Does your state lean blue or lean red? Check out our new report, highlighting partisan control of state government from 1992-2013.
William F. Galvin
| William Francis Galvin | ||
 | ||
| Massachusetts Secretary of State | ||
| Incumbent | ||
| In office | ||
| 1995 - Present | ||
| Term ends | ||
| 2014 | ||
| Years in position | 18 | |
| Party | Democratic | |
| Predecessor | Michael J. Connolly (D) | |
| Compensation | ||
| Base salary | $130,916 | |
| Elections and appointments | ||
| Last election | November 2, 2010 | |
| First elected | November 8, 1994 | |
| Term limits | N/A | |
| Education | ||
| Bachelor's | Boston College (1972) | |
| J.D. | Suffolk University Law School (1975) | |
| Personal | ||
| Birthday | September 17, 1950 | |
| Place of birth | Brighton, Massachusetts | |
| Websites | ||
| Office website | ||
Contents |
William Francis Galvin (born on September 17, 1950, in Brighton, Massachusetts) is the current Democratic Secretary of the Commonwealth. He was first elected to the statewide position in 1994 and subsequently re-elected to the office four more times since then.
Biography
Bill Galvin began his political career in the midst of attending law school, working as an aide to the Governor of Massachusetts's Council. In 1975, the same year he graduated from Suffolk University Law School, he won a special election to the Massachusetts General Court as a state representative from the Allston-Brighton district. Galvin held onto that position until 1990 when he won the Democratic Party's nomination in the race for Treasurer; he was later defeated in the general election by Republican Joe Malone.[1]
Education
- Bachelor's degree, Boston College (1972)
- Juris Doctorate degree, Suffolk University Law School (1975)[1]
Political experience
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth (1994 - present)
Galvin was first elected to Secretary of the Commonwealth. He first won re-election in 1998 and every election since.
Galvin has been an active participant in the National Association of Secretaries of State, serving first as Chairman of the Standing Committee on Securities, then as Co-Chairman of the Committee on Presidential Primaries.[1]
Controversies
Senate seat certification
Following the death of long-time Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy, in August 2009, a special election was to be held on January 19, 2010 to determine who would take up the seat held by governor-appointee Paul G. Kirk, who had agreed not to run in the contest. In the midst of the special election campaign, health care reform came to the forefront of the national debate. The United States Senate version of the health care measure barely passed on Christmas Eve 2009 with a sixty vote majority, strictly on party lines. The loss of just one vote would seriously jeopardize efforts to pass the joint House and Senate version of the bill. This put the Massachusetts special election in the national spotlight. The Democratic primary winner, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who had flipped-flopped on the issue of health care during the course of the campaign, said that she would likely support the passage of health care reform. Scott Brown, the Republican candidate, on the other hand has said that he planned on being the 41st vote to kill the measure.
With this in mind, the Democratic leadership, both nationally and within the state of Massachusetts itself, were prepared to delay the certification of the winner of the special election in order to pass health care reform in the Senate should Brown be elected. While a spokesman for Galvin's office suggested that the "certification of the Jan. 19 election by the Governor's Council would take a while," another source indicated that Galvin would not certify the winner of the election, should it turn out to be Scott Brown, "until Feb. 20 - well after the president’s [State of the Union] address." [2]
Massachusetts state law dictates that an appointed senator, in this case Paul Kirk, must remain in office until election and qualification of the person duly elected to fill the vacancy. Republican Party attorneys argued, however, that "an appointed senator’s right to vote is not dependent on whether his successor has been certified." In other words, following the special election, Kirk might have lost the right to cast a vote on behalf of the state of Massachusetts in the United States Senate, even if a recount, which can only occur "if the margin of victory is less than half a percent of the total vote," [3] was enacted.
On the eve of Scott Brown's historic election victory, Democratic Virginia Senator Jim Webb, who, in 2006, unseated Republican incumbent George Allen, released a statement in which he said "it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated." [4]
Nearly two and a half weeks after his historic victory in Massachusetts, attorneys for Senator-elect Scott Brown demanded the certification of the special election results and the swearing in of their client prior to the Congressional recess beginning on Friday, February 5, 2010, six days earlier then originally scheduled. [5] Presided over by Vice President Joe Biden, Scott Brown was sworn in as a United States Senator at 5pm on February 4, 2010. [6]
UOCAVA violation
As Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Department of Justice found Galvin to have acted in violation of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 2002, failing to report and collect the number of sent and returned absentee ballots from overseas military personnel registered to vote in the state of Massachusetts. Following an investigation by the United States Department of Justice in 2008, a settlement was reached to force Galvin to comply with the law. [7]
Elections
2010
| Massachusetts Secretary of State, General Election, 2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  William F. Galvin Incumbent |
64.5% | 1,420,481 | |
| Republican | William C. Campbell | 32.7% | 720,967 | |
| Independent | Jim Henderson | 2.8% | 61,812 | |
| Total Votes | 2,203,260 | |||
| Election Results Via: [1] | ||||
- 2010 Race for Secretary of State - Democratic Primary
- William Galvin ran unopposed in this contest
2006
Galvin defeated Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein, a medical doctor and environmental health advocate who ran for Governor in 2002, in the November general election.
