Mahoney squeaks by Barnet, looks ahead to Franco

WORCESTER -- Telling his supporters that they will need to work just as hard for the next six weeks as they have in the run to the primary, John Mahoney (D-Worcester) accepted his party's nomination for state representative in the 13th Worcester District.

"After what we did in the primary, we're going to kick ass in the fall!" said a jubilant Mahoney, just moments after second-place finisher Margot Barnet (D-Worcester) called to concede defeat.

Mahoney credited his victory to his on the ground in the days and weeks leading up to today's primary. "I met so many people who told me 'I wrote in your name two years ago,'" he said. "And so many others told me that they had met me at there home.

"I only missed four days of the campaign and our hard work paid off in the end."

Unofficial results showed that Mahoney had defeated Barnet by about 120 votes out of only 5,600 or so cast.

Speaking earlier in the evening, Barnet thanked her supporters and told them that their efforts had not gone for naught. "We can hold our heads up high. We fought for a positive future for all of us."

Barnet also lamented the lower-than-expected turnout. "Only about half of the voters who told us they were supporting us came out to vote," Barnet said to a crowd of about 30 supporters. "We found that a number of them took out Republican ballots."

Mahoney said he was not concerned that the low turnout in the Democratic primary would be a problem for him in the general election race against Paul Franco (R-Worcester) and Ronal Madnick (U-Worcester).