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Five candidates are vying to fill the open state representative seat in the 8th Bristol District — the most crowded local race in the November election. It includes an establishment-backed Democratic candidate, a Republican candidate who secured the primary in an 11th-hour write-in campaign, and three independent candidates from different sides of the region’s business community.
The 8th Bristol District is diverse, including rural and agricultural towns — all of Westport, parts of Freetown and Acushnet — and some precincts in New Bedford and Fall River. For the last 14 years, Paul Schmid, a Westport Democrat, has held the seat, maintaining a keen focus on education and agricultural issues. In recent years, the district has started to bend more conservative, as redistricting has added more precincts from a conservative region of Acushnet. That was reflected in the last election, which Schmid won by a narrow margin of 7 percent.
Key 2024 election dates
Nov. 5 general election
The general election is Nov. 5, with a new set of deadlines.
Oct. 19 to Nov. 1: Early voting from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Main Public Library, 613 Pleasant St.
Nov. 5: General election. Polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
More voter info
Where do you vote? To find your specific polling location, enter your street address and postal zip code in this online form. Check the list of New Bedford’s polling locations here.
Get additional info on voter registration, eligibility, requirements, etc., at the Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth website.
Find a list of Massachusetts candidates in the Democratic and Republican primary races.
Learn more about voting in New Bedford and find applications for absentee ballots and applications for voting by mail at the New Bedford Election Commission website.
Find additional information about voting in Massachusetts at Vote 411, from the League of Women Voters Education Fund.
At a debate last week at New Bedford’s Pulaski School, hosted by WBSM’s Phil Paleologos, there was little distinction between the candidates on national issues. Each said they believe the Second Amendment should be protected. While each said alternative energy sources are good, they were skeptical of offshore wind development, its impact on the marine ecosystem and the district’s shoreline. Where they differed were local issues, the experience each candidate brings to the table, and the communities that they represent.
Steve Ouellette
Steve Ouellette, 60, of Westport, the Democratic candidate, has more than three decades of experience serving as facilities director for the region’s public schools, most recently in Acushnet. He also sits on the Westport Select Board and many local committees. As a licensed plumber, Ouellette says, he is pragmatic and focused on the physical aspects of politics: educational facilities, public infrastructure, and transportation.
“I represent the working class: the people who come home, pay their taxes and want to be left alone,” he said. “I am very big on public safety, the schools, and making sure people have decent and safe roads to drive on.”
Rep. Schmid and Sen. Michael Rodrigues (1st Bristol & Plymouth) have both endorsed Ouellette. He has also received contributions from other Democratic politicians in the region, including his fellow Select Board member Craig Dutra and former New Bedford mayor John Bullard. But the largest single donation to his campaign came from outside of the district. Priscilla “Kenzie” Bok, former Boston City Councilor and current CEO of the Boston Housing Authority, contributed $1,000 to his campaign in September. Ouellette said he does not have an alliance with the Boston Housing Authority, and that the donation does not mean he is supporting any bills or projects advanced by the organization.
Ouellette said that in his more than 40 years serving in Westport government, he is proudest of improving safety on the region’s highways. He is on the regional planning board for roads and housing, and pointed to working with the state delegation to install cable barriers along highway medians. Within a week, he said, it prevented two car accidents from becoming more severe.
“It stopped a sure tragedy,” he said.
Schmid, Rodrigues and Ouellette have played musical chairs over the last two decades. When Rodrigues ran for Senate in 2011, his former seat as state representative was filled by Schmid, who at the time sat on the Westport Select Board. Whereas other candidates have criticized Ouellette for being “ordained” by the region’s Democratic Party, Ouellette says that his close relationship to the region’s politicians (such as Rodrigues, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee), will help him secure funding for the district and “get things done,” he says.
“I have first-hand experience knowing what the towns need from their state government. I want to help them get it,” Ouellette said. “I can use my leadership and years of experience to build on what I’ve done for Westport.”
Christopher Thrasher
There was no candidate on the ballot in the Republican primary for the 8th Bristol District. Christopher Thrasher, the Republican candidate, saw his opportunity.
The 39-year-old ballot access attorney and political consultant, who moved to Westport in 2021, wasted no time getting involved in local politics. This year he was elected to an uncontested seat on the Westport School Committee. He also recently joined the town’s Finance Committee and Economic Development Task Force.
He presents his campaign as one of resistance to what he calls Massachusetts’ “one-party supermajority where very little gets done.” He launched his campaign as a write-in candidate and gained enough votes to secure the uncontested Republican primary. His campaign is largely self-financed. He has put up $20,500 of his own money, which is more than 80% of his total campaign contributions.
