Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles
Experts predict low voter turnout as the Bay State MA Senate race struggles to focus on recovery. During the week that followed the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, regular life in the Bay State ground to a halt- including the current Senate election. Now that one suspect is dead and the other is in police custody, candidates have made a tentative return to the podium. Naturally, however, the election has slipped to the back of many M.A. residents’ minds in the wake of the tragedy, and recent polls taken before the blasts suggest that voters of both parties were already largely ambivalent.
Masslive.com quoted president Steve Koczela of MassINC Polling Group on Sunday as saying, “It just doesn’t seem like — even as of the last poll — people were really paying attention to who was running. There’s room for any of the candidates to make a move.”
Many of the candidates (including Gabriel Gomez, who was actually running the marathon when the explosions detonated) have eased off the campaign trail out of respect for the victims. Amongst both parties, there is a fear that too much mention of the attacks might be construed as manipulation of the violent event for political gain.
At the moment, public officials estimate that the winner of the Senate race will be whichever candidate can manage to get enough supporters to the polls. The date set for general elections is June 25th.
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