Holyoke councilor running for State Rep: wwlp.com
Vega to run for seat held by Rep. Michael Kane
February 14, 2012
Yoojin Cho
Anthony Fay
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – Holyoke City Councilor Aaron Vega announced Tuesday that he will be running for state representative this fall.
Vega, a Democrat, announced that he would be seeking the 5th Hampden District seat, which covers all of the City of Holyoke. Vega told 22News that he wants to do more for Holyoke, because he was born there.
Vega said he wants to make Holyoke streets safer and cleaner and bring more jobs to the city. “I want to bring what’s happening here in Holyoke all the way to Boston, so that when people are looking at Holyoke they have someone to talk to about all the positive things. And hopefully bring new people, new jobs, new ideas to our city,” Vega said.
To get to the Legislature, Vega would have to win a Democratic primary against incumbent State Rep. Michael Kane, a former city councilor himself who was served on Beacon Hill since 2001. Kane told 22News that he has taken out nomination papers with the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office, and will be making a formal re-election announcement in the spring.
“Right now, I am concentrating on the business of the Legislature: economic development, the budget, healthcare payment reform,” Kane said.
David Caputo of Holyoke was among the supporters that showed up for Vega’s announcement at Holyoke Heritage State Park Tuesday morning. He said that he is looking forward to seeing a primary. “I always think that a contest is good in politics so it’ll get all the candidates to put their positions out and get reinforcement from the voters either pro or con,” Caputo said.
The Democratic Primary will take place on Thursday, September 6.