Thrasher’s legal career has mostly focused on ballot access. He said he has worked on major national campaigns across the political spectrum. That includes the campaigns of Mike Gravel, Ron Paul, Ralph Nader and Gary Johnson, he said. Recently, he consulted for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. His North Carolina-based consulting firm received $520,267 between January and March of this year from American Values 2024, a PAC supporting Kennedy’s campaign, according to research group OpenSecrets. The PAC did not donate to Thrasher’s campaign.
Thrasher has also been involved in a local dispute in Falmouth. He is director of policy for Mass Priorities, an extension of a Minnesota-based 501(c)4 policy advocacy organization that has been fighting against the establishment of municipally-owned broadband networks, both in Falmouth and nationally. Falmouth voters established a board to create a municipal broadband network by town meeting in 2022. Thrasher’s campaign against the plan was criticized by its advocates, who accused Thrasher of working for “big cable” companies to thwart the town’s efforts. Thrasher declined to disclose the funding sources for Mass Priorities; 501(c)4 regulations protect their identity. He also did not list his role with Mass Priorities on his financial statements, which he said in an interview is because his consulting firm was contracted by the organization so he was not required to list it. He said he still consults for the organization but would drop the client if he were elected.
Thrasher pushes back on claims from other candidates that he is a carpetbagger. He said he earned his law degree from UMass Dartmouth’s law school in 2023, and that he is a member of the Mayflower Society. He said he is committed to the district.
“I have lived longer in Westport than I have anywhere since I was 18,” he said.
He has made education a priority in his campaign, focusing on what he calls “unfunded mandates” from the state that bloat the public schools’ budget. He specifically pointed to transportation costs for students requiring special education. The state requires that the school pay to transport those students to schools that have the resources to educate them, but the state does not fully reimburse the school system for those costs.
“When the town is paying for this, as much as $800,000 for a single child, it takes a dramatically outsized portion of the budget and creates a serious discrepancy,” he said. “The state is wasting millions of dollars on things like unaccounted-for spending on a migrant crisis. It’s a question of spending priorities, and education absolutely needs to be a priority.”
Thrasher’s campaign is being run by Evan Gendreau, a young Republican political hopeful who, after two unsuccessful attempts to run for state representative in the district, suspended his campaign this year early in the primary. Gendreau and Thrasher are both on the Westport School Committee.
Though all candidates have stated their skepticism towards offshore wind development, Thrasher is the most vocal and has gained some support from anti-offshore wind organizations. Last week, he attended a demonstration against offshore wind outside a ribbon-cutting ceremony for New Bedford’s newly developed North Terminal.
“The offshore wind scam has to be stopped,” he said. “The economic benefits and the environmental benefits are absolutely not coming to fruition. What is happening is the exact opposite of what we were promised.”
Jesse St. Gelais
Jesse St. Gelais has gained the most support among the race’s three independent candidates. The 41-year Acushnet resident is an insurance agent for his family’s firm, Help-U-Insure, in New Bedford’s North End.
St. Gelais does not have any direct experience in elected politics besides serving as vice president of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, a fraternal association with many members in prominent political positions across the South Coast. As an independent voter, St. Gelais said he decided to run for office because he did not see himself or his beliefs represented in state politics.
“I did not feel the working family man was being represented,” he said. “We need someone with common sense that is grounded in this community.”
Despite his lack of experience, his fundraisers have drawn large crowds. He has received more than 150 campaign contributions totaling $25,948 — the most of any candidate — the majority in small donations. In a district where candidates are mostly concentrated in Westport, he has secured the support of seven New Bedford city councilors, including Shawn Oliver, who is running his campaign, in addition to state Rep. Chris Hendricks and Josh Amaral, New Bedford’s director of housing and community development.
St. Gelais has made transparency in government a key issue in his campaign. He said that, if elected, he would support the efforts of State Auditor Diana DiZoglio to audit the Senate and House of Representatives, an issue that has received significant pushback from the legislature.
“As a regular person, I want to know what’s going on,” he said. “Right now government feels emboldened to keep everything behind closed doors. They work for us.”
St. Gelais has also drawn support from the business community through relationships developed through his career in insurance. He expressed an interest in lowering the commercial tax rate to attract new businesses to the area. He added that, similar to how Schmid championed agricultural issues, he plans to be a voice for New Bedford’s fishing industry, especially when it comes to regulations and its tensions with offshore wind development.
