Neal wins 1st District primary

Congressman Richard Neal (D-Springfield) cruised to an easy victory against his two rivals in the Democratic Party primary for the new 1st Congressional District.

As the primary winner, Rep. Neal will face no on the ballot opposition this November, practically guaranteeing him a 13th term in congress.

He faced a challenge in the primary from Berkshire Middle District Register of Deeds and former State Senator Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr. of Pittsfield as well as writer and activist Bill Shein of Alford.

Both opponents ran to Rep. Neal’s left, arguing that he was too close to lobbyists and Wall Street, and criticizing the large amounts of money he’d raised from big donors. Both candidates also made a point of contrasting Mr. Neal’s record with that of retiring 1st District Congressman John Olver’s (D-Amherst), a progressive stalwart who’s represented The Berkshires for over a decade. Rep. Olver endorsed Rep. Neal earlier this year.

In the end, however, he was able to easily handle both opponents in the low turnout primary, winning with 65 percent of the vote to Mr. Nuciforo’s 25 percent and Mr. Shein’s 10 percent.

Yet, while posting large margins throughout the rest of the district, Rep. Neal’s victory in Berkshire County was far less commanding.

He barely won the county, getting 40 percent of the vote to Mr. Nuciforo’s 39 percent, with Mr. Shein coming in third with 21 percent. The towns of Cheshire, Tyringham and Windsor were the only communities in Berkshire County where Congressman Neal got over 50 percent of the vote.

Both Mr. Nuciforo and Mr. Shein could find silver linings in these Berkshire County results.

In addition to nearly winning Berkshire County as a whole, Mr. Nuciforo won the City of Pittsfield, the county’s largest community and his hometown. He also won Dalton, Florida, Hinsdale, New Ashford, Washington and Hampshire County’s Town of Cummington. He also tied Rep. Neal for first place in Lee.

These small victories didn’t seem to do much to blunt Mr. Nuciforo’s disappointment, however, who’d hoped that a big Berkshire County win would have enabled him to capture the district.

“We worked very hard, we advanced a lot of issues,” said Mr. Nuciforo, who congratulated Rep. Neal and wished him well. “I do think that there is a real appetite for the kind of progressive politics that we advanced in this campaign, and we’ll see what happens in the future.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was the strength of Mr. Shein’s performance.

Coming in a distant third in the vote in both the county and district wide totals, Mr. Shein nevertheless over performed in southern Berkshire County and nearly swept the region, despite running a campaign that only accepted contributions of $99 or less.

Winning Egremont, Great Barrington, Monterey, Mount Washington, New Marlborough, Otis, Sandisfield, Sheffield, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, his hometown of Alford and Hampshire County’s Town of Plainfield, Mr. Shein actually won the second largest number of communities of any candidate in the race. Not a bad result for someone who only raised around $23,000.

“It was a terrific feeling that the people I know best…showed such confidence in my message and the possibility of me as their representative,” Mr. Shein told The Beacon.

“Obviously we’d hoped to win, but I am very heartened by many of the things that came out of the work we did here,” said Mr. Shein, citing the attention his campaign had brought to issues such as economic fairness, money in politics and climate change. “A lot of hard work, by a lot of people this year I think paid some enormous dividends.”

Rep. Neal, meanwhile, seemed quite pleased with his win when he spoke with The Beacon.

“I couldn’t be any happier with the breadth of the victory,” he said. “We won every county. We won by 40 points.”

When asked his thoughts about his weaker performance in Berkshire County, Rep. Neal pointed to the facts that both of his opponents were from The Berkshires, he’d performed very strongly throughout the rest of the district and he’d made over 100 visits to The Berkshires over the course of the campaign. He promised to continue these efforts.

“Who wouldn’t want to represent Berkshire County?” he said, citing the region’s beauty and vibrance. “I’m going to represent them [constituents in The Berkshires] as aggressively as I have represented the rest of my constituents all of these years.”

As for what he plans to focus on when he returns to congress, Rep. Neal said he would be prioritizing jobs and the economy.

“Getting on to improving the national economy is what I think the challenge is in front of all of us,” he said.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on September 13, 2012. Filed under Community News,News,State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry