The 1970 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1970. Acting Governor

Francis W. Sargent Francis Williams Sargent (July 29, 1915 – October 22, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Massachusetts from 1969 to 1975. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 63rd Lieutenant Govern ...

was elected to a four-year term. He defeated incumbent

Boston Mayor The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a mayor to a four-y ...

Kevin H. White in the general election. This was the first Massachusetts election in which the governor and lieutenant governor were elected as a ticket rather than separately.

Republican primary

Governor

Candidates

=Declared

= *

Francis Sargent Francis Williams Sargent (July 29, 1915 – October 22, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Massachusetts from 1969 to 1975. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 63rd Lieutenant Govern ...

, acting Governor Acting Governor Francis Sargent was unopposed for renomination.

Lieutenant Governor

Candidates

=Declared

= * Donald R. Dwight, Commissioner of Finance and Administration

=Eliminated at convention

= * Frank Harlan Freedman, Mayor of Springfield * John M. Quinlan, State Senator

=Withdrew

= * Martin A. Linsky, State Representative

Campaign

=Convention

= With Sargent's support, Dwight won the endorsement of the state party at the Republican convention. State Rep. Martin A. Linsky was Sargent's original choice for the nomination, however two weeks before the convention, Linsky dropped out of the race after it was revealed that police officers had once stopped his car and informed him that the woman was traveling with was a prostitute. After Linsky dropped out, Sargent endorsed Dwight.

Results

Democratic primary

Governor

Candidates

=Declared

= * Francis X. Bellotti, former Lieutenant Governor * Maurice A. Donahue,

President of the Massachusetts Senate The president of the Massachusetts Senate is the presiding officer. Unlike the United States Congress, in which the vice president of the United States is the ''ex officio'' president of the United States Senate, in Massachusetts, the president of ...

Kenneth O'Donnell Kenneth Patrick O'Donnell (March 4, 1924 – September 9, 1977) was an American political consultant and the special assistant and appointments secretary to President John F. Kennedy from 1961 until Kennedy's assassination in November 1963. O'Do ...

, former aide to President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

* Kevin White, mayor of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Campaign

=Convention

= Donahue won the vote of the state convention held on June 15 at the Curry Hicks Cage. Donahue received 697 votes, White received 589, and the remaining 78 went to Bellotti.

Results

Despite losing at the convention, White went on to win the Democratic Primary, defeating Donahue by 12,940 votes.

Lieutenant Governor

Candidates

=Declared

= * Rocco Antonelli, Somerville Treasurer * John J. Craven, Jr., member of Boston School Committee * Kathleen Ryan Dacey, member of Boston School Committee *

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...

, State Representative *

James McCormack James McCormack, Jr. (8 November 1910 – 3 January 1975) was a United States Army officer who served in World War II, and was later the first Director of Military Applications of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. A 1932 graduate of ...

, attorney

Results

General election

Sargent defeated White by 259,354 votes. He won 11 of the Massachusetts' 14 counties and beat White in his home city of Boston 54–45%.

Results

Results by county

References

1970 United States gubernatorial elections

Gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

November 1970 events in the United States {{Massachusetts-election-stub

Republican primary

Governor

Candidates

=Declared

Lieutenant Governor

Candidates

=Declared

=Eliminated at convention

=Withdrew

Campaign

=Convention

Results

Democratic primary

Governor

Candidates

=Declared

Campaign

=Convention

Results

Lieutenant Governor

Candidates

=Declared

Results

General election

Results

Results by county

See also

References