Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of profiles introducing the Democratic candidates seeking the nomination to represent the 8th District on the Governor’s Council. A profile of Republican candidate John Comerford was published in June.
When incumbent Mary Hurley announced on March 1 that she would not run for reelection to the Governor’s Council, within hours, Springfield attorney Jeffrey Morneau announced he would seek the Democratic nomination to represent the 8th District. This will be Morneau’s second shot at the job, having lost to Hurley in the 2016 Democratic primary by a margin of 59% to 41%.
A graduate of Holyoke High School, Morneau, 51, attended Providence College, where he earned a business degree. After playing and teaching tennis for a couple of years, he worked his way through Western New England University’s School of Law, then earned a master’s degree in law from Georgetown University’s Law Center. He then returned to Springfield, joining a law firm.
“I worked at a large law firm for about four years,” he said. “Then hung my shingle and started my own practice with a couple of people in Holyoke. Then, in 2011, we joined up with John Connor and I’m one of the founding partners of Connor & Morneau.”
The Governor’s Council approves nominations made by the governor, including lifetime appointments to judgeships and clerkships. Other nominations the council votes on include Parole Board members, Department of Industrial Accident judges and other administrative quasi-judicial positions. The 8th District encompasses much of the four westernmost counties in the state as well as parts of Worcester County. Council terms run for two years and the position pays $36,025 yearly.
While he ran for the Governor’s Council seat six years ago, Morneau said he has not sought election to any other post.
“This is the only elected office that I’ve run for and, really, the only one that I’m interested in,” he said. “I believe my qualifications, my skill set, my background make me uniquely qualified for this position.”
Morneau, of East Longmeadow, said he became interested in the Governor’s Council position during his term as president of the Hampden County Bar Association from 2015 to 2016.
“I became very interested in the judicial selection process,” he explained. “It really occurred around the time when western Mass. was concerned, my colleagues were concerned, about appointments to the bench; to positions in western Mass. being given to lawyers who were from outside the community, meaning primarily from Worcester County and other counties.
“I helped to rally and bring together the Hampshire County Bar leaders, the Franklin County Bar leaders, and the Berkshire Bar leaders to come together with our governor’s councilor at the time, and really tried to ensure that we were getting judges out here who really understood the community in which they were serving. We were really fighting to get western Mass. lawyers who wanted to become judges and were qualified to become judges.”
“For the most part, we’ve done a really good job of getting really good judges out here in western Mass. and ensuring western Mass. lawyers are appointed to those positions,” he added.
“Where we can do a better job,” he continued, “is in getting more people to apply, getting a more diverse judiciary, reaching out to the legal community, informing them, instructing them, educating them about the possibility of becoming a judge down the road as a career path. I think we can get more applicants, we can get more qualified applicants and we can get more diverse applicants if we do that. We need to keep politics out of the process and, not being a politician, that’s something I’m very passionate about.”
Asked about the qualifications he’d look for in judges, in addition to education, temperament, skill set and experience, Morneau said, “The thing that really stands out to me is that the judges need to have a real understanding of the community in which they’ll be serving. In this 8th District, there are significant differences in the various communities. Greenfield is different from Northampton that is different than Pittsfield that’s different than Springfield.”
Morneau’s opponents in the Democratic primary are North Adams School Committee member Tara Jacobs, Springfield attorney Michael Fenton and attorney Shawn Allyn of Holyoke. Palmer resident and U.S. Air Force veteran John Comerford is the sole Republican in the race.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.