Breaking: Mara Dolan claims victory over Margie Palladino in Governor’s Council primary

BOSTON — Governor’s Council incumbent Mara Dolan declared victory on September 1 after unofficial Associated Press results showed her weathering a Democratic primary challenge from family court reform advocate Margie Palladino.

The apparent win capped a tense campaign between Dolan, a Acton resident, and Palladino, who previously supported Dolan. 

“I am thrilled,” the incumbent told The Acton Bridge. “I am overjoyed.” 

The Associated Press called the race for Dolan at 10:27 p.m. She held a 74.5% to 25.5% lead over Palladino with 85% of the vote counted in uncertified AP results as of 12:46 a.m., according to vote totals disseminated by WBUR.

According to uncertified election night results released by Acton Town Clerk Kaari Mai Tari, Dolan pulled 3,398 votes in her hometown to Palladino’s 543, with nine write-ins and 462 blanks. 

“While tonight’s results are not what we hoped for, my heart is full of gratitude,” Palladino said in a statement sent to The Bridge through a campaign supporter. 

The Governor’s Council is an eight-person elected panel that reviews judicial nominations, sentence commutations, and pardons. With no Republican on this year’s primary ballot, the Democratic Third District winner could have a glide path through November’s general election. 

Dolan ousted longtime councillor Marilyn Petitto Devaney in 2024. She’s identified herself as the first public defender elected to the body. 

A recent rift

Palladino donated to Dolan’s 2024 campaign but entered the race against her this year after Dolan voted to confirm a nominee whom family court reform advocates opposed. 

The race touched on domestic violence and how judges interact with both survivors and perpetrators.

The campaign heated up in recent weeks and included a tense early-August forum at the Acton Free Public Library. 

Voters trickled in and out of polling places on election day. The Governor’s Council race was top of mind for several Concordians. 

“The Governor’s Council has a lot more influence than people realize,” resident Chris Randall, a Dolan supporter, told The Bridge. 

‘A good, friendly person’

Dolan scored two more votes close to home from Michael and Phoenix Jacobs, who cast their ballots under drizzly skies at the Harvey Wheeler Community Center. 

Phoenix Jacobs walks Dolan’s dog and called the incumbent “just a good, friendly person.” 

Michael looked beyond the politics of Dolan’s successive campaigns. “We already knew her,” he said. 

Dolan joined supporters after polls closed at the Stockyard Restaurant in Brighton. She propped campaign signs on high-tops by the bar.

Concordian Dudley Goar lives near Dolan and was one of those attending her event. He said he’s a “big fan of Mara’s” and, like many others supporters, touted her work on behalf of indigent defendants. 

Dolan received the evening’s first results from Boxborough roughly 45 minutes after polls closed and announced an early lead to cheers and high-fives from supporters. Cheers kept echoing through the dining room as each new round of returns arrived and attendees sampled tacos and cocktails.

‘So cool’

Dolan’s daughter, Grace McInnis, graduated from Acton-Carlisle High School in 2008 and made the trip south from her current home in New Hampshire to wait for returns. 

She said she always looked up to her mom growing up. Seeing her running for and holding office, McInnis told The Bridge, “is so cool.” 

Acton resident Valerie Lane sat in on the August 10 councillor’s forum at the library and recalled that night as Dolan celebrated.

She said she “went in with an open mind” but bristled at conduct from Palladino and her supporters during the back-and-forth. 

“What I experienced that night was an appalling attack,” she said, by people “who professed to support women and then did their best to destroy another woman.” 

Lane lingered as the crowd thinned at the Stockyard, and Dolan called out a few more results fed to her from a network of supporters throughout the district. 

“I’m not surprised Mara is winning,” she told The Bridge. “This is so very satisfying,” she added. 

‘Confident of victory’

Dolan said she was “confident of victory throughout the campaign.”

“But I felt very strongly that it was important for voters to have the facts,” she said, “and so I wasn’t campaigning just to win.”

Dolan made the rounds throughout the Third District’s dozens of municipalities on election day and took note as a new judicial nomination hit her inbox. 

“They never stop,” she said with a smile. 

Palladino thanked volunteers, supporters, and voters in her concession message. 

Although the campaign fell short, she said, the effort “brought vital issues of ethics, transparency, and court reform to the forefront of this race.”

“We will never stop striving for a better, fairer court system for everyone who enters it,” Palladino said. “That work does not end tonight.”

Elsewhere on the trail
Democrat David Solet picked up support from Acton’s police union but fell short in his bid to oust Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Rep. Seth Moulton, who campaigned in town with just over a week to go before election day, lost his statewide campaign against U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, according to an Associated Press race call. Markey will face Republican John Deaton in the general election.

Outside the contested races, September 1 still served as a milestone for state representative candidate Ravi Simon, who ran unopposed to succeed retiring Rep. Carmine Gentile. The 13th Middlesex District includes part of Acton. As in the races for Governor’s Council and DA, the Democrat has no announced Republican opponent in November.

Trace Salzbrenner contributed reporting.

September 2, 12:46 a.m.: This breaking story has been updated.

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