Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Aaron Hatley urges the Town Council to follow other Massachusetts Communities and pass a resolution asking for the campaign finance ruling to be changed.
- OPINION
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Wednesday, December 5, 2012
To my fellow Watertown voters, On Nov. 6, in Watertown Districts A, B, and C, just under 63 percent of us voted “Yes” on a non-binding ballot question that supported a constitutional amendment to reverse the effects of the infamous 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC. On Dec. 11, a group of concerned citizens (including your author) will ask the Watertown Town Council to consider a resolution urging our state and federal representatives to work toward that constitutional amendment to reinstate reasonable limits on outside funding in our elections, and to ensure that the strongest voices on election day are yours, and mine, and our fellow citizens’. And we need your support. Seventy-four Massachusetts cities and towns …
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The most money was spend on the Question 2, the doctor-assisted suicide measure, which had almost $6 million in spending.
- ELECTIONS
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The following information was provided by the Office of Campaign Spending and Political Finance: More than $9 million was spent to influence three questions put before the voters on the 2012 statewide ballot, according to disclosure reports filed by ballot question committees with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance. OCPF’s review of ballot question committee activity showed a total of $9,304,909 spent by 13 committees on questions concerning automobile repair, physician assisted suicide and medical marijuana. Question 2, Prescribing Medication to End Life, had the highest amount of spending – $5,868,797 by seven committees. The question failed. Question 1, Availability of Motor Vehicle Repair Information, had $2,304,999 in …
Monday, November 12, 2012
If appointed, a special election would be held to fill Kerry's seat.
President Obama is considering appointing Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry as the Secretary of Defense, according to the Washington Post. Cabinet changeups are standard fare at the start of a second presidential term. Kerry, who is believed to want the Secretary of State job, would replace current Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, according to the Post. If appointed, Kerry would have to resign from the Senate and a special statewide election would have to be held to fill his seat. However, appointing Kerry to either seat could have political implications — it could mean the risk of losing Kerry's Senate seat in Massachusetts to Republicans, according to the New York Times. Obama not only would have to decide whether to risk Kerry's …
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The three non-binding ballot questions all passed in Watertown. See where questions and candidates fared best in Tuesday's election.
Depending on where you live in Watertown, you could have voted on two or three ballot questions in Tuesday's election — and all three got more support for the "Yes" side. Question 4, which asks the state senator - Will Brownsberger - to do a variety of things, including prevent cuts to government programs such as Medicaid, close federal tax loopholes and redirect military spending to domestic programs, passed with more than 78 percent of the votes. Question 5 in precincts 10-12, which asks the state representative - John Lawn - to take the same steps as Question 4, passed with nearly 76 percent of the vote. In precincts 1-9, the same question was number 6, and was directed to the state representative for that area, Jonathan Hecht. The …
John Lawn, Will Brownsberger and Marilyn Pettito Devaney win re-election in local races.
Watertown residents flocked to the voting booths Tuesday, and supported Democrats statewide and nationally, and re-elected local candidates. Nearly 75 percent of the town voted in the Presidential election, as 16,816 votes were cast in Watertown, about 650 more than the 2008 Presidential election, said Town Clerk John Flynn. Locally, State Rep. John Lawn, who represents the West Side of Watertown, and parts of Waltham and Newtown, defeated Waltham Republican Francis Stanton. Find out more about the race here. Watertown's other State Representative, Jonathan Hecht, won in an uncontested race. He represents precincts 1-9. Will Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat, defeated challenger Steven Aylward of Watertown in the race for the Second …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voters made decisions on car repairs, assisted suicide and medical marijuana in the statewide election.
