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Date: 11/16/2022
PERU – Democratic state Rep. Paul Mark will move to the state Senate after beating independent Brendan Phair in the race to succeed state Sen. Adam Hinds, who did not run for reelection.
Mark, who is from Peru in Berkshire County, defeated Phair on Nov. 8 after having beaten Huff Templeton in the Democratic primary election in September. There was no Republican challenger in the district, which stretches from Southwick and several Hilltowns to the New York and Vermont state lines. In the November election, Mark received 46,124 total votes, while Phair received 14,454.
Mark served as a state representative in the Berkshires for 10 years. He initially entered politics through union activity when he was a lineman for a phone company. Mark describes himself as a “common-sense progressive.”
“I feel like we worked hard for a very long time in this campaign. We made great effort to reach out to each of the 57 cities and towns in the district,” said Mark.
Mark said that in his new term as a state senator he hopes to address housing costs, transportation and energy affordability, and the current cost of living in general.
As far as potential committee assignments, Mark said he is eyeing the committees for higher education, labor and workforce development, and ways and means.
Phair, a self-described conservative who ran without a party affiliation, said that he has no regrets about running.
“I’m glad I ran. I feel like I ran a pretty good campaign,” said Phair, a Pittsfield resident.
Though Phair lost the election by a wide margin, he did well in the eastern part of the district, which now includes Southwick, Tolland and Granville, and got 47 percent of the vote in the district’s Hampden County towns.
“It is a difficult road to pull off a victory with it being my first time running and being a conservative,” said Phair. “It is a tough region in the country to run with my views.”
He said during the campaign that he opposes abortion, and wanted to work to keep people from wanting to leave Massachusetts to live in other parts of the country.
Phair said that he does not intend to run for any future elections at this time.
Hinds had occupied the seat since the 2016 election, but gave it up this year in an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic lieutenant governor nomination.