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Cape & Islands Race By Fred Thys  Listen to story (Real Audio)
After 19 years at the State House, Eric Turkington is stepping down as the Representative for Falmouth and the Islands. Seven candidates are in the running to succeed him: four Democrats and three Independents, but no Republicans. WBUR's Fred Thys reports. TEXT OF STORY: [Sound of Tim Madden in front of the post office.] FRED THYS: Tim Madden is handing out leaflets in front of the Falmouth Post Office. TIM MADDEN: Good Morning, I'm Tim Madden. I'm running for state representative. I appreciate your giving it a read. WOMAN: What's your position on embryonic stem cell research? MADDEN: I don't see why not. WOMAN: Embryonic. There's a difference. MADDEN: Yeah. There is. WOMAN: So, you're in favor of killing human beings. MADDEN: Well, I'm in favor of research. THYS: Madden is on the ballot as an independent candidate, but he's also running a sticker campaign to become the Democratic candidate in the race. [Cross-fade from Falmouth Post Office to ferry sound.] THYS: After meeting voters in Falmouth, Madden barely makes it to Hyannis for the ferry back to Nantucket. He's the only candidate from Nantucket, and he says trying to get elected in a district with many parts separated by water is hard. MADDEN: It is obviously the most geographically disconnected district in the Commonwealth, if not the country. The worst-case scenario is when you don't get back to the island at all, or you miss the last plane. And a couple of weeks ago, I'd made a commitment that on a Saturday on Martha's Vineyard, so I spent six hours traveling for an hour-and-a-half meeting, four boat rides and two one-hour drives in each direction. [Sound of ferry announcement: "Welcome aboard the Island Home."] THYS: At seven in the morning, the other Tim in the race, Democrat Tim Lasker, hops a ferry from his home island, Martha's Vineyard. TIM LASKER: I call myself a converted summer kid. I'm not a washed-ashore. I don't like that expression. I'm a converted summer kid. I've spent at least one week of every summer of my life on the Vineyard. It just so happens the last thirty years, I've lived here year-round. [Cross-fade scene with sound of Lasker going door to door in Falmouth.] THYS: Lasker, a businessman, is trying introduce himself to the voters on the mainland in Falmouth by going door to door. TIM LASKER: Good Morning! My name's Tim Lasker, and I'm running for State Representative, and I wanted to just come by and say ? WOMAN: My hand is wet. I've just been cutting fruit. Sorry. You're from the islands, aren't you? LASKER: I'm from Martha's Vineyard. Yes. So, if there are any issues that you wanted to talk about. WOMAN: We're very concerned about the insurance on Cape Cod. LASKER: Yes! Yes! THYS: The current representative, Eric Turkington, is from Falmouth. But that could change. The town's dominance of the district has been eclipsed by the islands. The greatest number of voters now lives on Martha's Vineyard. Four of the candidates are from the Vineyard. THYS: Five candidates are on the ballot in next month's Democratic primary, but one has dropped out. So from the Vineyard, that leaves Lasker, Edgartown attorney Dan Larkosh, and Oak Bluffs selectman Roger Wey. From Falmouth, there's contractor David Moriarty. Whoever wins the Democratic primary then faces the three independent candidates: Madden from Nantucket, Cape Cod Community College professor Melissa Freitag, from Falmouth, and businessman Jake Ferreira, from Vineyard Haven. [Sound of waves] THYS: Ferreira is trying to persuade one of the mainland universities to set up a satellite campus on the Vineyard. JAKE FERREIRA: As people my age come back and want to be involved in our communities, how do we look for those higher-ed opportunities that should be readily available, like they are everywhere else in America and are not here for us? THYS: Ferreira could have run as the lone Republican in the race. Several party leaders asked the former Coast Guard officer to represent the party, but he decided to run as an independent instead. FERREIRA: I could think of no thing at that time that a party had done for myself, for my family or my friends, and so I thought I needed to go forward with this endeavor as an un-enrolled or an independent candidate. I did not want to tow a party line. THYS: The Republicans have said that this year, in a strategy to beef up their meager numbers at the State House, they would field candidates in every race where there is an open seat. [Sound of Falmouth Main Street] THYS: Former Falmouth selectman Troy Clarkson, a Republican who writes a blog on Falmouth, says it's frustrating that the Republican Party is not fielding anyone in this race. TROY CLARKSON: And the party is not really working hard, I think, to foster candidates locally, to get people involved in civic activity, so that when a seat, an open seat, comes along, there are people that have the experience and the credibility locally, and the name recognition to be a viable candidate, and that's a real problem for the Republican party. THYS: The party's executive director, Rob Wellington, declined to be recorded discussing the party's difficulties in finding someone to run in this race. To Doug Bennett, a former Nantucket Republican selectman and county commissioner, it's a sign of the party's decline. DOUG BENNETT: I think that the Republican Party is dying, okay? Especially here in Massachusetts. I think that they've forgotten their roots. Instead of being about less government and less taxes they became too much concerned about abortion rights and whether you're gay or straight, whether you should be allowed to get married, and issues like that. THYS: And so, in a hotly contested race with seven candidates, not a single one of them is a Republican. For WBUR, I'm Fred Thys. List of candidates Jake Ferreira: www.jacobferreira.com Melissa Freitag: http://www.melissafreitag.org/ Dan Larkosh: http://www.larkosh.com Tim Lasker: www.timlasker.com/ Tim Madden: www.timmadden.com/ David Moriarty: http://www.votemoriarty.com/index.html Roger Wey http://www.rogerwey.com/
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