4 Democrats Vie For Mass. Senate Seat

BOSTON — Four Democrats are vying in a special election to fill a vacant seat in the Massachusetts Senate.

Voters in the second Suffolk and Middlesex District go to the polls on Tuesday to choose a successor to former state Sen. Steven Tolman, who resigned after becoming president of the AFL-CIO of Massachusetts, the state’s largest labor union.

The district includes Watertown, Belmont and portions of Boston and Cambridge. The four Democrats on the primary ballot are state Rep. William Brownsberger of Belmont; state Rep. Jonathan Hecht of Watertown; Robert McCarthy, the former president of the state firefighters union; and Timothy Schofield, a Boston attorney who was endorsed by Mayor Thomas Menino.

There are no Republicans on the ballot, making it virtually certain that Tuesday’s Democratic winner will become the next senator.