Three Candidates Vie for State Rep. Seat in March 30 Election

Winthrop voters will go to the polls Tuesday, March 30 to select their new state representa-tive. Voters in four wards in Revere will be also voting in the contest for the 19th Suffolk District seat previously held by House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo who served as state representative for 30 years.

Democratic candidate Jeff Turco, Republican candidate Paul Caruccio, and Independent candidate Richard Fucillo Jr. are vying for the seat in Tuesday’s general election. All three candidates reside in Winthrop.

Turco, an attorney and former president of the Winthrop Town Council, won the March 2 Democratic Primary, defeating three other candidates, Juan Jaramillo of Revere, and Alicia DelVento and Valentino Capobianco of Win-throp, to earn the nomination. Caruccio and Fucillo were unopposed in their bids to qualify for the March 30 final ballot.

 Turco, who ran a high-energy, high-visibility campaign in the Democratic Primary, has kept his foot on the accelerator since claiming the nomination.

“My campaign team has been working hard,” said Turco. “We can’t rest on our laurels from the primary. We’ve been going door to door and doing sign-holdings and making phone calls. We will continue to do those things until we cross the finish line next week.”

Caruccio said he has conducted twice-daily sign-holdings with supporters and knocked on several doors, mostly in Winthrop.

 â€œWe’ve been pretty busy, it’s been fun,” said Caruccio, an avid long-distance runner. “It’s been great to reconnect with a lot of people in the community after having not seen them much due to the COVID-19 shutdown as well not seeing them daily in Winthrop Center.

“We have a group of grassroots volunteers who are very motivated and I have to give them the credit,” said Caruccio. “My volunteers are do-ing it out of a commitment to myself and the principles and the policies that I have been promoting. We’ve been out there in the rain and the wind early in the morning and in the late afternoons and early evenings.”

Caruccio held a well-attended standout near the Revere Post Office on Broadway, this past Saturday.

Fucillo has been greeting voters regularly dur-ing standouts in Beachmont and the Winthrop/East Boston bridge on Route 145. He has a massive campaign standout event scheduled for Friday in Winthrop.

“We’ve been kind of quiet on the door-to-door aspect because of COVID-19 – people are not very keen on opening their doors right now,” said Fucillo, a senior at Emerson College. “My main campaign activity has been online.”

Fucillo and his father, Richard Fucillo Sr., attended the Saugus-Winthrop football game at Miller Field Friday night. Richard Jr.’s cousin, James Fucillo, made his debut as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator in a 28-0 shutout of the Sachems.

“I feel confident about the election,” said Fucillo. “But regardless of what happens, I think I’ve put a positive message out there and it’s all good stuff moving forward.”

Turco, Caruccio, and Fucillo will be participating in a Revere Journal-sponsored candidates’ forum today (Thursday, March 25 at 6 p.m.) on the Revere TV Youtube Channel. Revere Jour-nal/Winthrop Sun Transcript President Stephen Quigley will moderate the forum while Revere TV Executive Director Robert Dunbar will lead the broadcast production team.

Revere Election Commissioner Diane Colella said it has been “a quiet election” and she expects a turnout of less than 10 percent in Revere. Colella reported that the Election Department had received 97 absentee ballots and 182 mail-in ballots as of Monday. In Winthrop Acting Town Clerk Joanne DeMato said there have been 187 absentee ballots and 312 mail-in ballots submitted by Winthrop voters. There are also 287 newly registered voters.

The polls in both Winthrop and Revere will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.