Rep Debate, Civil, Informative

Left, incumbent Jeff Roy makes a  point while challenger, Charles Bailey, right, listens.

The long-planned Tuesday evening debate between incumbent State Representative, Democrat Jeffrey N. Roy, and his rival, Republican Charles Bailey, went off mostly smoothly, except for the room reaching its capacity of 50 before the 7 pm start time -- and an elderly man who verbally assaulted the Republican senate candidate outside of the venue.

To deal with the capacity issues, organizers got in touch with the Medway Fire Chief who came on scene and authorized the seating of another 10-15 individuals.

And then things were off and running. Questions were posed alternately by Franklin Democrat Town Committee Chair, Rachel Plukas and Medway Republican Town Committee Chair Tim Harris with, in addition, a time keeper and a moderator.

A total of 21 questions, developed by a panel, were made available to the candidates in advance and asked, of each candidate, in alternation.

On at least two occcasions, the candidates found themselves in agreement, which produced smiles and some chuckles from the audience.

Some of the areas of greatest difference were regarding the state’s influx of migrants, with Bailey arguing the ‘right-to-shelter’ law needs to change while Roy defended the law and its focus on protecting pregnant women and families. He also cited an example of migrants finding work with a Marlborough firm, solving its chronic staffing problem.

Roy vigorously defended his support for wind and solar power while Bailey hit that support as costly and expensive.

Roy also expressed full support for a gun control measure signed by Gov. Healey while Bailey said the measure was an example of government overreach that penalized law-abiding gun owners.

The full debate can be viewed on Medway Cable channel and in Franklin on Verizon 29 and
Comcast 9. In addition, it can be streamed from the Medway
Cable Facebook Page and Franklin’s All Access TV on Youtube. [Thanks to Franklin Matters for updating us on the latter!]

According to Roy, this was the first time since 2018 that he has faced off with an
opponent, in that case, Franklin’s Patrick Casey.