Perhaps you, like me, don’t like standing alone in the voting booth staring at a piece of paper with names and ideas you’re mostly unfamiliar with.
I did some research for myself on the ballot I’m be facing on Tuesday, and I'm sharing with you my research, and, where available, linked to the debates and descriptions that will flesh them out. Claude AI helped me in this research.
At the bottom of this neutral list is a paywalled list of my idiosyncratic opinions on the bigger races and the 9 ballot questions. Claude AI did NOT help me write those opinions.
I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber today to support my work to inform South Berkshire County about what matters, and to expand our reach.
Thank you.
Secretary of State William Galvin’s website has links to local election offices for hours and locations of polling stations.
CANDIDATES
U.S. Senate
Edward J. Markey (Democratic, incumbent)
Markey is the incumbent U.S. Senator, serving alongside Elizabeth Warren. He was a House Member starting in 1976, and moved to the Senate in 2013. Seth Moulton ran against him in the primary and lost, framing his win as a mandate for progressive policies. Markey is 80 years old.
John Deaton (Republican)
In 2024 Deaton also ran against Senator Warren, winning 40% of the vote. He’s a former Marine, cancer surivivor, and running on an anti-corruption platform.
Shiva Ayyadurai (Independent)
Joe Tache (Socialism and Liberation)
LINK TO TELEVISED DEBATE BETWEEN MARKEY AND DEATON
STATE
Governor & Lieutenant Governor (run together as a ticket)
Healey and Driscoll (Democratic, incumbents)
Minogue and Oliver (Republican)
James and Kittredge (Independent)
LINK TO TELEVISED DEBATE BETWEEN HEALEY AND DRISCOLL
Attorney General: Andrea Joy Campbell (D, incumbent), Michael C. Walsh (R)
WGBH interview with Campbell, in which she explains why she did not debate Walsh.
Secretary of State: William Francis Galvin (D, incumbent), Anne R. Brensley (R)
Treasurer: Deborah B. Goldberg (D, incumbent), Elizabeth Dionne (R)
Auditor: Diana DiZoglio (D, incumbent), Al Ozonoff (Libertarian)
FIRST DISTRICT (BERKSHIRE COUNTY)
U.S. House, 1st District:
Richard E. Neal of Springfield (Democrat, incumbent)
Nadia Donya Milleron of Sheffield (Independent/Unenrolled)
Link to Village Green interview with Milleron. (Neal’s office never responded to our request for an interview.)
Governor’s Council, 8th District: Tara J. Jacobs (D), unopposed
State Senate, Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin & Hampshire: Paul W. Mark (D), unopposed
State Rep, 3rd Berkshire: Leigh Susan Davis of Great Barrington (D), unopposed
Berkshire District Attorney: Timothy J. Shugrue (D), unopposed
Berkshire Register of Probate: Kenneth Paul Ferris (D), unopposed
BALLOT QUESTIONS:
Question 1 — Public records. Would extend the public records law to the Legislature and the governor’s office, which are currently exempt.
Yes = they’d have to respond to records requests.
Question 2 — Public defender union. Would let employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services form a union and bargain collectively.
Yes = they can unionize.
Question 3 — All-party primaries. Would replace party primaries for state races with a single open primary, top two advancing to November, beginning 2028.
Yes = adopt it.
Question 4 — Election Day registration. Would let people register and vote the same day, starting 2028. Massachusetts now requires registering 10 days ahead.
Yes = allow it.
Question 5 — Tax cap formula. Would change how the state’s tax revenue cap and refunds are calculated, tying refunds more closely to annual revenue growth.
Yes = adopt the new formula.
Question 6 — Conservation funding. Would direct existing sales tax revenue from sporting goods, recreational vehicles and golf into a dedicated conservation and recreation fund. No new taxes.
Yes = create the fund.
Question 7 — Starter homes. Would bar cities and towns from requiring more than 5,000 square feet of lot area and 50 feet of frontage for a single-family home on lots with public water and sewer.
Yes = override those local minimums.
MINUTE 36 OF THE HEALEY DEBATE ADDRESSES QUESTION 7
Question 8 — Recreational marijuana. Would repeal legal recreational sales as of January 1, 2028. Medical sales would continue; possession of up to two ounces would stay non-criminal.
Yes = repeal legalization of cannabis.
Question 9 — The 2024 gun law. A referendum on the firearms law the Legislature passed in 2024.
This one is backwards from the others: a YES vote KEEPS the law. A NO vote repeals it.
MY TAKE
Though I’ve historically voted with Democrats, I’ve been a registered independent for a long time, and have grown more and more instinctively mistrustful of anyone of any party whose opinion seemed to have arrived verbatim from that party’s platform and not from their own thought process. No one has a monopoly on wisdom or practical ideas, but too often in our overwhelm or our partisan loyalty we go along with the familiar team’s take even if the other team’s take might be smarter.
Contributing to this sad state of affairs is our limited supply of old-fashioned reporting and serious journalism. Today you start with your set of opinions and seek out the sources that will confirm it. This is true of right and left.
I value nuance, integrity and common sense, and have not seen a lot of these qualities in candidates of either party or journalism representing either side of the political spectrum in recent years. Donald Trump has wrought damage in many spheres of our common life, with one of the most consquential being the way he’s wormed himself into our minds and hearts. Too many of his opponents mindlessly react, rather than thoughtfully respond, to him.
Too many anti-Trump folks resemble the pro-Trump folks in capitulating to his way of seeing life as a zero sum war.
Resistance to Trump’s America should mean, in part, resistance to this all-or-nothing framing.
I used to just vote D down the lined, but I’m proud that I do not, at this stage of my life, choose a candidate based on the D or R that appears by their name. I’m taking each one on their merits and seeking to make an educated, if necessarily imperfect, choice.
Here’s to thinking independently.
Paid subscribers can read on for my opinion on the most consequential races and the 9 ballot questions.