“This is a fishing town,” he said. “We need someone with boots on the ground that is going to go to the State House and advocate for the industry that is so important to this area. Right now, they don’t have anybody.”
Laura Hadley
Laura Hadley, also an independent candidate, has developed an expertise in both constitutional rights and environmental technology.
“I have a lifelong passion for clean water and constitutional rights, neither of which defend themselves,” Hadley said at the debate last week.
Hadley is a licensed attorney, representing clients in real estate, environmental and commercial operations, according to her website. She is the founder and CEO of a clean water start-up focused on cyanobacteria and algae bloom remediation technology. She is also on the board of a nonprofit that advances research technology to improve water quality and watershed management.
Hadley has received about $2,600 in campaign contributions, about half of which is self-financed. Her only corporate contribution came from a program manager for Arlington-based Takeda Pharmaceutical. She did not return calls requesting an interview with The Light.
As an independent, she presented her campaign as one of unifying the divisive two-party system. She also said she would work hard to defend against the erosion of constitutional rights. In her remarks at the debate, she cited the Declaration of Independence more than once.
“We are at a juncture of history. Between climate change, the environment, the economy — you name it and there seems to be a divide,” she said. “At the end of the day, we are all human. Keeping our common humanity is central to being able to have a dialogue, regardless of the color hat you wear.”
Hadley said, if elected, she would build on her experience in technology to address water quality issues in the state.
“We have to see what is working around the country, both on the policy level and the technology level, and work together to do what is in everyone’s best interest,” she said.
Manuel Soares Jr.
Manuel Soares Jr., also an independent candidate, is a civil construction contractor based out of Dartmouth, specializing in clean water and hazardous waste removal, he said.
Soares has experience in Westport politics: He is a member of the Select Board and the Planning Board. According to archived clips from the Fall River Herald News, he was first inspired to run for office in 2020 because of a land use dispute between him and the town of Dartmouth. The town issued a cease and desist order on the Route 6 property his company used to store and process construction materials, stating that it violated zoning laws. It ultimately resulted in his arrest for failure to comply.
He told the Herald News at the time the dispute was an example of how “Dartmouth treats hard-working families, farmers and businesses.”
Soares’ campaign for state representative this year has significantly less edge. At the candidates’ debate last week, he told the audience his top priority is protecting the environment. He said his 40 years of experience in hazardous waste removal have developed his expertise in the field.
“Everyday on the South Coast is affected by our environment,” he said. “I’ve watched as our local farmers have struggled and our water quality has been compromised by pollution . . . protecting our local natural resources should be our top priority.”
Soares did not return calls requesting an interview with The Light.
As an independent, Soares told the audience at the debate he is critical of what he described as the “political machine” that “ordained” Ouellette to fill the vacant seat. He has not received much financial support, less than $3,000, and has not yet disclosed details of who made those contributions, according to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance. It is unclear if Soares missed the deadline for filing the reports.
Of his time in Westport politics, Soares said he was proudest of working to secure a $4 million grant to extend the water main down Route 6 to one of the elementary schools that he said was having problems with its drinking water.
It would be the first water main extension since 1986, though it is a controversial issue in Westport. In April, voters shot down a budget override to fund an upgrade to the water and sewer line crossing Westport from Fall River to Dartmouth along Route 6. The project would have allowed for more development along the town’s main economic corridor — but many voters were skeptical of the cost, the possibility of increased traffic due to more businesses, and the prospect of more residential development in a town that prides itself on its rural character.
“The simple answers are, you could have more buildout, businesses could build bigger, they’re going to have clean water,” Soares told EastBayRI in 2023. At the debate last week, he told the audience he will continue to promote the project and to secure state and federal funding to ease the burden on taxpayers in Westport.
Email reporter Will Sennott at wsennott@newbedfordlight.org.
Why anyone would throw their vote away on one of the independents is beyond me. These individuals will be completely irrelevant in the legislature and unable to accomplish anything for their constituents. But hey, it’s a paycheck and I suspect that’s what matters.
Also, someone really needs to take a dive into the details of the Petitpas v St Gelais lawsuit. I’d like to hope it would change some minds and prevent a potentially embarrassing situation for this part of the state, which is almost constantly awash in embarrassing situations.
As an Independent voter, I don’t side with colors or right or left, conservative or liberal. Most people like me, don’t agree with everything the Democrats or the Republicans stand for. I’m not sure who I’m voting for but I do feel my vote counts.