William F. Galvin
From Ballotpedia
Contents |
Education
- Bachelor's degree, Boston College (1972)
- Juris Doctorate degree, Suffolk University Law School (1975)
Political experience
Bill Galvin began his political career in the midst of attending law school, working as an aide to the Massachusetts Governor'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.
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.
2006 election
While it had been widely rumored that Galvin would run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2006 as a Democrat, he announced at the end of 2005 that he would instead seek re-election as Secretary of State. Voting rights advocate John Bonifaz had already declared that he would run for the office, and stayed in the race to challenge Galvin for re-election. However, Galvin defeated Bonifaz in the September 19th Democratic primary. 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.
The Democratic primary race received relatively little attention or press coverage for most of 2006, but in the last few weeks before election, a controversy over Galvin's refusal to debate his opponent broke into the news with a front page story in the Boston Sunday Globe.[1] This is the first time a front page story appeared about this race in any major Boston paper.
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 currently 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 has flipped-flopped on the issue of health care during the course of the campaign, said most recently that she would likely support the passage of health care reform. Scott Brown, the Republican candidate, on the other hand has said that he plans 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, are 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 has suggested that the "certification of the Jan. 19 election by the Governor's Council would take a while," another source has indicated that Galvin will 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]
UOCAVA violation
As Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Department of Justice found Bill 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.[3]
Campaign contributions
| 2006 Race for Secretary of State - Campaign Contributions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Raised | $814,983 | |||
| Total Raised by Primary Opponent | $200,330 | |||
| Total Raised by Gen. Election Opponent | $48,604 | |||
| Top 5 Contributors | Soverign Bank $8,068 (0.99% of Total) | |||
| Peoples Bank $7,513 (0.92%) | ||||
| Citizens Bank $2,997 (0.37%) | ||||
| Century Bank $2,832 (0.35%) | ||||
| Salem Five $2,013 (0.25%) | ||||
| Individuals v. Institutions | $426,728 (52.4%) | |||
| $78,356 (9.6%) | ||||
| In v. Outside State | $742,272 (96.1%) | |||
| $30,482 (3.9%) | ||||
Electoral history
2002
- 2002 Race for Secretary of State - Democratic Primary [4]
- William Galvin ran unopposed in the primary
| 2002 Race for Secretary of State - General Election [5] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Percentage | |||
 William F. Galvin (D)
| 74% | |||
| Jack E. Robinson, III (R) | 26% | |||
| Total votes | 1,988,822 | |||
2006
| 2006 Race for Secretary of State - Democratic Primary [6] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Percentage | |||
| William F. Galvin (D)
| 83.1% | |||
| John Bonifaz (D) | 16.9% | |||
| Total votes | 762,047 | |||
| 2006 Race for Secretary of State - General Election [7] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Percentage | |||
| William F. Galvin (D)
| 73% | |||
| Jill E. Stein (Green) | 15.8% | |||
| Write Ins | 11.2% | |||
| Total votes | 2,243,835 | |||
Family life
William Galvin currently resides in Brighton, Massachusetts with his wife, Eileen, and their teenage daughter, Bridget.
Contact Information
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
External links
- Official Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth website
- Bill Galvin Committee Campaign website
- Project Vote Smart - William F. Galvin biography
References
- ↑ Boston.com
- ↑ Boston Herald "Scott Brown swearing-in would be stalled to pass health-care reform" 9 Jan. 2010
- ↑ United States Department of Justice
- ↑ Massachusetts Elections Division - 2002 Democratic Primary Election Results
- ↑ Massachusetts Elections Division - 2002 General Election Results
- ↑ Massachusetts Elections Division - 2006 Democratic Primary Election Results
- ↑ Massachusetts Elections Division - 2006 General Election Results
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Michael J. Connolly | Massachusetts Secretary of State 1995–present | Succeeded by NA |
| ||||||||||||||
