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LEICESTER, Mass. — Though the lack of contested races in the state primary made for a slow day at the polls in Leicester on Thursday, candidates expect to see voters turn out in full force come Election Day in November.
Of Leicester's 7,301 registered voters, only 511, or 6 percent, cast ballots in the primary.
"The primary is very important when there's opposition within the same political party, but on this particular day it seems that everybody's running unopposed, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, or Green Rainbow, so turnout has been quite slow. But come here Nov. 6, and there will be a line of traffic that will not be stopped," said state Rep. John Binienda (D). Despite the lack of opposition, he was still out holding signs at the entrance of Washburn Square.
"I've been standing at this particular spot since 1984," he added. "This is John Binienda's spot. I'll be here in November, and I'll be here in two years and we'll keep going until I decide I'm too old. When I have the seeing eye dog and the walker, I'll slow down."
Nearby, his Republican opponent Bill LeBeau was also out holding signs "to get the message that there is a race for the first time in 12 years."
"Our representative has been there for 26 years, and it's important that we get some conversations going," said LeBeau.
For LeBeau, the most important issue is getting people back to work and getting a local aid increase.
If re-elected in November, Binienda said he looks forward to "finishing what we've started."
"If you look at the national numbers for unemployment, we're drastically under that in Massachusetts, and we're actually creating jobs," he said.
Binienda believes that this year's budget was one of his most successful.
"I was able to get an increase in Chapter 9, Chapter 70 and local aid, not just for Leicester, but for Worcester as well," he said. Binienda cited secured funds to repair Leicester's Rawson Street Bridge, $250,000 for Mass BioTech initiatives and $400,000 for the Talking Book Library in Worcester.
Leicester's unofficial primary results are:
Senator
Elizabeth Warren (D): 244
Scott Brown (R): 186
U.S. representative
Jim McGovern (D): 260
William Feegbeh (D): 42
State senator
Michael Moore (D): 268
Stephen Simonian (R): 151
Councillor
Jennie L. Caissie (R): 153
State representative
John Binienda (D): 273
Bill LeBeau (R): 157
Register of deeds
Anthony J. Vigliotti (D): 248
Clerk of courts
Dennis P. McManus (D): 247
Comments (8)
I'm not sure how credible anonymous posters are..." What I would like to see is their help to come up with a plan and funding for that plan to help us become less reliant on state aid. Until we do that we will never be able to move this town forward." ...seems like someone is mixing up their state and municipal governments?
We do have unfunded mandates.
We should not have them because they were made illegal with Prop 2-1/2 but we still have them. If we pay for some of them with state aid that was not intended for them, they are still pulling money from the taxpayers. Many other towns are facing the same issue.
I've never understood how unfunded mandates applies in a town that gets sixty percent of it's funding from state or Federal sources. The mandates will be unfunded when they are paid for using money raised by the town. They do not currently exceed that threshhold. So they are funded.
Binienda and Moore have done nothing to help us with the unfunded mandates that are crippling our town.
They also both voted for the new bill requiring most home daycare providers to join unions. This hurts working mothers that are going to have to pay more for childcare because the daycares will have to pay union dues WITHOUT any union benefits. This was a case of following the other entrenched politicians on Becon Hill and throwing a bone to the unions.
They should be thinking of us and not their gang at the statehouse.
I agree that Binienda and Moore have been a help in getting us funding and state aid. What I would like to see is their help to come up with a plan and funding for that plan to help us become less reliant on state aid. Until we do that we will never be able to move this town forward. Even though they were able to get us a bit more money it is still a lot less than it was 5 years ago yet our costs have gone way up. The portion of the budget paid by property taxes just can't keep up. So we need 2 commitments from them. 1) they will continue to fight to get us the most state aid they can and 2) they need to meet with both the school committee, selectmen, and advisory boards to come up with a plan that helps breaks that dependency. Otherwise we will be forced to further cut services because the size the 2 1/2 override would have to be to make up for it will never pass or be able to be sustained.
Thanks to the poll workers. I know it's a hard job to sit there all day with such low turn out numbers; even if it's expected due to the lack of competitive primary races.
Great points Scott. I would like to add that Senator Moore and Rep Binienda, together, secured that Rawson Street Bridge money.
I don’t think the argument that Representative Binienda is not bringing in enough local aid holds water. I’m sure that most citizens of Leicester are perfectly aware that both Representative Binienda and Senator Moore have brought in more revenue to the town of Leicester than most other representatives and senators who represent other community’s.
All one has to do to see the value our representative and senator bring to our community is to look at our local budget. Almost 60% of our budget is funded through state (local) aid. We also had the Rawson Street Bridge that should have been the town’s responsibility to repair, receive almost a million dollars in secured funds from the state; these funds were secured because of the efforts brought forth by our representative and senator.
As local property tax revenue has decreased leaving our community in a budgetary decline, both Representative Binienda and Senator Moore helped to keep us a float with additional state funding to both our Schools and Highway department. Again, receiving almost 60% of our revenue from state aid tells me that our state representative and senator have gone above and beyond for our community. I’m not sure I’m willing to give that up at a time when our community’s needs are so high. Great job guy’s keep up the good work.
Scott