For three hours Saturday evening, candidates for three state offices made their pitches to voters in the auditorium at Somerville High School. Subjects spanned social services, finances, experience and more.
The debates featured the candidates for the House’s 34th and 27th Middlesex Districts and the Senate’s 2nd Middlesex District. The three debates, hosted by the Somerville Democratic City Committee, ran for roughly an hour each, beginning at 5 p.m. with the 34th Middlesex seat and ending with the 27th.
All three seats are without an incumbent, engendering a rare slate of competitive state races. The current representatives for the 34th and 27th Middlesex districts, Christine Barber and Erika Uyterhoeven, will leave their positions in hopes of moving to the Senate, both seeking the 2nd Middlesex seat that will be vacated by Patricia Jehlen after over 20 years of tenure. Also vying for the seat is Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem and Somerville City Councilor Matt McLaughlin (another candidate, Tom Hopcroft, will appear on the ballot but recently announced his withdrawal from the race).
Somerville City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen and Somerville resident Olivia Gilligan-Corsetti both hope to replace Barber. Three candidates are angling for Uyterhoeven’s seat: Somerville City Councilor Will Mbah, Medford School Committee member Paul Ruseau, and Somerville resident Chris Oates.
Because all nine candidates are Democrats and no Republicans are running, the September 1 primary election will almost certainly decide the results. Registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters will be able to vote in the primary. The voter registration deadline is August 22, and mail-in ballots can be requested until 5 p.m. on August 25.
34th Middlesex: Housing, healthcare and schools
Housing, a hot-button issue about which each candidate spoke to Cambridge Day earlier this summer, surfaced on stage. Mbah is pro-rent control and expressed support for the “YIMBY Bill” — legislation focused on increasing housing production currently in front of the legislature (House version / Senate version) — and the provisions for building housing on sites owned by religious institutions contained in some iterations of the bill. Oates previously said if he could pick one bill to pass on his first day in office, it would be the YIMBY bill.
Oates said in the debate that increasing the supply of housing will drop rents while generating income that can be used to subsidize affordable housing. Ruseau wasn’t convinced. “The market’s been around for a long time, and I haven’t seen it solve the problem,” he said. He added he believes rent stabilization is the best short-term solution for bringing down housing costs.
They were asked by the debate moderator how they would finance increases in social services. Ruseau had previously told Cambridge Day he wanted to overhaul the formula for state education aid contained in Chapter 70 by removing the law’s cap on annual inflationary adjustments. During the debate, he said he disagrees with the law’s funding floor, which for fiscal year 2027 mandated a minimum of $160 in state aid per pupil. That floor means that wealthier communities are receiving state aid even though they can “easily afford” education costs, Ruseau said. He conceded that removal of the provision is unlikely.
Mbah agreed with Ruseau that “the state can do more” and said he supported re-evaluating Chapter 70. While Oates said he’s “not opposed” to that, he cautioned that re-evaluating the law would likely prompt debate over its per-pupil approach from communities concerned about population decline. Census data released in March shows that populations declined in western Massachusetts, the Cape, and Suffolk county between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025.
The three disagreed about healthcare financing. Ruseau wants single-payer healthcare, which he said could be financed by taxing residents by an extra 1 percent on every million dollars they make after their first, to a maximum of 12 percent. Massachusetts’ millionaires tax currently imposes a 4 percent surtax on taxable income over about $1 million, adjusted annually for inflation (the threshold for the 2026 tax year is roughly $1.1 million).
Mbah agreed. “We can do this stuff: it’s the political will,” Mbah said. “The millionaire’s tax has done so much,” he continued.
Oates said he supports single-payer healthcare, but is concerned that other services would suffer. “If you could get Medicare for all, I would be very happy,” he said. But, because the state can’t run a deficit like the federal government can, increased healthcare allocations could lead to cuts for other services, he said.
Ruseau and Mbah also think that the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund — the state’s “rainy day” fund, which the Comptroller reported ended fiscal year 2026 with a balance of $8.506 billion — can be leveraged to combat federal funding cuts. “It’s pouring,” Ruseau said.
Mbah agreed and pointed to Somerville’s own community benefits stabilization fund earmarked for continual public services funding. It’s one of over 50 special purpose stabilization funds maintained by the city in addition to its general stabilization fund.
Oates was hesitant to utilize the fund outside of a recession. During the Great Recession, many states cut jobs because their stabilization funds were insufficient, he said. “I don’t think it’s responsible to say we will spend a certain amount of money on a certain thing when that money is supposed to be for everyone in the event of a recession,” he said.
A recording of the debate is available here.
