Senator Timilty Defeats Bailey in Senate Race

Incumbent James Timilty (D-Walpole) has taken the Massachusetts Senate Bristol & Norfolk District seat.

Unofficially, Timilty took the seat with nearly double the votes for opponent Jeff Bailey.

"I'm very lucky to be in the position that I am," said Timilty. "Privileged and honored to represent the Bristol and Norfolk and, of course, being a guy from Walpole, representing the town of Walpole, it can't be any better than that.

"We're very happy. Obviously, you spend a lot of time working for the communities that you represent on the issues that matter to them.

"I know the neighborhoods, I know the people, I know the communities and I know the issues that affect them."

Bailey’s fate was endemic of Republicans in Massachusetts, as he, Sean Bielat and Scott Brown all lost this year.

"The whole night was a disaster for Republicans across the state," he said. "We seem to be right where the rest of them are... It was a tough year to run as a Republican. I'm fine with everything, we ran the kind of race that we can be proud of and I feel it was a great experience."

Timilty has been in office since he was first elected to the seat in 2004. His father, grandfather and several other family members were elected political officials.

Timilty is currently a member of the Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, the Municipalities and Regional Government Committee and the Public Health Committee. He is the chair of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee and the vice chair of the Revenue Committee.

Timilty is now shifting the focus to what is ahead of him.

"I'm worried about what's going to happen on the federal level about what they're going to maybe, potentially do about restricting certain aid that's going to come down to the Commonwealth."

He said he is going to "make sure that we are kept whole with state aid and nothing is taken away from us. Because if it is, you shortchange seniors, you shortchange the kids in the schools and you don't want to shortchange a generation of students."

Bailey has been the senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Attleboro for 23 years and founded the church's K-12 school. This is his first run for a political office, and he says he has no definite plans for the future.

“We’ll certainly take a look at the opportunities that present themselves down the road,” he said. “But right now, I’m going to wake up tomorrow and do what I’ve done for the last 24 years… I’ve gotten out of bed and said how can I serve my community today, and that’s what I’m going to do.”