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Date: 9/13/2022
CHICOPEE – Veteran and educator Shirley Arriaga defeated Ward 1 City Councilor Joel McAuliffe in the Democratic primary for the 8th Hampden District state representative seat. The race drew the interest of local and state leaders alike as both candidates vied for voters’ interest during the competitive summer months.
Arriaga
Arriaga will now face off against independent candidate Sean Goonan in the Nov. 8 election. If elected to office, Arriaga will become the first woman and first person of Latin American descent to secure the 8th Hampden District state representative seat.
Arriaga and Goonan are competing to replace a vacant seat after state Rep. Joseph Wagner announced that he would not seek re-election in February. Wagner served as state representative and second assistant majority leader during his 31 years in office.
Reflecting on her primary victory, Arriaga said she is “honored and humbled” to receive the support of voters.
“It’s a great feeling … I am thrilled, I am honored and I am ready to continue working hard to advocate for my community,” said Arriaga.
Arriaga also expressed her excitement in representing a voice of political change in Chicopee.
“Chicopee has changed and it’s increasingly diverse as the years go by. To be able to represent that diversity that we currently have here is great. I think that’s what we need. We need elected officials who are representative of their community,” said Arriaga.
Arriaga, an educator at Chicopee High School and a United States Air Force veteran, earned the role of staff sergeant while serving as a loadmaster in the 337th Airlift Squadron out of Westover Air Reserve Base starting in 2010. During her time in the military, Arriaga worked in the Women in Aviation Initiative before becoming Congressman Richard Neal’s veteran services director. She also ran for an at-large seat on the City Council in 2021.
Arriaga received her bachelor’s degree from Elms College and her Master of Law from Western New England University.
For her political platform, Arriaga touted her desire to support education, small businesses and local transportation. She advocated for educational entities to receive additional funding to curb deficits and the lingering impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I will advocate for additional funding to help close the educational gap that we are currently experiencing … The pandemic exacerbated the cracks in our education system and community overall. If anything, the coronavirus pandemic simply shined a light on a system that was already in jeopardy. Education is the key to absolutely everything, and our children deserve the very best. That is why education will be one of my top priorities,” said Arriaga.
During her campaign, Arriaga earned the endorsement of several political leaders, including state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, state Rep. Orlando Ramos, former Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos and Wagner himself. Reflecting on his endorsement, Wagner initially planned to stay uninvolved with the race until he learned of Arriaga’s campaign efforts.
“Going into this, I thought I would just stay on the sidelines … When announcement papers became available, I said ‘I hope the people who give this thought and decide to run, run campaigns worthy of consideration by Chicopee voters.’ I think Shirley has been really exemplary in that regard,” said Wagner.
Wagner offered significant praise of Arriaga’s skillset.
“She leads with integrity, her work ethic is second to none. She has knocked on the door of every voter in this district – most of them more than one time, and that’s not an easy thing to do. That takes commitment. She’s passionate about the issues of today,” said Wagner.
Arriaga also expressed appreciation for Wagner’s support.
“He has served our district for almost 32 years. He’s done a great job here. Our roads, our school buildings, our libraries, he definitely championed for Chicopee … For him to say that, from his experience and time in leadership, that I will be what’s best for Chicopee reiterates we’re doing this for the right reasons,” said Arriaga.
Moving forward, Arriaga is now focused on earning voter’s trust again in November.
“I know I have the November election. We are not going to stop. We are not going to slow down. We are going to keep at it and secure this seat,” said Arriaga.
McAuliffe
McAullife’s campaign bid for the state representative seat marked a potential next step in his political career. Following his college education at Springfield Technical Community College and Arizona State University, McAuliffe worked as an aide to Kos from 2014 to 2017. He soon after joined state Sen. Eric Lesser’s office as the senator’s deputy chief of staff, serving in the position up until his announcement for the state representative seat in March.
McAuliffe also established a career as a local legislator after being elected to the Ward 1 City Council seat in 2017. Over the last five years, McAuliffe advocated for unions and municipal city wide internet services via Crossroads Fiber.
In his campaign bid, McAuliffe drew endorsements from local leaders, including Mayor John Vieau, City Council President Frank Laflamme, Lesser and several local organizations.
McAuliffe hosted a primary results event at the Munich Haus on election night. The event featured a who’s who of local political leaders and an operatic stage prepped for the city councilor’s announcement. Minutes before McAuliffe entered, the power in Munich Haus and across Chicopee Center went out.
McAuliffe took the stage and announced the news.
“This is not the speech I expected to give here tonight … Shirley is now the Democratic nominee for the state representative. I congratulated her on running a strong race,” said McAuliffe.
McAuliffe reflected upon the campaign he and his team ran. He shared that he connected with thousands of residents and listened intently to constituent concerns.
“I am still very proud of the campaign we ran despite the results … We ran a strong race ourselves. We knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors across the city. I had conversations with voters about their wants and their needs. Regardless of the outcome of tonight, those conversations are worthy,” said McAuliffe.
McAuliffe thanked his family members and the leaders who supported his campaign along the way. He also noted that the day remains a “momentous occasion” as Arriaga moves forward in the race.
“Each campaign we run is about lifting people up and making sure everybody has a voice. There are a lot of people in our city who have been without a voice because they have not been represented by someone who look like them. This is a tremendous opportunity to activate a really important community group in our community, and I’m grateful for that,” said McAuliffe.
McAuliffe concluded by issuing his full endorsement for Arriaga’s election bid.
“I promised to work alongside Shirley, she has my full support in this race, and I hope all of you go out and elect her as our next state representative,” said McAuliffe.
Election night difficulties
While the public eagerly awaited polling results at 8 p.m., City Clerk Keith Rattell and his team were dealt with an unforeseen problem - the power suddenly went out throughout Chicopee Center.
For Rattell, the blackout came near the end of a 17-hour day dealing with election day business. Rattell said the power outage did not negatively impact the tallying of election night ballots.
Rattell said one of his first tasks when elected as City Clerk over a decade ago was addressing the 40-year-old voting machines the city was utilizing.
“When I got elected city clerk, I spent a lot of time modernizing and streamlining the office … I started the process of procuring new [voting machines] for the city. One of the things I wanted to make sure was that not only did every single machine have a battery backup at the polls, that the tallying computer and machine we use at the office had a backup as well,” said Rattell.
Rattell shared that the new equipment allows he and his team to be prepared for any situation that may occur.
“Everything went on as usual. Even if there was a city wide blackout or power outage, all of the voting machines at every precinct, not only would they not lose the information and still store everything, there are on and you could still use them,” said Rattell.
Amidst the dimly-lit emergency lights in City Hall, Rattell and his team utilized flashlights while completing the final tallying of election votes.
“It was a heck of a day,” said Rattell.