State Rep. Jay Livingstone (D-Boston) and former State Rep. Paul Demakis announced their endorsements of Warren Tolman to be the next Massachusetts attorney general. Livingstone and Demakis joined Tolman at the Paramount Restaurant, where Tolman met with Beacon Hill-area voters during Tolman’s three-day Boston Tour.
“Warren Tolman has earned my support because he has been a progressive leader throughout his career,” Livingstone said. “I’m confident that as our next Attorney General, he will be a strong advocate for criminal justice reform, including ending harmful mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent offenders.” Tolman completed his three-day Boston Tour on Thursday, also visiting senior centers, diners, a women’s shelter and a substance abuse treatment-facility across Allston-Brighton, Beacon Hill, Dorchester, Hyde Park, the North End, Roxbury the South End and West Roxbury. He continued campaigning in the city over the weekend, marching in the Dominican Parade in Jamaica Plain and attending a Meet-and-Greet in East Boston. Demakis, a co-author of the state’s original buffer zone
legislation, endorsed Tolman for his commitment to ensuring women’s access to healthcare. Tolman was an early proponent of protecting a woman’s right to access healthcare free from harassment, advocating for the buffer zone legislation as a state senator in 1998 and he discusses his support for the buffer zone in his first campaign ad.
“Warren Tolman fought courageously for the buffer zone, standing up to his friends in organized labor, because he believed so strongly in a woman’s right to access health care,” Demakis said. “I am proud tosupport him because I know he will make a superb attorney general.”
Among other examples of his progressive leadership, Tolman is the only candidate, Democrat or Republican, willing to use the attorney general’s office to mandate smart gun technology, and he used the tour to take his plans directly to Boston voters to discuss how his urban agenda will protect and improve city neighborhoods.
“I’m honored to have the support of State Rep. Jay Livingstone and former State Rep. Paul Demakis,” said Tolman. “I share their firm commitment to progressive values and I will be an attorney general advocating in the corner of every resident of the Commonwealth.”
The leaders join a strong group supporting Warren Tolman to be attorney general. He has the backing of the working families of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the State Council of the SEIU, the New England Regional Council of Carpenters and the brave first responders of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Coalition of Police.
Tolman also has the support of environmental groups Clean Water Action and the Environmental League of Massachusetts. Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian and Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins have endorsed him. He is supported by former Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair John Walsh, campaign co-chairs State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry and Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, former State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien, Congressmen Stephen Lynch and Bill Keating, former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, and the four most recent former Massachusetts Attorneys General: Frank Bellotti, Scott Harshbarger, Tom Reilly and Jim Shannon.