Cole Sworn in May 1 as Peabody's New State Rep

Peabody's new state representative will finally be sworn into office this week, just shy of a month after winning a closely contested three-way special election.

Leah Cole tells Peabody Patch a ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday morning at the State House and she's ready to get to work.

Cole, a 24-year-old Republican, narrowly defeated seasoned city politicians Beverley Griffin Dunne and David Gravel on April 2 in what was her first ever bid for public office.

Cole is the 30th member of the GOP in the Mass. House of Representatives, which finally passed a $34 billion budget onto the Senate last week. She will, however, still get a chance to have a say on next year's state budget.

Once the Senate agrees on a spending plan, the budget will likely go to conference committee where both chambers reconcile their different versions of the budget before submitting a final plan to Gov. Deval Patrick.

The special election for the 12th Essex District was held to fill the void left by the death of Peabody's Joyce Spiliotis last fall. Spiliotis had just won her sixth straight term in November.

The 12th Essex District is comprised of Ward 1 through 4 and Precinct 1 and 3 of Ward 5. The rest of Peabody is represented by state Rep. Ted Speliotis in the 13th Essex District.