Tie broken and three vacancies filled in Tuesday's special elections
May 11, 2011
By Tyler Millhouse
For only the sixth time this year, a seat switched party hands during a state legislative special election. The race took place in Massachusetts where Peter Durant (R) defeated incumbent Geraldo Alicea (D) for the 6th Worcester District seat.
For 2011, the breakdown of these six changes is as follows:
- Four seats switched from Democratic to Republican (MA, LA, & two CT)
- One seat switched from Republican to Democratic (ME)
- One seat switched from Independent to Republican (LA)
In the November 2, 2010 general election, the race between Alicea and Durant ended in a tie, triggering a new election for the 6th Worcester District. Yesterday, Durant (R) defeated incumbent Alicea by only 56 votes. Besides the race's original contenders, Robert Cirba and Peter Boria also ran as independents. Although neither was in strong contention for the seat, each garnered more than the 56-vote margin of victory.[1]
| Massachusetts State House of Representatives, Sixth Worcester Special Election (2011) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | |||
 Peter Durant (R)
|
3,325 | |||
| Geraldo Alicea (D) | 3,269 | |||
| Peter Boria (Independent) | 1,275 | |||
| Robert Cirba | 71 | |||
In addition, three states -- Massachusetts, Maine, and Alabama -- held special elections on Tuesday to fill state legislative vacancies. Two of the seats were previously held by Democrats, and one by Republicans. So far, 50 state legislative special elections have been decided in 2011.
The three special election results are as follows:
- Massachusetts House District 10th Middlesex: John Lawn (D) defeated James Dixon (R) in the special election. Lawn will fill the seat vacated when Peter Koutoujian (D) resigned to take a position as interim Middlesex County Sheriff.[2]
- Maine State Senate District 7: Cynthia Dill (D) defeated Louis Maietta (R) in Tuesday's special election. Dill will replace Larry Bliss (D) who announced in late March that he would be leaving office to take a job in San Francisco.[3]
- Alabama House District 105: David Sessions (R) defeated Constitution Party candidate Bill Atkinson. Sessions will replace Spencer Collier (R) who resigned to take a position as director of the Alabama Department of Homeland Security.[4]
See also
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Footnotes
- ↑ Telegram and Gazette, "Durant wins in 6th District by 56 votes," May 10, 2011
- ↑ Boston.com, "Lawn wins in 10th Middlesex election," May 10, 2011
- ↑ The Portland Press Herald, "Dill wins Senate 7 race; school budgets pass," May 10, 2011
- ↑ Al.com, "David Sessions wins House District 105 election," May 10, 2011
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