Tight Races Culminate With Today's Primaries

For the candidates on today’s Mass. state primary ballots, nine months of bitter attack ads, relentless campaigning and infinite photo ops all boil down to voter turnout.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin has predicted a slightly higher turnout than the 1998 election, when 630,000 of the state’s four million registered voters went to the polls.

Broken down by party, of Cambridge’s 57,369 registered voters, there are 32,136 Democrats, 4,489 Republicans, 20,083 unenrolled and 661 voters registered in various smaller parties.

As in the rest of the state, the unenrolled voters represent the critical swing vote in today’s election because of their ability to vote for candidates in the party of their choice.

While many candidates are running for office unopposed within their party—for them the primary is a moot exercise—today will also see several fierce intra-party battles resolved.

The Democrats

In the Democratic Primary, four gubernatorial candidates have been slugging it out all summer to earn a single place on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Shannon P. O’Brien—state treasurer and a former state legislator—leads current polls. She is followed closely by Warren E. Tolman, a former state legislator, Robert B. Reich, a Brandeis University professor and former secretary of labor and Thomas F. Birmingham’72, president of the state senate. (Steven Grossman is also listed, though he withdrew from the race in July)

There are seven additional Democratic candidates running for two state executive positions.

Christopher F. Gabrieli ’81, Lois G. Pines and John P. Slattery are running for lieutenant governor. Additionally, Michael P. Cahill, Timothy P. Cahill, Stephen J. Murphy and James W. Segel ’67 are running for treasurer.

Additionally, there are three Democrats running for State Senate in the Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex District: Jarrett T. Barrios ’90, Carlo DeMaria Jr. and Anthony G. Galluccio.

The Republicans

Republican gubernatorial candidate W. Mitt Romney is running unopposed in his party’s primary, but his running mate—former state party head Kerry M. Healey ’82—faces her biggest test of the campaign today when she duels Jim Rappaport, a real estate developer who garnered the party’s nomination at its convention last April.

Daniel A. Grabauskas and Bruce A. Herzfelder ’81 are also running on the Republican ticket for treasurer.

Casting the Ballot

Cantabrigians will vote at 33 polling locations manned by 231 staffers, according to the Cambridge Election Commission, which will oversee today’s proceedings. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Harvard College is divided among three different wards and four different precincts, and students claiming residence in Cambridge will vote in one of four different polling locations, according to their campus residence.

Students living in the Quad (designated part of Ward 8, Precinct 1) should go to the Peabody School at 44 Linnaean St., at the playground entrance.

The Yard dorms, as well as the Russell and Westmorely buildings in Adams House (designated Ward 7, Precinct 3) will vote at Gund Hall, located at 48 Quincy St., via the Cambridge St. entrance.

The polling location for Kirkland, Winthrop, Lowell, Quincy, Adams (Randolf), Leverett (McKlinlock), Eliot and DeWolfe (designated Ward 8, Precinct 3) is at the main entrance to Quincy House.

Students in Dunster, Mather and Leverett F and G (designated Ward 4, Precinct 3) should go to the Putnam Apartments, located at 2 Mt. Auburn St.

Only students in Ward/Precinct 8-1 and 7-3 will be eligible to vote for the Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex state senate race, while students in other wards will vote in an uncontested senate race in the First Suffolk and Middlesex district.

—Staff writer Christopher M. Loomis can be reached at cloomis@fas.harvard.edu.