Behind the Times

Small-town politics

Posted on February 28, 2008 by Michael Ballway
Filed Under Elections, Lancaster, Mike's posts |

While everyone else is focusing on the local Senate races, where a gaggle of former state representatives are going after seats being vacated by Pam Resor and Robert Antonioni, this week the Times & Courier cast an eye toward the open seat left as James Eldridge asks the voters of Resor’s district for a promotion. And we found one of our own in the mix.

Lancaster’s Gail Sullivan has decided to mount a run for the seat, along with Lunenburg’s Jen Benson.

Both Benson and Sullivan staked out Democratic power base territory when we spoke with them this week: Benson, a School Committee member, planted a flag on the fertile ground of education policy wonkishness, while Sullivan, who worked her way through school, emphasized health coverage while burnishing her working-class, populist cred.

Yet something’s missing from this race. Since the district was formed in 2002, Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, is the only representative it’s known, and Acton — even if you only count the half of the town that lies within the district — is its largest voting bloc. No matter how good at constituent service Eldridge is, the perception is that this is a MetroWest district, a Middlesex County district.

Yet here are two candidates from the western end, the Worcester County rump of 37th Middlesex. It makes one wonder whether a challenge from the east is in the offing (the Harvard town moderator is thinking about it).

Another thing: Like Acton, only half of Lancaster belongs to the 37th Middlesex District. Unlike Acton, Lancaster is tiny. In 2006 (see chart at right — James Eldridge, D-Acton, versus Kevin Hayes, R-Shirley — is he going to run again?), precinct 1 of Lancaster cast half as many ballots as the next smallest district town, Boxborough, and only a quarter as many as the two largest blocs — Acton and Lunenburg (it’s worth noting that, as one might expect, Acton has far and away the largest Democratic voting bloc — Lunenburg was more evenly split between Eldridge and Hayes). For those who believe in geographic power bases, this looks like an uphill climb for Sullivan, who faces an opponent in a big town next door (Lunenburg). But then again, as they say in baseball, this is why we play the games — there are a lot of speeches, endorsements and changed minds yet to come between now and September.

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