Progressives fall short of unseating incumbents

Date: 9/5/2018

It was a night locally during which political conventional wisdom prevailed. In a country where stories of upstart candidates in the Democratic Party upset incumbents no such situations prevailed in Hampden County.    

State Sen. James Welch triumphed over former Springfield City Councilor Amaad Rivera.  Activists Ivette Hernandez did not topple state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez in an unusual race with both candidates running on stickers.  Hernandez only received 9 percent of the vote.

Cheryl Coakley-Rivera running in a primary race for Register of Deeds against the eldest son of the late Register Donald Ashe crushed him receiving 98 percent of the vote.

State Rep Jose Tosado handily defeated Mark Kenyon.

In the race that received national publicity long-time incumbent Congressman Richard Neal pushed back the challenge from Attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadud running for office for the first time.

While there was certainly fire in the congressional race and in the Welch/ Rivera state senate contest, the primary did not generate a lot of interest among voters. The break room at Springfield City Hall – where election results are projected on a wall – had three reporters, several interested city officials and only two people watching the results to relay them to candidates.

In many election years, the room is packed with interested parties, but not this year. The primary’s results established a number of Davis versus Goliath races for November such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren facing state Rep. Geoff Diehl and Democrat Jay Gonzalez challenging Gov. Charlie Baker.

Baker received 64 percent of the vote against Springfield-based Rev. Scott Lively.

Locally the schism in the Democratic Party brought about by the last presidential race was clearly evident with the races for Congress, state representative and state senator.

Amatul-Wadud positioned herself as a progressive who wanted to see universal health insurance as one of her key positions. She criticized Neal for his campaign contributions from political action committees.

Despite the results, Amatul-Wadud, who received about 30 percent of the votes, seemed jubilant at her election party at the Munich Haus in Chicopee. Her supporters packed the upstairs function room.

Amatul-Wadud warmly thanked them and said, ‘There are no regrets. We are looking forward,” to applause.

Speaking to the press after her concession speech, Amatul-Wadud declined to predict her future noting that she has to make her law practice active again and put her children back into a normal routine.

“We’ll see what’s next,” she said. “I will keep supporting and advocating for the community. I don’t know what form that is going to take.”

Rivera’s campaign event was more subdued with supporters watching a television monitor at Smith’s Billiards for results. His campaign was backed by a number of activist groups with progressive agendas.

When it became apparent that Rivera who received 42 percent of the vote was not going to win he spoke with Reminder Publishing.

He said he believed that his campaign brought up important issues to the voters. He and Welch debated four times, more than any other race.

Rivera also noted he was out-spent by Welch two to one and that incumbency is a powerful institution in Massachusetts politics.

Yet he said, “Change is coming to Western Massachusetts … it may take a little longer.”

As far as his future plans, Rivera did not say what they might be other than “I’m getting to marry the love of my life. That’s the only thing I looking forward to.”

Welch celebrated his win with a party in his offices in downtown Springfield. “It was a great race,” he said. “Our team really worked hard to run a positive campaign.”

He believed the opposing campaigns took “two different tones” and he wanted to stay positive. The two men did have tense moments in debates with Welch defending his record charges from Rivera.

When asked if there is room in the Democratic Party for the moderate and progressive wings, he said the party is a “big tent.”

He added, “We all need to work together. The challenge to incumbents is what democracy is all about and that’s a good thing.”