Candidates for contested offices on Tuesday's ballot

[ron_newman]

Everyone here knows about the races for President and US Senator, but there are other races on ballots in Somerville and elsewhere. We are also electing a US representative, a state senator, a state representative, a governor's councilor, a clerk of courts, a register of deeds, and a sheriff.

For Congress, incumbent Democrat Mike Capuano faces independent challenger Karla Romero.

For state senate, all of Somerville and Medford are now in a single district. Your state senator is Pat Jehlen, a Democrat, and she has no opponent on the ballot. Her district now also includes some of Cambridge.

Somerville is divided among three state representative districts:

• In ward 1, and ward 2 precinct 1, (and some adjoining areas of Cambridge,) incumbent Democrat Tim Toomey is opposed by Progressive Independent Mike Connolly and Republican Tom Vasconcelos.
• In wards 4 and 7 (and some adjoining areas of Medford), incumbent Democrat Carl Sciortino faces opposition from Republican David Rajczewski.
• In the rest of Somerville, incumbent Democrat Denise Provost is unopposed, after easily defeating a challenger in the September primary.

(If you do not know what ward and precinct you live in, enter your street address into the form at http://WhereDoIVoteMA.com . Some ward and precinct boundaries have changed as a result of the 2010 census.)

For Sheriff, incumbent Democrat Peter Koutoujian faces independent Ernesto Petrone.

For Governor's Council, incumbent Democrat Terrence Kennedy is unopposed.
For Clerk of Courts, incumbent Democrat Michael Sullivan is unopposed.
For Register of Deeds, Maria Curtatone is unopposed, after winning a heavily-contested Democratic primary in September.

I know much less about these races in Cambridge, Medford, and Arlington, so I invite people from those cities and towns to post comments about their contested races.

(All links in this post go to official candidate campaign websites.)