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Date: 8/23/2022
HOLYOKE – As part of a swing through Western Massachusetts on Aug. 17, Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey joined local legislators and staff in a game of basketball against Holyoke youth at Jackson Courts as part of her Healey Hoops community basketball tour.
Organized with the help of Second Hampden and Hampshire District state Sen. John Velis and Ed Caisse, head of the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department’s Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative, the event drew several area Democratic legislators. Playing in the game were Velis and Ninth Hampden District state Rep. Orlando Ramos while Fifth Hampden District state Rep. Pat Duffy and Hampden District state Sen. Adam Gomez served as “coaches.”
Prior to the game, Healey told the teams she saw basketball as a way to bring people together and engage the community.
Healey was co-captain of the Harvard University women’s basketball team. When she graduated in 1992, she also ranked second in the Crimson’s history in assists and was the Ivy League’s lone representative at tryouts for the Olympic team in June of that year. She played professionally in Austria for two years – she explained to the teens gathered that the WNBA did not exist at the time and women had to pursue careers overseas – before earning her law degree in 1998.
Healey is the sole active candidate for governor on the Democratic ballot; state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz dropped out of the race in June but will appear on the Sept. 6 primary election ballot because she withdrew from the race after it was set. Healey will presumably face the winner of the Republican race between former state Rep. Geoff Diehl and Wrentham businessman Chris Doughty in the general election on Nov. 8.
Healey’s tour of Western Massachusetts also included a local business tour in Springfield with candidate for attorney general Andrea Campbell – who recently gained Healey’s endorsement – and 11th Hampden District state Rep. Bud Williams, an appearance at Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi’s annual summer cookout, and Gomez’s Springfield canvass kickoff.