State Senate Challengers, Final

I now have the final list of candidates who have qualified for the ballot in this year's Massachusetts state legislative races (barring wthdrawals or challenges). Leaving the house of representatives for later, and with the caveat of potential write-in campaigns, I'll quickly run through the candidates in the 40 senate districts.

Twenty-one Democratic state senators and three Republicans face no opposition for re-election.

One Republican incumbent, Bob Hedlund, faces challengers -- two Democrats, Genevieve Davis and Steve May, who face each other in a primary.

Three Democratic incumbents have a Democratic challenger only, so the primary will determine the final outcome. David Meade is challenging Michael Rodrigues; Melvin Edwards takes on James Welch; and Roy Owens goes against Sonia Chang-Diaz.

Seven districts have a single Republican challenger to the Democratic incumbent, meaning that these are the general-election contests. They are Jeffrey Bailey against James Timilty; James Buba against Eileen Donoghue; Gerry Dembrowski against Ken Donnelly; Dean Cavaretta against Jamie Eldridge; Thomas Dooley against Anthony Petrucelli; Steven Aylward against William Brownsberger; and Steven Simonian against Michael Moore.

Republicans Paul Adams and Alex Vispoli have a primary to take on Barry Finegold. 

Senate President Therese Murray has both a primary and general-election opponent: Democrat Stephen Palmer and Republican Tom Keyes.

And of course there are three open seats, which are of considerable interest.

For Steven Baddour's former seat, the Democrats are Timothy Coco, Kathleen O'Connor Ives, and William Manzi. There are two Republicans, Sam Meas and Shaun Toohey. And there are two unenrolled candidates for the November ballot: James Kelcourse and Paul Magliocchetti.

Fred Berry's seat has a single Republican contestant, Richard Jolitz, and four Democrats: Edward Carroll, Joan Lovely, Mary-Ellen Manning, and John Slattery.

Susan Fargo's seat will have a Republican primary between Greg Howes and Sandi Martinez; and a five-way Democratic primary among Michael Barrett, Alex Buck, Mara Dolan, Joe Goodwin, and Joe Mullin.