Meet the Democratic Candidates For the State Senate Seat

Residents of Cambridge and several surrounding towns will vote in a special primary election on Tuesday to select their new State Senator, replacing currently imprisoned ex-Senator Anthony D. Galluccio.

The new Senator will represent the Middlesex, Suffolk, and Essex districts.

Six Democratic candidates—half hailing from Cambridge—will vie for the seat in Tuesday’s primary. There are no Republican candidates, but one Independent, John Cesan of Agawam, plans to run in the May 11 general election.

Galluccio, a former Cambridge mayor, was arrested in October 2009 for a hit-and-run accident which injured two individuals. Within three days of his sentence of house arrest, he violated his probation by failing a series of breathalyzer tests. He was sentenced to a year in jail and resigned his Senate seat a day later.

Galluccio has maintained his innocence and plans to appeal the decision.

The candidates who hope to fill his spot include a former opponent and a former aide, those with decades in politics and those with no background in government.

Meet all six, and hear their comments:

MICHAEL J. ALBANO

Albano, a real estate broker from Chelsea, says he has “been involved in politics most of [his] life,” starting at the age of seven when he knocked on doors to campaign for his father, a former Mass. State Senator.

Albano worked as a professional political consultant in the 1980s, and once he turned to a career in the real estate and advertising industries, he continued his political activism as a volunteer on many campaigns.

“We’ve got to change the way we conduct business on Beacon Hill,” he said. “I’m just tired of the game playing. It rears its ugly head so much more clearly when things are as bad as they are now.”

“People are hurting, and they’re angry and they’re frustrated, and still our government can’t find the will to act in the best interest of children and families,” Albano added.

He stressed the need for easier credit to keep small businesses afloat.

Albano also claimed to be the only candidate who opposes the legalization of casinos in Massachussetts and voiced his support for campaign finance reform.

Albano is optimistic about his chances: “Signs don’t vote,” he said. “People vote.”

DENNIS A. BENZAN

Benzan’s frustration over Democrat Martha Coakley’s loss to Republican Scott P. Brown for a seat in the U.S. Senate spurred him to run for the State Senate, he told The Crimson in January.

“There is a lot of frustration and disappointment in people across the state and the country that their elected officials are not really meeting their needs,” he said.

Benzan, a Cambridge lawyer who ran for the Mass. House of Representatives in 1996 and 1998, said that the open State Senate seat gave him the opportunity he had been seeking to jump back into politics.

Benzan emphasized education as a part of his platform, saying that math skills for young children and college readiness for minority youth are among his top priorities.

“While we are in a bad economy, the state does have resources,” he said. “Cambridge has great resources and yet we’re failing our children.”

Benzan said he believes “if programs don’t work, you don’t need to spend money on them.”

“Sometimes we have a tendency to complicate policy,” he added. “It’s very simple—people want a good education. They want jobs. They want healthcare. They want streets that are clean and infrastructure that’s not rotting away.”

SAL N. DIDOMENICO

A native Cantabrigian, DiDomenico has been involved in politics since his college years, beginning as legislative aide to State Representative Peter A. Vellucci. At the time of Galluccio’s resignation, DiDomenico was serving as his chief of staff.

In 2004, DiDomenico was appointed to the Everett Common Council and was unanimously elected in 2007 to serve as President of the Council.

DiDomenico emphasized a need to take prompt action to sustain small business, seeing them as a prime area for job creation.

“We have to bring down the unemployment rate of 9.5 percent,” he said.

Motivated by his two sons—both of whom attend public schools—and his wife—a special needs teacher—DiDomenico said he opposes teacher lay-offs, shrinking school budgets, and elimination of critical curricula.

He also outlined specific goals for each town in the district. For Cambridge, he envisions working with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to create jobs and ensuring adequate funding for safe and affordable housing.

“I know the issues in every city and every town; I’ve been working on them for two-and-a-half years,” he said, adding that he possesses a “unique understanding” of the districts.

TIMOTHY R. FLAHERTY

Flaherty, a Cambridge resident, said he ran against Galluccio for the Senate seat in 2007 “because as a strong progressive I was concerned about healthcare and essential human services.”

“My feeling is that [these issues are] even more important now, because in the down economy, these services need to be protected,” he said.

Flaherty cited his experience as “a major felony prosecutor” as good preparation for the Senate post.

“I ran a drug unit; I prosecuted multiple murder cases,” he said. “All of that taught me how important it is for government to be competent and very progressive.”

Flaherty’s five-point plan for creating new jobs in the state includes granting a tax credit to high-tech manufacturing companies, increasing loans to biotech startups, and fostering the growth of the film industry in Massachusetts.

He added that “Harvard needs to make a greater contribution to the communities of both Boston and Cambridge.”

If private universities in the district refuse to make greater contributions to the community, Flaherty said legislators can revoke these institutions’ tax-exempt status.

“The race has come down to a two-man race between me and the Everett candidate [DiDomenico],” Flaherty said regarding his chances of winning Tuesday’s primary.

DANIEL C. HILL

Hill, a lawyer from Charlestown, said he decided to run for a Senate seat in November 2009, even before Galluccio resigned.

“I certainly didn’t expect there to be an open seat,” he said. “I was planning to run against the Senator in the September primary.”

“I’m uniquely qualified in this election because I’m not a member of the political establishment,” Hill said. “I think that distinguishes me from the other candidates in that I can make decisions with objectivity and without the consideration of lobbyists and special interests who have donated to my campaign.”

Hill described his efforts as “an underdog campaign” with no professional staff.

“We’re hoping that this will work, that you don’t need to essentially take money from special interests to be elected,” he said. “If that’s what it takes to be elected, I think that’s a sad indictment on the state of our electoral system.”

“The core message of our campaign is sustainability,” he added. “What that encompasses to me is both economic prosperity as well as...protecting our environment and preserving our natural resources.”

E. DENISE SIMMONS

Simmons, whose nearly three decades of political involvement include a stint as Cambridge mayor, is currently serving her fifth term on the Cambridge City Council.

She said that her identity as an openly gay African-American woman has helped in her campaign.

“Certainly, other women, other people of color, other members of the LGBT community want to see someone that understands them working for them in the local government,” Simmons said. “At the same time, when someone comes to me and says ‘Councillor Simmons, I need help’...it doesn’t matter to them that I’m a woman, or a person of color, or openly gay.”

Simmons said that she plans to focus on economic development, job creation, environmental protection, and funding for essential services if elected.

While she admitted that she’s “never been the candidate that goes out and raises the most money,” she said she prefers “focusing [her] time and energy on speaking with the voters.”

“We’ve been getting some great feedback with all the phone calls, the door knocking, and just being out in the community,” she said.