News

Sciortino wins write-in campaign

After being forced to run for re-election on a sticker campaign, Massachusetts Rep. Carl Sciortino won his Democratic primary last night by a wide margin. Sciortino defeated Somerville Alderman Bob Trane, who conceded last night.

Sciortino, a Victory Fund endorsee, launched the write-in campaign after his nomination papers disappeared from his State House office in the spring. Despite legal challenges to get his name on the ballot, Trane’s name was the only one that appeared.

To cope with the disadvantage, Sciortino enlisted a “massive army of volunteers to bring out his supporters on yesterday’s primary.

“When I first ran four years ago I was told it couldn’t be done. This year I was told you can’t win on stickers. Well, we proved the naysayers wrong four years ago and today voters in Medford and Somerville rejected the campaign tactics of divisiveness and chose to vote on the issues,” Sciortino told his supporters last night.

Sciortino first won election to the Massachusetts legislature in 2004, unseating eight-year incumbent Vincent Ciampa. Ciampa voted for a law that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.

According to the Somerville News, Sciortino’s is the first successful write-in campaign at the state level since Sal Albano 1984.