No glam, but 2nd spot is still a hot ticket
It may be one of the least glamorous jobs on Beacon Hill — and one with the fewest official duties — but that hasn’t stopped the politically ambitious from angling to become second in command in the governor’s office.
Adding a bit of celebrity to the race for lieutenant governor this year is the presence of comic Jimmy Tingle as a candidate on the Democratic side. He’s facing off against Quentin Palfrey, a former White House policy adviser under President Barack Obama.
The two are a study in contrasts.
Palfrey touts his experience in government and the private sector. He worked in the administration from 2009 to 2013, including as a senior adviser in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Palfrey most recently served as executive director of J-PAL North America, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology lab dedicated to using research to fight poverty and inequality in North America. He grew up in Southboro and lives in Weston with his wife and three children.
Tingle touts his blue-collar roots in the working-class Cambridge of his youth, where his father drove taxis for a living.
He has spent three decades as a comedian, writer, actor, social activist and entrepreneur. He returned to school and earned a master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Tingle also has talked openly about his struggle with alcohol in the 1980s, crediting a government-funded hospital with helping put him on the road to recovery.
Just this week, Tingle got an assist from fellow Cambridge native, actor Matt Damon, who recorded a robocall for Tingle calling him “a role model, and a friend to me over the years, and a true community leader.”
On the Republican side, there’s little drama. Karyn Polito, who currently serves as lieutenant governor under Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, is running unopposed.
The primary is Tuesday. In some states, governors and lieutenant governors run independently of each other in the general election, opening the possibility of a governor and lieutenant governor of opposite parties. Some states have phased out the office.
There are few official duties for the lieutenant governor in Massachusetts, other than chairing meetings of the eightmember Governor’s Council.