By Ken Cleveland
Landmark Correspondent
Peter Durant and Jonathan Zlotnick worked to fill the Hampshire and Worcester Senate state senate seat that Anne Gobi left open when she took a position as director of rural affairs for the Healey administration.
On Nov. 7, the voters opted to send Durant to the state senate to represent them.
Durant’s win ups the number of Republicans in the state senate to four, of the 40 seats in the upper chamber.
The district, with 22 communities from Gardner to Paxton, gave Durant, a Republican from Spencer, the victory over Zlotnick, a Democrat from Gardner.
Locally, the contest between the two current members of the House of Representatives brought out voters, with most towns in the 16% range. Princeton, however, recorded the highest participation rate with a turnout of 23.04%. Princeton was also the lone Wachusett town in which Zlotnick had the most votes.
The unofficial results from Tuesday night were provided by town clerks kept busy with the special election after the September primary, in which Durant won over Bruce Chester to head the Republican ticket. The official results submitted to the state sometimes change with the later addition of hand counted or provisional ballots.
Holden (official results): Durant 1,359, Zlotnick 1,244, with 2,605 of the town’s 15,363 registered voters participating, or 16.96%;
Paxton: Durant 321, Zlotnick 287, 608 of 3,633 registered voters, or 16.7%;
Princeton (official): Durant 282, Zlotnick 427, with 710 of the town’s 3,081 registered voters participating, a turnout of 23.04%;
Rutland: Durant 728, Zlotnick 471, for 1,200 voters participating of the 7,264 registered, a 16.5% turnout; and
Sterling: Durant 568, Zlotnick 462 for Zlotnick, with 15.93 % of registered voters participating.
After notching the victory election night, Durant posted the following comment on his Facebook page:
“To all those across the Worcester & Hampshire District, I want to thank you for your trust and support in today’s Special Election. I look forward to representing your values and interests on Beacon Hill. To my wife, Kate, thank you for your constant support, especially over the past five months. I owe this all to you. I look forward to sharing more information with you in the coming days as I look forward to continuing to represent Central Massachusetts in Boston.”
