With results in for all but three towns in the 1st Franklin District, Democratic candidate Lora Wondolowski has taken a commanding 8,652-vote lead.
So far, Wondolowski has bested Independent candidate Amy Lavallee in 14 of the 15 communities that have sent results to the Greenfield Recorder, including Ashfield, Bernardston, Buckland, Conway, Deerfield, Greenfield, Heath, Leverett, Leyden, Monroe, Montague, Rowe, Shelburne and Sunderland. Lavallee, who relinquished her duties for the day as Whately town clerk to interim Assistant Town Clerk Jessica Murphy, claimed victory in Whately with 462 votes, 20 more votes than Wondolowski.
The Associated Press called the race in favor of Wondolowski at 12:46 a.m., with 82% of votes counted.
Wondolowski secured wide wins in Greenfield, where she pulled ahead by 1,971 votes, as well as Montague with 1,990 more votes than Lavallee, and Leverett with a margin of 813 votes. Deerfield marked a closer race between the two candidates, with Wondolowski pulling ahead by only five votes.
The 1st Franklin District, which includes 17 communities and four precincts in Greenfield, has gone without a state representative on Beacon Hill since January, when former Rep. Natalie Blais resigned to take a position at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Wondolowski, 56, is the current Greenfield City Council president and works as the director of advancement and communications at the Peace Development Fund, a foundation based in Amherst that supports social justice organizations across the state and country. Before the Peace Development Fund, she worked at the National Audubon Society, the League of Conservation Voters in Washington D.C. and the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in environmental science from Bard College. She is originally from Illinois and settled in Greenfield in 2003.
As the founding executive director of Leadership Pioneer Valley in Springfield, her last job before the Peace Development Fund, she encouraged community leaders to step into politics. In 2023, she decided to take her own advice and run for City Council — advice that came back to mind when she started her run for Blais’ empty seat.
On the campaign trail, Wondolowski focused on climate and affordability issues, particularly housing, and laid out her plans to push for the passage of the FARM Bill and more rural equity through increasing funding for rural schools.
Wondolowski’s win came after she earned the Democratic nomination in a tight primary race in September, securing 4,355 votes compared to opponent Corinne Coryat’s 4,260.
Lavallee, 50, works as the town clerk in Whately, where she grew up since the age of 12. Before she became an administrative assistant and the interim town clerk in 2023, Lavallee worked as a teacher and then pivoted to nursing school. After six years as an emergency department technician and three years in outpatient and urgent care, she decided to switch lanes to local government.
In the lead-up to the election, Lavallee stressed her roots in the region as a fourth-generation Whately resident, and her plans to represent the area and advocate for more rural equity through a nonpartisan approach.