Hotly Contested Governor’s Council 3rd District Primary: Forum This Week

SUDBURY, MA — One of the few contested local races on the September primary ballot will take center stage this week when the two candidates answer questions as part of a pre-recorded forum.

Incumbent Third District Governor's Council member Marilyn Petitto Devaney is facing a challenge in 2024 from Concord resident Mara Dolan. For voters in the area, it's the only contested race in the primary, and the winner will cruise to a win in November with no Republican challenger on the ballot.

The pre-recorded forum will air Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., available to watch on NewTV — Newton's local access channel — and on NewTV's YouTube page. The forum was a collaboration between the Leagues of Women Voters from across the region, including Sudbury, Wayland, Concord-Carlisle, Weston and Waltham.

"The LWV solicited questions from residents about the issues and questions they believed were important to ask the candidates. Questions were appropriate for all candidates for the specific office and were concise in their one to two sentence length. While the moderator was not able to ask every question as written, she did try to cover all the topics recommended by the public in the time allocated for the forum," the LWVs said in a joint news release.

The third district covers a huge area from Boston to Marlborough. Members of the governor's council advise the governor on a range of decisions, from judicial appointments to commutations.