Linda Dorcena Forry Wins 12th Suffolk District

By MassNews Staff 3-16-05

        In a highly publicized campaign jockeying for the seat vacated by former House speaker, Thomas Finneran, Haitian-born Linda Dorcena Forry has won the primary with 45% of the vote.
        Eric Donovan, the next closest Democratic challenger, charged the media with interjecting the issue of race into the primary. Demographically, the 12th Suffolk district is 69% minority.
        ''This party is going in the wrong direction," Donovan, a Dorchester native, told his supporters at his concession speech. ''Somewhere along the line we've gone off track. We were inundated with the theme of the 'new Boston,' and the media gave it a racial bias. If the new place is where streets aren't safe, then I kind of like the old Boston."
        Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who endorsed Forry, suggested in a March 2 interview with the Boston Herald that that since Forry was black, the other two minority candidates, Emmanuel Bellegarde and Kerry Roberson, ought to drop out so all blacks could be unified behind one minority candidate. (See MassNews Story Here)
        Forry is a supporter of same-sex marriages, as well as granting new rights to illegal aliens. In a March 10 debate, she stated: ``Over 150,000 immigrants live in Massachusetts and they cannot get a driver's license because they do not have a Social Security number. That's a problem.''
        ``It is a problem” Donovan replied, “They don't have Social Security numbers because they are here illegally.''
       With no Republican on the ballot for the general election next month, Forry is now unchallenged for the seat.