- William F. Galvin
William Francis Galvin (born on birth date and age|1950|09|17) is the current
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth (Massachusetts 's Secretary of State).Early life and career
Galvin was born in the Brighton neighborhood of
Boston, Massachusetts and educated in Brighton public schools. He attendedBoston College and graduated "cum laude " in 1972. He received aJuris Doctor fromSuffolk University Law School in 1975. Galvin resides in Brighton with his wife, Eileen, and their daughter, Bridget.He began his political career in 1972 as an aide to the
Massachusetts Governor's Council while an undergraduate, and won a special election to theMassachusetts General Court asMassachusetts state representative from the Allston-Brighton district the same year he graduated from law school. He was the Democratic nominee for Treasurer, but was defeated by Republican Joe Malone. He was first elected Secretary of the Commonwealth in 1994.Galvin has been an active participant in the
National Association of Secretaries of State , serving first as Chairman of the Standing Committee on Securities, then as Co-Chairman of the Committee on Presidential Primaries.At one point during the administration of Gov.
Mitt Romney and Lt. Gov.Kerry Healey , Galvin became the Acting Governor of Massachusetts when both Romney and Healey were out of the state. During the administration of former Gov.Jane Swift , Galvin automatically became Acting Governor whenever Swift left the state, since there was no lieutenant governor in office at the time. When Swift gave birth to twins in 2001, she chose to keep full executive authority and did not hand over the governorship at any point to Galvin.He has a wife, and a teenage daughter named Bridget.
2006 election
While it had been widely rumored that Galvin would run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2006 as a Democrat, he announced at the end of 2005 that he will instead seek reelection as Secretary of State. Voting rights advocate
John Bonifaz had already declared that he would run for the office, and stayed in the race to challenge Galvin for re-election. However, Galvin defeated Bonifaz in theSeptember 19 Democratic primary. Galvin defeatedGreen-Rainbow Party candidateJill Stein , a medical doctor and environmental health advocate who ran for Governor in 2002, in the November general election.The Democratic primary race received relatively little attention or press coverage for most of 2006, but in the last few weeks before election, a controversy over Galvin's refusal to debate his opponent broke into the news with a front page story in the "Boston Sunday Globe" [ [http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/2006/09/03/running_after_a_little_respect/ Boston.com] ] . This is the first time a front page story appeared about this race in any major Boston paper.
References
External links
* [http://www.mass.gov/sec Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth official page]
* [http://billgalvin.net/ Bill Galvin campaign web site]
* [http://www.billgalvin.org/ Bill Galvin alt campaign web site]
* [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/9736754/detail.html Video of TV interview with Galvin] - "Meet Democratic Secretary Of State Candidates" on WCVB-TV Channel 5 Boston
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