Malone, 21, hopes to bring fresh face in race for 8th Worcester District seat
BELLINGHAM — Democrat Patrick Malone of Uxbridge and Republican Michael Soter of Bellingham will face off Nov. 6 for the 8th Worcester District state representative seat, which represents Bellingham, Blackstone, Millville and Uxbridge.
Malone, 21, a lifelong resident of Uxbridge, is the youngest candidate ever to run for the 8th Worcester District seat. A 2014 graduate of Uxbridge High School, he recently graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he was the treasurer of Pi Sigma Alpha, a member of the National Political Science Honors Society, and marketing director for the UMass Theatre Guild, UMass Amherst’s oldest student organization.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and economics.
Malone is a State House administrative assistant for state Rep. Denise Garlick and the Joint Committee on Mental Health Substance Use and Recovery.
He is also a former volunteer for the Paul Feeney for State Senate Campaign and a former American Naval policy research assistant.
Malone is a hardwood flooring apprentice and gardener as well as a guitarist, pianist and composer.
He is a volunteer at Camp Sunshine and the People First Food Pantry in Uxbridge.
“I am dedicated to tackling the problems our communities face with pollution, school funding, and aging infrastructure with common sense, new ideas, and a commitment to the people of these communities and their priorities,” he says. “I have no illusions that fighting for needed reforms on behalf of our district will be easy. But I have spent years working with my hands at locally-owned small businesses, where I learned that, when the job is hard, you work hard to get it done. So my message is simple: let’s get to work.”
Soter, 43, is currently chairman of the Bellingham Board of Selectmen, a panel he has served on for the past six years. Soter attended Nichols College and currently works in sales with the Father’s Table Desserts.
As a selectmen he helped secure $1.76 million in state funding for safety and infrastructural improvements to a dangerously congested intersection on Route 140, and oversaw construction of a new state-of-the-art $6.8 million police station.
“We need to have a state representative that has the experience to work and balance budgets and stay within the confines of our current tax base to balance our state budget,” he says. “We don’t have a revenue problem with our state budget. As state representative I will be fiscally disciplined in how I manage our spending without sacrificing the needs of our towns in the 8th Worcester District.”