Voters in West Medford and Arlington sent out a powerful message last week, despite low turnout, when they chose Sean Garballey, a 23-year-old graduate student at Suffolk University, as their state representative.
Winning 67 percent of the vote in a special election, the Democrat beat out Republican John Worden and Independent Robert Valeri for the 23rd Middlesex District seat vacated by Jim Marzilli.
In the Democratic primary in February, Garballey beat out Andrew O'Brien and fellow school committee member Jeff Thielman, taking 47 percent of the votes to Thielman's 43 and O'Brien's 10.
Garballey attributes his victory to his commitment to public service, his progressive values and a district-wide need for "a new way to look at things."
"At first, I wasn't sure if people would resonate with a 23-year-old," Garballey told the Daily. "But in the end, I decided that people would judge me more on my ability to bring people together than on my age, and I think that I proved correct in that assessment. Public service is not a closed occupation."
Garballey believes that his five years of local political experience are enough for the job. When Garballey was 18, he was elected to become a member of the Arlington Town Meeting, and two years later he ran for and won a seat on the Arlington School Committee.
Having already assumed the office he won last week, Garballey is excited to communicate what he considers the most pressing political priorities. At the top of his list is the need to replenish his district's local aid funds. He said it has taken a $30 million hit since 2002.
"It's become a problem that the other 351 cities in the Commonwealth [of Massachusetts] are experiencing," Garballey said. "Our revenue is not nearly being generated at the same rate as our costs, and local aid is always the first thing to go away."
Along with replenishing local aid, Garballey said that working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to refurbish schools and to generate revenue are at the top of his "aggressive" agenda.
He said he plans on reaching out to to the Tufts community, although the university is not in his district.
"While I don't have any connections with administrators at Tufts, I do have a lot of friends who go there and so one of my immediate goals is to reach out to the student community," Garballey said. "I'm looking forward to working with Tufts students on issues that we all care about."
He also said that because of his age, he expects to have an easier time relating to Tufts students.
Garballey is currently working toward two master's degrees, one in political science and one in public administration. In order to focus on his studies and political service, Garballey said that he will "not run for reelection on the Arlington School Committee."
