Pacheco wins Dartmouth-area primary as 14-vote margin holds
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By Katie Castellani | State House News Service
AFTER A RECOUNT, Edward Pacheco has narrowly secured victory over Stephen Medeiros in the Democratic primary for the Ninth Bristol District House seat.
Pacheco claimed a 14-vote win with 2,493 votes to Medeiros’s 2,479 after the recount, according to results from the secretary of state’s office. Last week, results from The Associated Press showed Pacheco up by the same number of votes with 2,469 to 2,455 for Medeiros, a Dartmouth real estate agent.
Pacheco, a Dartmouth resident, works as a bartender and transportation manager for a nonprofit in Fall River and is a former security guard at Dartmouth High School. He has said he wanted to run to bring a “working class person’s perspective to the State House.”
Pacheco told the News Service on Friday his campaign is “very glad that the democratic process worked the way it was supposed to.”
“We have the utmost confidence in the process and the technology that’s used for these, you know, balloting systems,” he said. “So, you know, was very grateful for all of the work that all of the election workers did and all of the volunteers, the poll workers … grateful obviously for the other people that participated in the process as well.”
Looking ahead to November’s general election, Pacheco said he plans to continue speaking about the issues affecting residents “with substance rather than just slogans.”
Pacheco’s campaign has focused on housing, public safety and local aid. He said his priorities include addressing the district’s wastewater system issues, noting that Dartmouth’s system has almost reached 80% of its capacity. Pacheco said he wants to support public safety services, including fire stations, which he said have been closing across the district. Pacheco’s website outlines several other issues including opposing large-scale data centers, curbing rising utility costs and promoting more transparency from the Department of Public Utilities, recruiting and retaining educators, establishing universal early childhood education, preserving open spaces and farmlands as well as sealing eligible juvenile criminal records.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Medeiros congratulated Pacheco on his win. He also called for more voters to cast ballots and to research each candidate.
“An educated, participating community is the backbone of our democracy,” Medeiros said in the post.
Pacheco is set to face Republican and political newcomer Chester Tam in November’s general election for the seat that Rep. Christopher Markey is vacating. The district, which covers Dartmouth and parts of New Bedford, was the only one in the state where both parties had contested primaries this cycle.
