ATHOL — The former Athol firefighter and paramedic running for the state House of Representatives plans to hold a meet-the-candidate night at the Orange American Legion on Saturday.
Jeffrey Raymond, 61, has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination to represent the 2nd Franklin District and welcomes potential future constituents to stop by the American Legion at 40 Daniel Shays Highway starting at 6 p.m. The seat is currently held by Susannah Whipps, the only independent House member.
“I’m not attacking her personally, I’m attacking her voting record,” Raymond said of his running against Whipps, adding that he wants to give the 2nd Franklin District a conservative voice again.
Whipps was originally elected as a Republican about seven years ago, but changed her voter registration to unenrolled in 2017 because two-thirds of her district’s voters aren’t affiliated with a political party. She believed the move better equipped her to work with both sides of the aisle.
“I’m hoping people are going to come and ask me tough questions,” Raymond said of Saturday’s meet-the-candidate event. There will be hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.
Under the House of Representatives district map that legislators approved in October, the 2nd Franklin District will consist of Athol, Orange, Erving, Gill, Northfield, Phillipston, Royalston, Warwick, Winchendon’s Precinct 1 and Greenfield precincts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9. Candidates are running in the new districts in the fall 2022 primary election, with the districts formally going into effect when representatives are sworn into office in January 2023.
Raymond, a 22-year resident of Athol, said he sits on the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School District School Committee and said he wants to fight to allow local communities to maintain the power to make their own decisions without interference from the state. He said he has seen firsthand the state’s overreach when it comes to education.
“And I’m somebody who strongly advocates for parents’ rights,” he said. “I think a lot of things were mandated on the schools, where the individual communities should have made those decisions.”
Raymond said he and his wife, Denise, a registered nurse, are both fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but he believes the decision should be left up to individuals and their physicians.
He also said the state is pushing critical race theory, which he said is “where everything is based on everybody’s identities,” onto schools. Raymond said state officials are disguising the subject matter as curriculum on diversity and inclusion.
“They’re just using different words, but it’s the same rhetoric,” he said. “They dress it up with other nice things to say, but it’s the same garbage.”
Raymond, who grew up in the Worcester area, also said he is a bus driver for AA Transportation Co., a Shrewsbury company.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.