Town Government 101: The Governor’s Council and voting information

Editor’s note: This article is a special election installment of “Town Government 101,” a series of stories explaining how government works. Have a question about how Weston operates? Email us at [email protected].

Alongside candidates for Congress, Democratic voters participating in the Sept. 1 state primary will select a candidate for the Governor’s Council, a lesser-known, eight-member body that issues consent on many statewide matters from judicial nominees to treasury warrants.

Also known as the Executive Council, the eight districts each represent about 12.5% of the state’s population. Weston is included in District 3, which encompasses more than two dozen communities from Chelmsford to Newton north to south and from Harvard to Boston’s Fenway neighborhood west to east. Councilors serve two-year terms, and the lieutenant governor serves ex officio.

Information on the council is hard to come by, but Mass.gov outlines the official duties of the office.

The Governor’s Council holds weekly public meetings – generally at noon on Wednesday in the governor’s office – and has a wide range of responsibilities. It approves Gov. Maura Healey’s appointments for judges (including the Supreme Judicial Court), clerk magistrates, the Appellate Tax Board, Parole Board and the Industrial Accident Board, as well as notaries and justices of the peace. The Governor’s Council also reviews pardons, commutations and state treasury warrants. Councilors receive about $36,025, according to Massachusetts General Law.

While a form of the Governor’s Council existed in the 1600s, the council, as well as the bicameral state government, was established in its modern form when Massachusetts adopted its Constitution in 1780.

The council was originally appointed by the Legislature, but an 1855 amendment changed it to an elected position, according to 50 Constitutions, a University of Wisconsin Law School research initiative. Another amendment in 1918 diminished the council’s power further by removing it from the state’s line of succession. Originally, if the governor and lieutenant governor were unavailable, the Governor’s Council would take charge. Now, the secretary of state would be acting governor, if needed.

Meet the candidates

Incumbent Mara Dolan, of Concord, is facing a challenge from Margie Palladino, a Wellesley resident.

Dolan has been a public defender for 15 years and is finishing up her first term after ousting a 25-year incumbent in 2024. She is running for re-election after becoming the first public defender to be elected to the Governor’s Council. She said her first campaign focused on “bringing the voice of our most vulnerable” to the council to fight systemic racism, support addiction recovery, uphold abortion rights and ensure Juvenile Court nominees “understand the science of brain development and do not treat children as they would adults.”

“I have fulfilled all my campaign promises and risen to meet new challenges, like fighting ICE in our courts and leading in the resistance against rising authoritarianism,” Dolan said. “In my first term I have vetted and voted on 100 nominees, and I have always voted my conscience after thorough vetting. Our courts are moving in the right direction, with judges who not only know the law, but who are also compassionate, insightful, conscientious and have an excellent judicial temperament.”

In a second term, Dolan said she is committed to those same promises and is “particularly concerned about people who are unable to pay for an attorney and who therefore represent themselves in court.”

“This is often seen in our Housing Courts, Probate and Family Courts, and before the Appellate Tax Board,” Dolan said. “While judges cannot provide legal advice to parties, they can and must make sure that the people who appear before them know that the law was fairly applied in their case. I make sure every nominee, especially in those courts, is ready, willing and able to do that.”

Dolan is endorsed by Rep. Katherine Clark, state Sen. Michael Barrett, Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, Progressive Dems of Massachusetts and Progressive Mass.

Palladino is a former trial lawyer and longtime family court reform advocate, co-founding and becoming executive director of the Mass Family Advocacy Coalition. She is running on a platform emphasizing independent judgment, accountability and transparency and a focus on improving the judiciary.

“The public deserves a councilor who listens to and respects her constituents, exercises independent judgment in evaluating and confirming judges and other officials and is accountable to clear, publicly accessible rules,” Palladino said. “Our Massachusetts Constitution created the Governor’s Council as the people’s check on the governor’s power to appoint judges. The public’s voice deserves to be heard and respected, and the confirmation process needs strong, publicly accessible rules so people can trust that decisions are made fairly, independently and without conflicts of interest.”

The impetus behind her candidacy was an April 1 Governor’s Council vote to confirm Mary Ferriter, a now-associate Massachusetts Probate and Family Court justice who previously served as the head of a court-ordered parenting program. The vote was 4-3.

Palladino said Dolan’s vote inspired her to run, as she “saw broader problems with how the council operates.” She said Dolan practices in Family Court and voted to confirm a Family Court judge while a campaign donor spoke in support of Ferriter at the hearing.

“It became clear to me that the Governor’s Council needs strong rules governing conflicts of interest and the role of campaign donors in the confirmation process – and those rules need to be public because the Governor’s Council is supposed to serve and be accountable to the people,” Palladino said. “Because judges, once appointed, may serve until age 70 – and because the prior councilor held this seat for 25 years – I knew that waiting was not an option. It was critical for me to enter the race, even though I had no money, no campaign experience and no debate training.”

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has endorsed Palladino.

Both candidates participated in a League of Women Voters Newton debate earlier this month, which can be found on NewTV’s YouTube page at bit.ly/4c67Lzn.

Voting information

The state primary will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 1, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters in precincts 1 and 2 will vote at Town Hall, 11 Town House Road, while voters in precincts 3 and 4 will vote at the Community Center, 20 Alphabet Lane. Residents who don’t know their precinct should visit the secretary of state’s “Find my Election Information” page at sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA/WhereDoIVote.

In terms of local races, it is a fairly quiet year for Weston voters, as both Sen. Michael Barrett, representing the Third Middlesex District, and Rep. Alice Peisch, representing the 14th Norfolk District, are running unopposed in both the primary and the general election.

There are, however, two contested Democratic races. Alongside the race between Dolan and Palladino is a race for Middlesex District Attorney between incumbent Marian Ryan and former Assistant District Attorney David Marc Solet.

For statewide candidates, Gov. Maura Healey is running unopposed, while Republican voters will choose either Michael Minogue or Brian Shortsleeve to challenge her.

At the federal level, voters will be selecting candidates to run for the U.S. House and Senate.

For the Fifth Congressional District, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark is facing challenges from Tarik Samman and Jonathan Paz. No Republican candidates are running.

A U.S. Senate seat is also up for grabs. Democratic voters will choose between incumbent Sen. Ed Markey and Congressman Seth Moulton, while Republican Senate Candidate John Deaton is running unopposed in his primary.