| Massachusetts Secretary of State, General Election, 2006 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | William F. Galvin Incumbent |
72.9% | 1,546,582 | |
| Green | Jill E. Stein | 27.1% | 574,388 | |
| Total Votes | 2,120,970 | |||
| Election Results Via: [2] | ||||
In the weeks leading up to the Democratic primary, a controversy came to the forefront over Galvin's refusal to debate John Bonifaz, his opponent. This story made headlines in the Boston Sunday Globe.[8]
| Massachusetts Secretary of State, Republican Primary, 2006 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| William F. Galvin Incumbent |
83.1% | 633,035 |
| John Bonifaz | 16.9% | 129,012 |
| Total Votes | 762,047 | |
| Election Results Via: [3] | ||
2002
| Massachusetts Secretary of State, General Election, 2002 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | William F. Galvin Incumbent |
74% | 1,472,562 | |
| Republican | Jack E. Robinson, III | 26% | 516,260 | |
| Total Votes | 1,988,822 | |||
| Election Results Via: [4] | ||||
- 2002 Race for Secretary of State - Democratic Primary [9]
- William Galvin ran unopposed in this contest
Campaign donors
Ballotpedia collects information on campaign donors for each year in which a candidate or incumbent is running for election. The following table offers a breakdown of William F. Galvin's donors each year.[10] Click [show] for more information.
| William F. Galvin's Campaign Contributions | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | 2006 Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | 2002 Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | 1998 Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | ||||||||||||||||
| Total Raised | $1,175,081 | $814,983 | $719,797 | $293,325 | |||||||||||||||
| Total Raised by General Election Opponent | $152,452 | $200,330 | $41,821 | $64,944 (Republican) $1,894 (Libertarian) | |||||||||||||||
| Top 5 contributors | Scott Schuster | $1,500 | Soverign Bank | $8,068 | (No Detail Provided) | $24,800 | Service Employees Massachusetts State Council | $3,000 | |||||||||||
| Electrical Workers Local 2222 | $1,250 | Peoples Bank | $7,513 | Food & Commercial Workers Local 1445, Retired Public Employees and Massachusetts AFL-CIO | $1,000 each | Massachusetts State Labor Council and Sheet Metal Workers Local 17 | $1,000 each | ||||||||||||
| MA Ambulance Association, Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 12 and MA Correction Officers Federated Union | $1,00 each | Citizens Bank | $2,997 | Operating Engineers Local 4, United Liquors LTD and Beer Distributors of Massachusetts | $1,000 each | Eastern Massachusetts Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers and New Car Auto Dealer PAC | $1,000 each | ||||||||||||
| Boston Police Patrolmens Association and Massachusetts Society of CPAS | $1,000 each | Century Bank | $2,832 | Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 537, Boston Carmens Local 589 and Massachusetts Laborers District Council | $1,000 each | Massachusetts State Council of Carpenters and 11 individual donors | $1,000 each | ||||||||||||
| Political Action Committee for Better Government and 12 individual donors | $1,000 each | Salem Five | $2,013 | Eastern Massachusetts Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers and 8 individual donors | $1,000 each | Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts | $800 | ||||||||||||
| Individuals | $281,349 | $426,728 | $638,780 | $264,650 | |||||||||||||||
| Institutions | $58,100 | $78,356 | $54,540 | $26,625 | |||||||||||||||
| In-state donations | $322,199 | $742,272 | $621,630 | $217,925 | |||||||||||||||
| Out-of-state donations | $22,975 | $30,482 | $39,020 | $6,175 | |||||||||||||||
Personal
William Galvin currently resides in Brighton, Massachusetts with his wife, Eileen, and their teenage daughter, Bridget.
Recent news
 |
Know more information about this profile? Submit a bio |
This section displays the most recent stories in a Google news search for the term "William + Galvin + Massachusetts + Secretary"
- All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine.
William Galvin News Feed
- Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin predicts low turnout for ... - MassLive.com
- Gray Firm Files Arbitrations Against LPL Financial Alleging Unsuitable Sales ... - NASDAQ
- LPL $9M Settlement a Warning for Firms - Financial-Planning.com
- State probes firms seeking to buy pension income streams - Boston Herald
- Taoiseach lays flowers in memory of Boston marathon blast victims - Irish Times (blog)
- Morgan Stanley tops tech tables on Facebook anniversary - Financial News
- Massachusetts Special Election Primary: Voters Deciding Democratic ... - Huffington Post
- Galvin sees most voters sitting out Senate primaries - North Andover Citizen
- B-Ds reining in sales of alternatives - InvestmentNews
- Stoneham picks Gabriel Gomez and Ed Markey - Woburn Daily Times
Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found
Contact Information
Capitol Address:
Secretary of the Commonwealth
One Ashburton Place, Room 1611
Boston, MA 02108-1512
Phone: (617) 727-7030
Toll Free Phone: 1-800-392-6090
Fax: (617) 742-4528
E-mail: cis@sec.state.ma.us
See Also
External links
- Official Massachusetts Secretary of State website
- Bill Galvin Committee Campaign website
- Bill Galvin's Facebook profile
- Project Vote Smart - William F. Galvin biography
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bill Galvin Committee Campaign Website, Accessed October 10, 2012
- ↑ Boston Herald "Scott Brown swearing-in would be stalled to pass health-care reform" 9 Jan. 2010
- ↑ The Weekly Standard "Kirk Can't Vote After Tuesday" 16 Jan. 2010
- ↑ Politico "On to Plan C" 19 Jan. 2010
- ↑ San Francisco Chronicle "Brown demands to be sworn in earlier than planned" 3 Feb. 2010
- ↑ YouTube "Scott Brown Sworn in As U.S. Senator" 4 Feb. 2010
- ↑ United States Department of Justice
- ↑ Boston Globe "Running after a little respect" 3 Sept. 2006
- ↑ Massachusetts Elections Division - 2002 Democratic Primary Election Results
- ↑ Follow the Money.org
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Michael J. Connolly (D) |
Massachusetts Secretary of State 1995–present |
Succeeded by NA |
| |||||||||||||||||||
