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Date: 11/16/2022
WESTFIELD — Though Democratic Gov.-elect Maura Healey scored a convincing win over Republican Geoff Diehl in the Nov. 8 state election, the GOP candidate eked out a narrow victory in Westfield.
Even within Westfield, however, both candidates had their pockets of support. For many of the contested races on the ballot, the downtown neighborhoods of wards 2 and 3 followed the state trend supporting Democrats and progressive ballot questions, while the more suburban North Side wards 1 and 6, and Ward 5 in the southeastern corner of the city, were the local bulwarks of conservatism.
Healey took 63.5 percent of the vote statewide, according to figures reported by MassLive.com with an estimated 99 percent of votes counted. She only managed 48.3 percent in Westfield, while Diehl took 49.8 percent. In precincts 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B, however, she prevailed with margins of more than 100 votes. Healey also took more votes, but by a smaller margin, in Precinct 4B.
Democrats swept the other statewide offices, and Westfield split with the Massachusetts majority on two of them, again with the exception of downtown precincts. Democrat Andrea Campbell was elected the new attorney general with 62.6 percent of the state vote, but James McMahon took the city’s nod with 52.6 percent, despite precincts 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B voting for Campbell.
Diana DiZoglio was 54.9 percent of state voters’ choice for auditor, but 50.3 percent in Westfield preferred Republican Anthony Amore. Precincts 2A, 3A and 3B voted for DiZoglio, the Democrat.
Two incumbents completed the Democratic sweep, Deborah Goldberg for state treasurer (76.6 percent of the state vote, 67.4 percent of the city vote) and William Galvin for secretary of state (67.5 percent statewide, 53.8 percent in Westfield). All Westfield precincts voted for Goldberg, who had no Republican opponent but did face a Libertarian challenger, and all favored Galvin except Precinct 4A, which backed Republican challenger Rayla Campbell.
Western Massachusetts backed Democrat Tara Jacobs for an open seat on the Governor’s Council, with 61.5 percent of the vote, but Westfield mostly favored Republican John Comerford, who took 54.2 percent locally. As with the state races, however, the Democrat won in precincts 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B.
Precinct votes on one of the year’s most controversial ballot questions told a similar story. Question 1, a 4 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million, passed statewide by a 52-48 margin, but lost in Westfield, 55-45. Four precincts voted “yes,” however: 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B.
On another contentious vote, one downtown precinct supported Question 4 — confirming the state law that will allow people without legal residency status to apply for driver’s licenses. Precinct 3A voted 337-317 in favor of keeping the law, while the rest of the city voted overwhelmingly to repeal it, with 61.8 percent of Westfield voters on the “no” side. Overall, “yes” won the statewide vote, 54-46.
For the other two statewide ballot questions, Westfield reached the same result, if not the same percentages, voting “yes” for a cap on how much dental insurers can spend on administrative expenses, 60-40 (it passed statewide 71-29), and “no” on a proposal to change how many liquor retail licenses a company can hold, 67-33 (it weas defeated statewide 55-45).
Democratic U.S. Rep. Richard Neal was easily elected in his Western Massachusetts district, with 61.4 percent of the vote, but faced a closer fight in Westfield, where he prevailed with just 52.7 percent of the vote and where several precincts — 1B, 4A, 5A, 5B, 6A and 6B — favored his Republican challenger, Dean Martilli.
There was one race in which a Republican candidate failed to win a single precinct. State Sen. John Velis, a Democrat, won every precinct of his hometown, en route to 66.3 percent of the vote, slightly better than the 65.6 percent he recorded in his nine-town district as a whole. Velis was also the absolute top vote-getter among candidates with contested races in Westfield on Nov. 8, taking 9,189 votes out of the 14,067 cast.
Also on Westfield ballots on Nov. 8, District Attorney Anthony Gulluni and Sheriff Nicholas Cocchi, both Democrats, were reelected without opposition. The two state representatives whose districts include parts of Westfield, Kelly Pease and Michael Finn, were also unopposed.
In a local ballot question, voters in Precinct 6B and Subprecinct 2A1 — those who live in Finn’s district — narrowly agreed that the state should establish a government-run single-payer health care system, voting 486-484 in favor. The organizing committee behind the advisory question said it was on the ballot in 20 state representative districts across Massachusetts, and won in each of them. It achieved wider support in the other parts of Finn’s district, which also includes West Springfield and small parts of Agawam and Chicopee.