Ex-Assembly Dem staffer runs for Massachusetts legislature

Democrats have a 134 to 25 majority in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, so they’re sending in a New Jersey guy to try to pick off one of the Republicans.

Owen Fletcher, a former legislative aide to Assemblyman Gerald Green (D-Plainfield) and an associate counsel in the Assembly Majority Office while Joseph Roberts and Sheila Oliver were Speaker,  will challenge two-term Republican Steven Xiarhos for the Cape Cod-based seat.

“Assemblyman Green and Lieutenant Governor Oliver were true public servants who inspired me to give my all for my community,” said Fletcher. “They led by example and their pragmatic approach to achieving progressive goals runs through my political DNA.”

Fletcher was part of a team assembled by Bill Castner when he was the executive director of the AMO.

Xiarhos won an open GOP seat in 2020 with 52% against Democrat James Dever, a margin of 1,119 votes, and had no Republican opponent in 2022.  The seat had been Republican since Jeff Perry ousted four-term incumbent Ruth Provost in 2002.

Before moving to Massachusetts a decade ago, the Harvard graduate was vice chairman of the Plainfield Housing Authority Commissioner for nearly seven years.  He worked at the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.  In Massachusetts, Fletcher served as an aide to State Rep. Brian Mannal, representing parts of Cape Cod.

Now, Fletcher is the clerk of the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates.

Massachusetts is due for some Jersey; the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, is from Needam.