For Immediate Release

November 5, 2008

 

Contact: 
Andrea Miller

617-556-8800 x12

 

 

 

BOSTON, MA – This morning, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts announced that candidates who support a woman’s right to choose were victorious in the overwhelming majority of key contests for the State Senate and House of Representatives. The advocacy group – the driving force behind the election of pro-choice state legislators – estimates that at least 29 of the 34 pro-choice candidates running in contested races will win, resulting in a remarkable net gain of at least 6 pro-choice seats (5 in the House and 1 in the Senate) after the primary and general elections. The winners in contested general election races include 23 out of the 27 candidates NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts endorsed.

 

“Yesterday was an historic, banner day for privacy and reproductive health from the White House to the State House,” said Andrea Miller, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. “Voters across the Commonwealth again proved the power of the pro-choice majority, selecting our most pro-choice legislature ever while voting overwhelmingly to elect Senator Barack Obama as President and to send John Kerry back to the U.S. Senate.”

 

Before this election, Beacon Hill had a slim pro-choice majority – only 89 out of 160 Representatives and 26 out of 40 Senators – and eleven of these pro-choice legislators (8 Representatives and 3 Senators) did not seek re-election. Thanks to last night’s victories, the pro-choice majority will actually expand to at least 94 Representatives and 27 Senators.

 

“As we celebrate our pro-choice victories, we can’t forget that for too many of our citizens, access to reproductive health care remains an accident of geography, a function of income, or a question of knowledge,” continued Miller. “With our expanded pro-choice majority at the State House, we have an unprecedented opportunity to change that.”

 

NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts welcomes twelve new legislators into the pro-choice ranks and salutes two others who moved from the House to the Senate.

• Four captured seats in the general election not previously held by pro-choice legislators: Bill Bowles (D-Attleboro), Carolyn Dykema (D-Holliston), Danielle Gregoire (D-Marlborough), and Jason Lewis (D-Winchester) in the House.

• Three gained similar turnovers in the primary: Jim Dwyer (D-Woburn) and Anne-Margaret Ferrante (D-Gloucester) in the House; and Jen Flanagan (D-Leominster) in the Senate.

• Seven others retained currently pro-choice seats: Jen Benson (D-Lunenburg), James Cantwell (D-Marshfield), and Kate Hogan (D-Stow) in the House; and Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Jamaica Plain), Ken Donnelly (D-Arlington), Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), and Mike Moore (D-Millbury) in the Senate.

 

Miller also noted that all 18 pro-choice incumbents who faced a general election challenger were re-elected:

• 15 House incumbents: Geraldo Alicea (D-Charlton), Cory Atkins (D-Concord), Demetrius Atsalis (D-Barnstable), Cheryl Coakley-Rivera (D-Springfield), Thomas Conroy (D-Wayland), Christopher Donelan (D-Orange), Lori Ehrlich (D-Marblehead), Anne Gobi (D-Spencer), Donald Humason (R-Westfield), Bradley Jones (R-Reading), Barbara L’Italien (D-Andover), James Murphy (D-Weymouth), Matthew Patrick (D-Falmouth), Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown), and Rosemary Sandlin (D-Agawam).

• 3 Senate incumbents: Susan Fargo (D-Lincoln), Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst), and James Timilty (D-Walpole).

 

NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts endorsed more than 100 incumbents and challengers in the primary and general elections. Each cycle, the group provides direct assistance to candidates, trains candidates and volunteers, mobilizes its pro-choice grassroots base in targeted districts, conducts voter identification and get-out-the-vote activities in key races, and distributes a voters’ guide to its 20,000+ supporters across the Commonwealth.

 

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