|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By 1 a.m. on Nov. 4, it was still too early to tell whether freshman Rep. Steven Ouellette would be returning to represent the 8th Bristol District on Beacon Hill, or if his Republican challenger would replace him — and flip the seat for the GOP.
Unofficial tallies left both candidates just neck and neck for the role, with Jesse St. Gelais ahead by only 91 votes, based on results from Freetown, Fall River, and New Bedford. As of early Wednesday morning, vote totals didn’t include the towns of Westport or Acushnet — Ouellette and St. Gelais’ hometowns, respectively.
Because of high voter turnout in Westport, a town election office worker told a reporter from The Light at 11 p.m. Tuesday that it would be hours more before unofficial results would be released.
During the campaign, both candidates agreed on some issues such as a cost-of-living rate too high for constituents. But they fell on either side of tried and true party lines when it came to recent abortion legislation and a firearms ballot question.
But the two candidates will have to wait until the backlog of ballots are tallied to know who will represent the residents of the 8th Bristol District.
‘There’s just so much to do’
It seemed to be anyone’s race around 12:30 p.m. on Election Day. Standing outside of a fire station in Westport, Ouellette seemed hesitant, yet not overly concerned, about the campaign.
“It’s a very high turnout, so we don’t know if that’s good or bad,” he said, holding a campaign sign almost the length of a sedan. “If they’re coming out to vote for question 9, that means they’re very conservative and it might hurt me.”
That ballot question, defeated Tuesday, asked voters whether to overturn legislation that set stricter regulations on guns, including requiring safety certificates to obtain firearm permits, mandating serial numbers for firearms and cracking down on untraceable firearms known as “ghost guns.”
Ouellette said some of the three bills he co-authored during his first term aren’t “super critical” — like his push to allow Acushnet officials to appoint retired police officers as special officers to perform details — but there’s still more work to be done.
“There’s just so much to do,” Ouellette said. “Plenty out there to do.”
He’s also secured earmarked money for a floating dock in Westport, clean air HVAC improvements for Acushnet public schools, and lighting and security upgrades at Freetown’s beach, according to his campaign website.
St. Gelais campaigned on priorities including conducting an audit of the Legislature and “stopping the climate agenda.” That means being a representative “that’s gonna stand up for the working people, the working poor,” he said in October.
The Republican candidate made it onto the ballot in September after beating Westport attorney Christopher Thrasher for the Republican nomination — a feat the 42-year-old Acushnet resident told The Light was “wicked humbling” after the primary elections.
Funds at stake. An uphill battle.
Ouellette told The Light in the afternoon on Election Day he’s got $2 million in bond bills for the district. But with reelection an uncertainty as of early Wednesday morning, those funds could be up in the air as well.
“A bond bill isn’t like an earmark, you’re not guaranteed, it has to be bonded out,” Ouellette said Tuesday. “I’m sure that would disappear because I wouldn’t be the sponsor there anymore.”
For St. Gelais, making it to Beacon Hill would also mean an uphill battle with his Democrat peers.
It is one thing to campaign on auditing the state’s legislative branch and repealing recently-passed abortion legislation, and it’s another to deliver. While St. Gelais previously told The Light he’d work to get the abortion law off the books, he’s facing a steep climb. Democrats held a 131-25 majority in the state House going into Tuesday’s election.
“I understand political party wise, I’d be outnumbered,” St. Gelais said on Election Day. “I’m not worried. We’re working together. … Again, I’m there to represent the district. I’m there to get the job done, that’s it.”
Nathan Collins is an investigative journalist and a Report for America corps member, covering the fishing industry, oceans and the blue economy. Report for America places talented journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions. Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@newbedfordlight.org.