Question 1: Right to Repair Voters approved the “Right to Repair” ballot question, which would give consumers more choices when fixing a car in today's election. According to numbers on boston.com, 85 percent of voters approved the question, with 51 percent of the state reporting at 10:15 p.m. The initiative requires automakers to make computer software codes for repairs more accessible to independent repair shops and car owners by 2015. But in July, state legislators devised a compromise that would give carmakers until 2018 to comply with the new law, according to a Boston Globe report. By approving Question 1, voters trumped that compromise and enacted the “Right to Repair” act as written on the ballot. “Voters sent a clear message to …
Marilyn Pettito Devaney won with 75 percent of the vote in the district that covers more than 30 communities.
[Results updated at 9:35 a.m. on Nov. 7] Voters returned Watertown’s Marilyn Pettito Devaney to an eighth term on the Governor’s Council, Tuesday, supporting her by a wide margin in the race against Newton’s Thomas Sheff. With 95 percent of the 270 precincts counted, Pettito Devaney received nearly 74percent of the votes, according to results collected by Patch and Boston.com. Pettito Devaney, a former Watertown Town Councilor, received 230,222 votes, and Sheff, who had run for mayor in Newton in 2005, received 80,891 votes. Pettito Devaney defeated two challengers in the Democratic primary in September before facing Sheff, who ran as an un-enrolled candidate. The Third District of the Governor’s Council includes 32 communities, from …
Democrat Will Brownsberger wins the Second Suffolk and Middlesex state senate seat.
Belmont Democrat Will Brownsberger won the Second Suffolk and Middlesex state senate race over Watertown Republican Steven Aylward Tuesday night, according to unofficial election results. Brownsberger, who was elected to the state senate in January 2012, netted 15,966 votes to Aylward's 4,079, or 20 percent of the vote, according to results on the City of Boston website. In Watertown, Brownsberger picked up 11,021 votes, with Aylward getting 4,199. The district includes all of Belmont, Watertown and part of Boston, including the Back Bay, the Fenway, Kenmore Square, Allston and Brighton. "I'm very grateful for the overwhelming support that voters gave me," he said. "I'm looking forward to diligently serving the community." Aylward is …
Democrat Elizabeth Warren beat incumbent candidate Scott Brown in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race.
Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren has beaten incumbent Republican candidate Scott Brown for a seat on the U.S. Senate, according to the Associated Press. Warren is won by a margin of eight percentage points, 54 percent to 46 percent, making her the first female senator elected in Massachusetts. An estatic Warren addressed a crowd of hundreds of excited supporters at the Copley Fairmont Plaza hotel in Boston on Tuesday night. "We did what everyone thought was impossible," she said. "We taught a scrappy, first-time candidate how to win." "You took on the powerful Wall Street banks and let them know that you want a Senator out there fighting for the middle class all of the time," she said. "And despite the odds, you elected the first …
Updates on the 2012 elections here in Watertown will be posted throughout the day. Connect with us on Twitter too at #PatchElections and tell us what you see by tweeting @WatertownPatch and commenting on facebook.com/WatertownPatch.
Stay with Watertown Patch all day as we update this article with news and information from the polls and live election results after polls close at 8 p.m. 9:15 p.m.: With three precincts reporting, Democrat Will Brownsberger holds the lead over Republican challenger Steven Aylward in the Second Suffolk and Middlesex Senate race. (Precinct 1: Brownsberger - 763, Aylward - 307; Precinct 2: Brownsberger - 888, Aylward - 284; Precinct 3: Brownsberger - 1,070, Aylward - 288). LIVE 2012 WATERTOWN ELECTION RESULTS Obama-Biden Elizabeth Warren Edward Markey 8:23 p.m.: Unofficial voting numbers in the Massachusetts Senate race for District A (one of four in town) Elizabeth Warren 2,708, Scott Brown 1,288. 7:18 p.m.: A tweet from @WatertownDem …
John DiMascio
1:25 am on Sunday, December 16, 2012
Ah, I missed the reference. Let's put it this way, the young Law Students exact attendance record is something I was advised to look in to. It is a matter of public record. But you know.... although I trust my sources, I actually shouldn't not have made that remark until I had first hand knowledge. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa! So now you can say legitimately say Pot and Kettle to me. … more ›