sailingaway
05-06-2013, 07:05 PM
It has been almost 23 years since a Republican has won significant support in a general election for the First Suffolk state Senate seat, much less seriously threaten the Democratic stranglehold on the district that includes South Boston and Dorchester.
Joseph A. Ureneck, the GOP candidate in this month’s special election to replace Jack Hart Jr., acknowledges he may be unlikely to break that mold, but is eager to try.
“Even though the district is heavily [Democratic], voters will have a clear choice in the politics and ideology of the candidates,” Ureneck said, adding he was asking voters to “look beyond party labels.”
A 61-year-old Dorchester native who has never held elected office, Ureneck knows that he faces an uphill battle against Democrat Linda Dorcena Forry, a well-known state representative who would become the first woman and racial minority to hold the seat if elected.
Forry narrowly defeated state Representative Nick Collins in Tuesday’s primary and is widely expected to stroll to victory in the heavily Democratic district when voters head back to the polls in the special election on May 28.
While Forry said last week she is not taking her next challenger for granted, most political observers expect her to all but ignore Ureneck.
A self-described “Ron Paul Republican,” Ureneck said his candidacy is important because it provides voters with an alternative at the polls and an outlet for further discussion of his primary issue: state restraining order laws that he sees as discriminatory against men.
Ureneck has lived in the First Suffolk district much of his life, leaving only for an 11-year stretch beginning in the 1990s when he studied and worked in China.
Ureneck currently works as a Chinese translator and serves as chairman of the Fatherhood Coalition, the state’s most prominent “men’s rights” organization, which was founded in 1993.
more: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/05/gop-ureneck-seeks-votes-plus-exposure-state-bid-for-senate-bid/uTkgtVARidgh6wgJG27p1H/story.html
Joseph A. Ureneck, the GOP candidate in this month’s special election to replace Jack Hart Jr., acknowledges he may be unlikely to break that mold, but is eager to try.
“Even though the district is heavily [Democratic], voters will have a clear choice in the politics and ideology of the candidates,” Ureneck said, adding he was asking voters to “look beyond party labels.”
A 61-year-old Dorchester native who has never held elected office, Ureneck knows that he faces an uphill battle against Democrat Linda Dorcena Forry, a well-known state representative who would become the first woman and racial minority to hold the seat if elected.
Forry narrowly defeated state Representative Nick Collins in Tuesday’s primary and is widely expected to stroll to victory in the heavily Democratic district when voters head back to the polls in the special election on May 28.
While Forry said last week she is not taking her next challenger for granted, most political observers expect her to all but ignore Ureneck.
A self-described “Ron Paul Republican,” Ureneck said his candidacy is important because it provides voters with an alternative at the polls and an outlet for further discussion of his primary issue: state restraining order laws that he sees as discriminatory against men.
Ureneck has lived in the First Suffolk district much of his life, leaving only for an 11-year stretch beginning in the 1990s when he studied and worked in China.
Ureneck currently works as a Chinese translator and serves as chairman of the Fatherhood Coalition, the state’s most prominent “men’s rights” organization, which was founded in 1993.
more: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/05/gop-ureneck-seeks-votes-plus-exposure-state-bid-for-senate-bid/uTkgtVARidgh6wgJG27p1H/story.html