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Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District elections, 2012
2014 →
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November 6, 2012 |
September 6, 2012 |
Stephen Lynch  |
Michael Capuano (Elected to District 7) |
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The 8th Congressional District of Massachusetts held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012.
Stephen Lynch won re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Massachusetts' 8th, on November 6th, 2012.[1] He had previously served as the representative for the 9th District.
| Candidate Filing Deadline | Primary Election | General Election |
|---|---|---|
Primary: Massachusetts has a partially closed primary system, in which the selection of a party's candidates in an election is limited to registered party members. In Massachusetts, however, independent voters may select which party's primary to vote in.
Voter registration: Voters were required to register to vote in the primary by August 17, 2012. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 17, 2012.[2]
- See also: Massachusetts elections, 2012
Incumbent: Because Massachusetts lost a seat after the 2010 Census, the state's congressional districts went through significant changes. Prior to the election, the 8th Congressional District was represented by Michael Capuano (D). However, Capuano was drawn into the 7th Congressional district. 9th Congressional district incumbent Stephen Lynch ran in the 8th District. 10th Congressional district incumbent William Keating (D) was also drawn into the 8th District, but he opted to move his residence into the 9th Congressional district, where no other incumbent resided.[3]
This was the first election using district maps based on data from the 2010 Census. Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District was located in the eastern portion of the state and included Norfolk and Plymouth counties.[4]
Candidates
Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals were added after official election results had been certified. Click here for more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan. Please contact us about errors in this list.
General election candidates
September 6 Democratic Primary
- Stephen Lynch:
Incumbent from the 9th Congressional district[5]
- Stephen Lynch:
Republican Primary
- Matias "Matt" Temperley: Iraq War veteran[6]
- Joe Selvaggi [7]
Election results
General Election
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Stephen Lynch Incumbent |
71% | 263,999 | |
| Republican | Joe Selvaggi | 22.1% | 82,242 | |
| N/A | All Others | 0.2% | 570 | |
| N/A | Blank Votes | 6.7% | 24,883 | |
| Total Votes | 371,694 | |||
| Source: Massachusetts Secretary of State "Return of Votes" | ||||
Republican Primary
The primary took place on the September 6, 2012.[8]
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
|---|---|---|
|
Joe Selvaggi |
59.4% | 5,956 |
| Matias Temperley | 40.6% | 4,074 |
| Total Votes | 10,030 | |
Impact of redistricting
- See also: Redistricting in Massachusetts
The redistricting plan approved by the state legislature altered the shape and composition of the 8th District.
Daily Kos said:
| “ | A combination of the current 9th and 10th Districts, this district includes predominantly white parts of Boston (North End, Downtown, South Boston, portions of Back Bay, portions of the South End, portions of Dorchester, West Roxbury, Roslindale, portions of Jamaica Plain) and many of its southern suburbs, including the upper half of the South Shore region and stretching south to Brockton and beyond. It only comes out as a projected D+9 seat, but I think that underestimates Democratic strength in this district a little. There’s not much history, recent or otherwise, of Republican voting in most of this territory. Scott Brown narrowly beat his statewide average here, but none of the other GOP hopefuls got much help from the people of this proposed district. They were famously cool to Barack Obama, this being one of those districts where he failed to match John Kerry’s showing, but there’s not much evidence from state elections or at lower levels for any sort of redshifting in this area. (The baseline here is listed as R+1, which just illustrates how tough it is to be a Republican in the Bay State most of the time; a Republican running statewide generally has to carry this district to win the state, something they usually can’t do. )[9][10] | ” |
District partisanship
FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study
- See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012
In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. Massachusetts' 8th District became less Democratic because of redistricting.[11]
- 2012: 55D / 45R
- 2010: 57D / 43R
Cook Political Report's PVI
In 2012, Cook Political Report released its updated figures on the Partisan Voter Index, which measured each congressional district's partisanship relative to the rest of the country. Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District had a PVI of D+9, which was the 113th most Democratic district in the country. In 2008, this district was won by Barack Obama (D), 59-41 percent over John McCain (R). In 2004, John Kerry (D) won the district 61-39 percent over George W. Bush (R).[12]
District history
| Candidate ballot access |
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2010
On November 2, 2010, Michael Capuano won re-election to the United States House of Representatives. He ran unopposed in the general election.[13]
| U.S. House of Representatives, Massachusetts Congressional District 8 Election, 2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Michael Capuano Incumbent |
98% | 134,974 | |
| None | Other | 2% | 2,686 | |
| Total Votes | 137,660 | |||
Campaign donors
Joe Selvaggi
| Joe Selvaggi (2012) Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| April Quarterly[14] | March 31, 2012 | $0.00 | $14,047.73 | $(6,728.31) | $7,769.42 | ||||
| July Quarterly[15] | June 30, 2012 | $7,769.42 | $7,147.00 | $(8,577.65) | $6,338.77 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $21,194.73 | $(15,305.96) | ||||||||
Stephen Lynch
| Stephen Lynch (2012) Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| April Quarterly[16] | March 31, 2012 | $674,239.69 | $92,871.54 | $(89,643.79) | $677,467.44 | ||||
| July Quarterly[17] | June 30, 2012 | $677,467.44 | $106,465.52 | $(91,943.31) | $691,989.65 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $199,337.06 | $(181,587.1) | ||||||||
External links
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts, 2012
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2012
- United States Senate elections in Massachusetts, 2012
Footnotes
- ↑ Politico, "2012 Election Map, Massachusetts"
- ↑ Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "Voter Registration Information," accessed July 25, 2012
- ↑ Boston Herald, "Redistricting throws U.S. Reps. Keating, Lynch into likely faceoff," November 7, 2011
- ↑ Massachuestts Redistricting Map, "Map" accessed August 31, 2012
- ↑ Inquirer and Mirror "Redistricting: Keating chooses Cape and Islands," November 17, 2011
- ↑ Patriot Ledger "Iraq War vet from Quincy hopes to unseat U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch," February 4, 2012
- ↑ Facebook "Joe Selvaggi 2012
- ↑ Associated Press, "Massachusetts Primary Results," accessed October , 2012
- ↑ Daily Kos, "Massachusetts Redistricting Analysis" August 29, 2012
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ , "2011 Redistricting and 2012 Elections in Massachusetts," September 2012
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" accessed October 2012
- ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 2010," accessed March 28, 2013
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Joe Selvaggi April Quarterly," accessed July 2, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Joe Selvaggi July Quarterly," accessed July 2, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Stephen Lynch April Quarterly," accessed July 2, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Stephen Lynch July Quarterly," accessed July 2, 2012
