Civil and Crimmins Meet Again in Governor's Council District 2 Race

Incumbent Tamisha Civil and challenger Francis Crimmins Jr. face each other for the District 2 seat on the Massachusetts Governor's Council in the Nov. 3 election, a rematch of their 2024 contest, which Civil won, according to the North Star Reporter.

The council, also called the Executive Council, has eight members chosen by district for two-year terms, with the lieutenant governor sitting ex officio. Its duties include voting on the governor's judicial nominations. District 2 covers North Attleborough.

Civil told the outlet she is running again to keep pressing on restorative justice, domestic violence, reproductive rights and the effects of mental illness and substance use on the courts. She cited her vote to confirm Kaitlyn O'Leary, a former prosecutor from the district, to the state Parole Board, and said she wants the council to hold hearings outside Boston. Her background includes a decade of work in the state court system as an associate probation officer and a stint as a victim witness advocate in the Suffolk County district attorney's office.

Crimmins, admitted to the bar in 1981, was named a Stoughton District Court associate justice by Gov. William Weld in 1992 and later served as first justice there from 2001 to 2010. Gov. Charlie Baker appointed him chairman of the State Ballot Law Commission in 2022. He also was Stoughton town manager from 2010 to 2012 and Avon town administrator from 2014 to 2018. He said he would seek consistent standards for evaluating nominees and no "political or ideological litmus test."

This story was first reported by North Star Reporter.