Three Republicans and two Democrats are set to fight it out April 30 for their respective party’s nomination in the race to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by John Kerry.
Former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan; Gabriel Gomez, a Cohasset resident and former Navy SEAL; and state Rep. Daniel Winslow (9th Norfolk District) are competing for the Republican nomination.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (8th District) and U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (5th District) are running for the Democratic nomination.
A candidate forum will be held by the RoxVOTE and MassVOTE organizations Sat., April 20 at 4 p.m. at Roxbury Community College. Lynch and Markey have confirmed their attendance and the Republican candidates have been invited.
For more information on the candidates, visit their campaign websites: Lynch (stephenflynch.com), Markey (edmarkey.com), Winslow (danwinslow.com), Gomez (gomezforma.com) and Sullivan (mikesullivanforsenate.com).
Meanwhile, the field for the general election has become less crowded. Third-party candidate Daniel Fishman, a Libertarian, announced last month he is withdrawing.
Fishman, a software developer from Beverly who previously ran for the Congressional 6th District seat, stated on his campaign website that when he first entered the campaign, no Republicans had officially announced and he was concerned that the senate seat would be picked through a “closed Democratic primary.” “Fortunately in support of the democratic process, three Republicans did stand up to run and successfully made it onto the ballot,” he said.
Independent Jack Robinson, a former Republican who twice ran for the Senate and ran against Lynch for his Congressional seat in 2006, has said he is running as a third-party candidate.
Third-party candidates need to have had garnered 10,000 signatures by April 3, after the Gazette deadline. The general election will be June 25. Interim Sen. William Cowan holds the seat in the meantime.