What's Next For Brookline And Tommy Vitolo Ahead Of November

BROOKLINE, MA — After months of campaigning across Brookline, Tommy Vitolo, who won the primary Tuesday night in a tight race against Town Meeting Member Rebecca Stone, took the day after the primaries to head up to Maine for a family vacation. But before he took the day off, he thanked supporters and promised to spend the next four months listening and learning about what constituents want ahead of the November election.

Vitolo will run unopposed in November, making him the effective winner of the 15th Congressional district seat for State Rep. That seat is currently held by Rep. Frank Smizek, who announced his retirement late last year.

"I’m going to work hard each and every day to provide excellent constituent service, to advocate for Brookline, and to fight for our shared values — for social and economic justice, for public education, and for the environment. To everyone who voted for my opponent: I’m going to work just as hard for you too," he wrote in an email to supporters Tuesday night.

And the first part of that is focusing on the Nov. 6 Election Day, he told Patch.

"I’m standing for election and I’ll be talking with voters about the Jay Gonzalez & Quentin Palfrey ticket, supporting AG Maura Healey & Treasurer Deb Goldberg & more, and sharing with voters how important it is to stand up for civil rights by voting Yes on 3," he said in a message to Patch.

Democratic ticket push

And that's about in line with what Democratic Party group The Brookline Democratic Town Committee are planning to do, as well. Cindy Rowe the group's chair person said the group plans to continue to canvass by phone and in the form of once a week meet ups writing and texting residents to get out the vote to support the Democratic candidates on the November Ballot.

"We still have a lot of work ahead for Nov. 6. We're going to be working very hard to make sure Brookline and the state come out very strong for the Democratic ticket," she said.

But, so far so good when it comes to Democrats in Brookline, she said.

"We're definitely looking forward to working with our state house delegation and our two new State Reps, Tommy Vitolo and Nika Alagaurdo. They'll bring progressive perspective to their work and I think they'll reflect the values of Brookline in the State house. It's a challenging time right now to be an elected representative. We're fighting back against so many national challenges, the burden falls on our State Reps to make sure Massachusetts stands up to national policies that can be harmful to our residents," said Rowe in a phone interview.

In 2018 there were 17,467 people in Brookline enrolled as Democrats, 2,105 enrolled as Republicans and 16,766 listed as "unenrolled," in town, according to State data.

Brookline's Tommy Vitolo Wins Democratic Primary For State

Election 2018: Candidate Profile Of Tommy Vitolo

Brookline Voter Turnout, Results For Primaries Sept. 4

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Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna)

Photo courtesy Vitolo campaign