Jacobs wins seat as District 8 member of Governor’s CouncilDate: 11/15/2022 WESTERN MASS – Democratic nominee Tara Jacobs has won the District 8 seat on the Governor’s Council, a position that represents Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties, against Republican nominee John Comerford.
The Governor’s Council elect will eventually be sworn into the council where she and other representatives will meet weekly to approve the governor’s appointments for judges, clerk magistrates and member of groups like the Parole Board. The group also weighs in on the governor’s pardons and communications.
As of press time, 87 percent of votes had been counted for an unofficial result showing Jacobs on her way to a comfortable win as she had 62 percent of the vote compared to her opponent, Comerford, who had 38 percent of the vote. Over 200,000 people voted on the race.
Jacobs hopes with being newly elected to the position that she can continue to grow the voice of Western Massachusetts in the state’s government. She added she was overwhelmed by the support shown through the vote in communities like Northampton and Springfield.
“It was such an amazing show of support, it was almost overwhelming. The communities that we won were such a strong and powerful positive for me,” Jacobs said.
When speaking with Reminder Publishing, Jacobs said she had just heard from the AP notifying her she had secured the win in the race.
District 8 represents Western Massachusetts, including all of Berkshire and Franklin counties, and most of Hampshire and Hampden counties. Councilors serve two-year terms. Jacobs will take the seat of East Longmeadow resident Mary Hurley, who currently represents the district on the council and chose not to run for re-election.
Comerford did not respond to a request from Reminder Publishing by press time with comment following the race.
Jacobs has been involved in local government in North Adams, where she lives, as she has spent over five years on their School Committee and is a member of the Library Board of Trustees.
“It does feel the like end of a very long marathon and I worked so hard for this, but I did that because I wanted it so much and want to do this work so much and I hope to be able to do really great things through this role,” Jacobs said.
During her campaign, Jacobs has cited her priorities such as racial and social justice, transportation and having more transparency and better communication with the public to better educate about the position and role of the Governor’s Council in state government affairs.
Jacobs said her motivations for running have been two-fold and consistent from when she began her campaign up until the present day. She added she felt the work done by the Governor’s Council showed her the opportunities to effect positive change in communities through judicial nominations, Parole Board selections and many other of the council’s role.
“It matters who’s serving in those roles, it has an impact,” Jacobs added.
According to Jacobs when she moved to the Berkshires 17 years ago, she had an “intentional desire” to be involved with a community and do things that are meaningful and impactful in creating change. She added running for Governor’s Council felt like the next step of her taking the local focus and taking it to the state level with “that same motivation and desire to want to effect positive change.”
Jacobs noted a priority of hers is having diversity in the state’s judiciary like the Parole Board and on the bench and creating more equity within the state. These were just a couple of examples of why Jacobs was running.
“[It’s] about trying to promote people into those positions that are motivated to effect change on our racial disparity and incarcerated population,” Jacobs said. “I have so enjoyed advocacy work since moving here and the opportunity to be an advocate through the access that the Governor’s Council has in the State House every week and being surrounded by the legislature, to me it was an unbelievably juicy opportunity to be an effective advocate for Western Mass.”
Jacobs also expressed the importance of being a voice in the state government on behalf of Western Massachusetts. She added through discussions with voters across the district it has been made clear the importance of representing the needs of her constituents that are much different than on the other side of the state.
“The needs are so potent and they’re so different from Boston and we feel very underrepresented,” Jacobs said. “I’ve been connecting with our legislators from Western Mass. and they are a fantastic, confident and strong group, but we in Berkshire County just lost a seat [in the State House] and even before that happened, Western Mass only had about a 10 percent voice [in the State House].”
The challenges faced are the exact opposite of what Boston and the eastern part of the state see are important to Jacobs as she tries to give more representation and impact change in the state. She added some of this is tied to judiciary, but also tied to means around economics, healthcare and transportation.
Jacobs said as she awaits her official appointment into the Governor’s Council she wanted to stay persistent in identifying issues through constituents and finding solutions to these issues through her role.
With a new governor coming in as well after this election cycle it creates a new pipeline for the new members of the state’s government and work to be done by the council, according to Jacobs.
“My immediate out of the gate is going to be to focus more on the transparency aspect of what I ran on. So many people don’t even know what Governor’s Council is or that it exists or what they do so continue to build on the connections I’ve made across Western Mass. and to help continue to educate around Governor’s Council and engage people in talking about our judicial system and be a voice that actually is heard,” Jacobs said on her plans as she prepares to start the position.
She added she hopes she can help be a part of creating better communication and transparency on the Governor’s Council decisions.
“I am just feeling incredibly grateful and humbled by the outpouring of votes. It makes me feel so supported by the district and I very much hope to be making people feel confident and good about that vote and the work I do going forward because I intend to work just as hard as a member of Governor’s Council as I did in trying to become a member of the Governor’s Council,” Jacobs said.
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