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Democrats Open Pittsfield HQ For November's Election Push
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
04:34PM / Sunday, September 23, 2018
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Quentin Palfrey is the Democrat's nominee for lieutenant governor.

Sherwood Guernsey

Adam Hinds

Andrea Harrington

Quentin Palfrey

The office is on North Street.



 

State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier introduced Andrea Harrington, calling her successful campaign for the Democratic nomination an inspiration.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the primaries in the rearview mirror, Democrats are gearing up for the -final election push.
 
Locally the party opened a North Street headquarters for the coordinated campaign.
 
The office will serve as the local headquarters for campaign staffer working on behalf of Democratic candidates up and down the ticket -- from Congress to district attorney.
 
"We have an incredible slate of Democratic candidates from the top to our incredible local winner Andrea Harrington for district attorney," said Sherwood Guernsey,  a former state senator and a founder of the Berkshire Brigades.
 
In Congress, Democrats will be pushing for the re-elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal. 
 
"When Democrats win, we have criminal just reform here in Massachusetts. When the Democrats win, we can stand up to what the heck is happening in Washington, D.C., and what is happening in the White House. That's why we need to elect Senator Warren and Representative Neal to go right back to Washington because that is where the real fight is as well," said state Sen. Adam Hinds said. 
 
At the state level, Jay Gonzalez and Quentin Palfrey are representing the Democrats in the race for governor and lieutenant governor. Maura Healey is seeking re-election for attorney general, Suzanne Bump for auditor, Deborah Goldberg for treasurer, and Bill Galvin for secretary of state. 
 
"All of those candidates are qualified, experienced, and they will do the job for all of us, for the average working men and women our party has always stood up for," Guernsey said. 
 
Palfrey spoke at Thursday's office opening, saying Republican Gov. Charlie Baker can be beaten if the party can energize its base. He cited high turnouts in primaries and a surge of first-time voters heading to the polls to show the numbers are there for Democrats to take back the state's corner office.
 
"There has been a  lot of pessimism about the ability of the Democratic ticket to beat Baker and Polito. Two weeks ago we saw what needs to happen to take back the corner office and what that is is a surge of Democratic enthusiasm," Palfrey said.
 
Gonzalez has taken on the slogan "Aim High" and Palfrey believes that by taking the corner office, the state can do just that. He said with support from the governor's office in Gonzalez and himself, Massachusetts can tackle transportation, education, college affordability, move toward single-payer health care, and tackle the opioid epidemic.
 
"Jay has a bold vision for leading Massachusetts forward, for investing in transportation and education, economic development, and really tackling the very serious challenges we have in Massachusetts," Palfrey said.
 
Locally, there isn't much for contested races. Hinds, State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, and state Rep. Paul Mark were all in attendance despite being on the ballots unopposed. Nonetheless, they voiced their support for the Democrat's push for November. 
 
"There is this really strange idea out there that our governor can't be beaten. That's B.S. We know what the numbers are, we know what the demographics are, we know that if we energize our base, we work as a team with the energy and expertise of the Warren campaign, brought together with the Palfrey and Gonzalez enthusiasm for what we can do in this state," Farley-Bouvier said. 
 
Farley-Bouvier called for Democrats to "bring our state to the next level." The other local state Legislature Democrats are William "Smitty" Pignatelli and John Barrett III, both are also uncontested and neither attended the opening.
 

The local state legislative officials have uncontested races.
The Pittsfield representative recognized Harrington's work in the district attorney's race by upsetting the incumbent in the primary. Farley-Bouvier called that campaign an inspiration for what Democrats can do in November.
 
"This was not me, I did not do this, I did this with an amazing team of people from all over this county," Harrington said of that campaign effort.
 
But, Harrington continued to say that 62 percent of the voters "wanted change," referring to both her and fellow progressive candidate Judith Knight's vote totals. 
 
"It is time for this community to have a district attorney that reflects the values and the principals of our party, who believe in justice for all," Harrington said.
 
Harrington's race isn't quite over, though many believed it should have been by now because no other party has a candidate on the ballot. In the three-way race for the Democratic nomination, Harrington just squeaked by the incumbent Paul Caccaviello by about 700 votes. Caccaviello isn't giving up and believes that can be overcome by opening himself up to voters of other parties. He is mounting a write-in campaign on the November ballot.
 
The local Democrats, however, seemed to coalesce around their nominee, with former Knight supporters at the opening wearing Harrington campaign stickers. 
 
"We've got to aim higher than we have in the last few years with our present governor. The status quo doesn't work. The status quo didn't work in the DA's office, that's what the voters said. Status quo is not going to work statewide for Gov. Baker," Guernsey, who backed Knight in the primary, said.
 
Optimism is strong about the Democrat's chances in November. The coordinated campaign has gotten a particularly large boost by Warren, who put a significant amount of campaign funds behind it.
 
"When Democrats fight, Democrats win," Hinds said. 
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