2000 State Election

Massachusetts held its presidential primary on March 7, 2000. On the Democratic side, Al Gore defeated Bill Bradley, 341,586 to 212,452. In Lowell, Gore received 4181 to Bradley’s 2342. On the Republican side, John McCain defeated George W. Bush, 325,297 to 159,826. In Lowell, McCain received 2360 to Bush’s 1286. In November, the Gore-Joe Lieberman ticket swamped Bush-Cheney, 1,616,487 to 878,502. In Lowell, the Democrats won 17,554 to 7790.

At the time of the Presidential Primary, there were 45,364 registered voters in Lowell: 19,972 Democrats; 4487 Republicans; and 20,726 unenrolled. In the primary, 6913 voted in the Democratic election with 3837 participating on the Republican side.

For the US Senate, Ted Kennedy (1,889,494) defeated Republican Jack E. Robinson (334,341) and Libertarian Carla Howell (308,860). The vote totals in Lowell were Kennedy – In the Fifth Congressional District, incumbent Marty Meehan was challenged in the Democratic primary (held on September 19, 2000) by Joseph Osbaldeston of Ayer and Thomas Tierney of Framingham. Meehan received 16,394 to Tierney’s 4253 and Osbaldeston’s 1687. In Lowell, Meehan received 2997 votes to Tierney’s 609 and Osbaldeston’s 130. Meehan was unopposed in the November election.

In state races, Marilyn Devaney was re-elected Governor’s Councillor, defeating Ruth Nemzoff of Newton, 14,274 to 10,572 (2262 to 532 in Lowell). In November, Devaney faced no Republican opposition but had an opponent from the Whig Party, Barry Hutch of Marlborough, who received 45,248 votes to Devaney’s 213,656.

In the First Middlesex Senate District, Democratic incumbent Steve Panagiotakos was challenged by Peter Schoaff of Westford, a Libertarian. Panagiotakos received 42,193 votes to Schoaff’s 7,782. Tom Golden, Dave Nangle and Kevin Murphy were all unopposed in their state representative races. For Middlesex County Clerk of Courts, long-time incumbent Edward Sullivan of Cambridge defeated challenger Dennis Sullivan of Somerville in the Democratic primary, 38,389 to 14,891 (2771 to 520 in Lowell) and was unopposed in the general election. Middlesex North Register of Deeds Richard P Howe Jr was re-elected without opposition.

A contested down-ballot race was to fill the vacancy in the office of Middlesex Register of Probate which occurred when Robert Antonelli was removed from office by the Supreme Judicial Court. The nine-person Democratic primary included Dean Bruno of Medford, John Buonomo fo Somerville, Tom Concannon of Newton, Tara Decristofaro of Medford, Frank Flaherty of Arlington, Melissa Hurley of Cambridge, Robert Keough of Billerica, Paul Lucero of Woburn and Ed McMahon of Lowell. Buonomo won a tight race, edging out Concannon, 9327 to 9311. Flaherty came next with 8637 followed by Hurley with 8187, McMahon with 7823, Decristofaro with 5323, Bruno with 4190, Lucero with 3280 and Keough with 2495. McMahon won Lowell overwhelmingly, receiving 2802 votes with Hurley finishing second with only 265. On the Republican side, Lee Johnson was unopposed. In the general election, Buonomo won, receiving 273,159 votes to Johnson’s 138,349 and unenrolled candidate Diane Poulos Harpell’s 112,835. In Lowell, Buonomo received 10,755 votes to Harpell’s 7662 and Johnson’s 4214.