driving charge inspired several other candidates to get into the race. The Senate district is comprised of Everett, Cambridge, Somerville, Allston/Brighton, Revere, Saugus, Chelsea and Charlestown.

While the Everett Independent was reporting that Leo McKinnon, a member of the Common Council from Ward 4, was entering the Senate race, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald were reporting that Jarrett Barrios would be dropping out of his race for Distict Attorney, and instead, running for his Senate seat! Both the Everett Leader and the Advocate ran the story on the first page.

For Everettites, this has special meaning - because we remember when Ed Markey had intended to vacate his congressional seat to run against John Kerry....and then changed his mind. So many people in Everett already committed to Sam Rotondi, and stayed with him - because that's the way we are. We give our word - and we stick to it. Well, Ed Markey won the race - and it took us years to recover from the bad feelings that had arisen during the race.

We don't know where this thing is going right now...there could be 50 more candidates in this thing before it's over. What we do hope for is a professional and issues-focused race, instead of the scorched earth politics that we've seen in the past.