2nd Middlesex candidates on record, transit
Facing a state house long maligned for its unproductivity, the candidates began with a pointed question: to name one law that they have personally drafted or sponsored. For Azeem, it’s Cambridge’s zoning overhaul, which eliminated single-family zoning and allowed up to four-story residential construction by right (six if lot size and affordability requirements are met). McLaughlin cited Somerville’s charter reform, which voters approved via ballot question last year, and the 2014 introduction of drug overdose medication Narcan, or naloxone, to Somerville fire and police forces.
Barber cited the Work and Family Mobility Act, which removed requirements for residents to share proof of immigration status when obtaining a driver’s license.
Uyterhoeven said that she filed amendments to stop tax cuts put forward by Governors Baker and Healey. On Sunday, she told Cambridge Day that she was referring to estate tax provisions filed as an amendment to a Baker economic development bill and later introduced as a bill. Elements were incorporated into the Healey tax package passed in 2023.
She also cited the Community Preservation Act, under which Somerville residents voted to double their contributions in 2024, and a bill to prevent tenants from being forced to pay broker fees; mandatory tenant-paid broker fees were banned as part of the fiscal year 2026 budget.
The candidates also talked transit policy. “We’re a city that’s really meant for light and heavy rail,” Azeem said (his platform includes extending the Green and Red lines to West Medford and Arlington). And, the way the T is funded needs to be changed, he said.
In 2000, legislation was passed changing the way that the MBTA is funded: whereas it was once funded in arrears, the law allocated a portion of the sales tax to funding the T. Azeem said that tax needs to be increased from one to two cents on the dollar, or the state needs to revert to pre-2000 rules.
Uyterhoeven also advocated for changing how the MBTA is funded, saying the 2000 legislation “really set it up to fail” by letting funding fluctuate based on the economy. She said it was important to “raise that progressive revenue” to implement maintenance fixes and make the entire MBTA system fare-free.
Barber advocated for the extension of the Green Line, which began running service to Union Square and Medford/Tufts in 2022 after being promised as part of the Big Dig in the 90s. Barber is also in favor of fare free buses, and she and Jehlen filed bills for pilot programs. Pilots have been incorporated into past budget packages.
McLaughlin “would love to see the T expanded into Arlington and Medford,” he said. He said additional buses are essential to keep wait times at no more than 10 minutes. “Even if it’s free, they’re not taking the bus if it’s not showing up on time,” he said.
A recording of the debate is available here.
Candidates for 27th Middlesex on substance abuse, sewage, special ed and automated traffic enforcement
The final debate of the evening included conversations that ranged well beyond topics discussed with Cambridge Day earlier this year. Addiction, sewage overflows, special education, and automated traffic enforcement were all prominent.
Additional facilities to receive and assist people struggling with homelessness and addiction should be a priority, Ewen-Campen said. “The revenue exists in the state of Massachusetts, and it’s a matter of political will to go and get it and direct it to people who need it most,” he said.
Gilligan-Corsetti said she’s in favor of specialty courts to deal with addiction-related issues. These can steer people toward help instead of incarceration, she said.
Somerville residents’ water and sewer bills are set to increase over the next several years, owing in part to costs associated with mitigating combined sewer overflows. CSOs occur when a weather event causes pipes carrying sewage and stormwater to overflow into local waterways, like the Mystic River and Alewife Brook.
Somerville’s water and sewer fees are already some of the highest in the community serviced by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, or MWRA, Gilligan-Corsetti pointed out. She also cautioned that climate change will continue to increase flooding, making sewage overflow a persistent issue.
Ewen-Campen thinks that Somerville’s fees can be mitigated through legislation. Under current law, Somerville bears a lot of the cost associated with CSOs, he said, and the MWRA should have increased responsibility. The Somerville City Council passed a resolution last year calling on local representatives to ask this of the MWRA.
When asked about educational equity and special education, Ewen-Campen emphasized the need to maintain school buildings. He said the state needs to fix the funding mechanism used to maintain and build school buildings, to get more money to communities that need it. School building funding runs through the Massachusetts School Building Authority under Chapter 70B.
Money isn’t everything, Gilligan-Corsetti said: we need to regulate AI and take a look at the use of technology in schools. Growing up with a screen is “awful” she said, recalling working in Somerville’s John F. Kennedy School. One fifth-grader who was asked to count several apples shown on their computer Google Image Search the picture instead[MOU9] , she said. She said we need to teach communication, media literacy, and critical thinking.
The two disagreed over automated traffic enforcement. An economic development package currently in front of the legislature would allow the use of automated cameras in certain areas, including school and construction zones, to track and ticket traffic violations.
Gilligan-Corsetti is “not convinced” that the system is secure, she said. Though there should be accountability for speeding, we should bolster community policing, she said, create a system for safety on Somerville’s community path, and focus on signage and accessibility.
Ewen-Campen is “passionately” in favor of automated traffic enforcement, saying “This is life and death.” He noted that the bill is supported by the ACLU, which posted an article about the measure in May.
A recording of their debate is available here.
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