ORANGE — Voters in the 2nd Franklin District will likely get a third chance to choose between Republican Susannah Whipps Lee of Athol and Democrat Denise Andrews of Orange for a state House seat.
This time, though, Whipps Lee is running as an incumbent, and Andrews, a two-term former House member who was defeated in her third election bid, is seeking her old job back. Both women, who face no primary challenge in September, returned nomination papers to area town clerks by Tuesday’s filing deadline.
Andrews, a 57-year-old Orange native who won her first bid for elected office in 2010 with nearly 53 percent of the total in a three-way race, after beating back three other challengers in the Democratic primary, had been working for more than 25 years in corporate management, primarily at Procter & Gamble in Ohio.
She also has operated a diversity training consulting firm, Legacy Unlimited, from her home in Orange.
After emerging from four-way Democratic primary in 2012, Andrews was re-elected in another three-way race that November that included Whipps Lee, an Athol selectman and part owner of Athol manufacturer Whipps Inc.
She faced Whipps Lee, in a rematch in 2014 after having no primary challenge, but the Athol Republican won the seat with 54 percent of the vote.
Contacted Wednesday by telephone, Andrews confirmed, “I pulled papers and I returned papers” but would not comment further before saying she was busy and then hanging up.
Andrews served on the Legislature’s joint committees on election laws, labor and workforce development and tourism, arts and cultural development.
Whipps Lee, a 45-year-old Athol native. has served on the House joint committees on elder affairs, on mental health and substance abuse, on state administration and regulatory oversight and on municipal and regional government, as well as a special task force for the prevention of child sexual abuse.