Weston's Mullin Running for Third Middlesex State Senate Seat

Joseph Mullin, longtime Weston resident and former selectman, will run for the Third Middlesex District seat currently occupied by state Sen. Susan Fargo, who announced recently that she will not seek a ninth term.

In a conversation with Patch, Mullin, who announced his intention to run for the seat at a recent meeting of the Third Middlesex Area Democrats in Waltham, said a myriad of factors informed his decision to run again for a seat that he first sought more than 20 years ago.

Currently a partner and public affairs director of the Maynard-based Wellesley Companies, a real estate company, Mullin said his role in growing the Clock Tower Place in Maynard from an abandoned mill in 1998 to its current 2,500 employees--the world headquarters of Monster.com are there--is a large reason he feels he is the right person for the Senate seat.

“My major theme (if elected) is ‘jobs, jobs, jobs,’” said Mullin. “I decided to run because innovation has to be applied to the present economic context. The future of the community is innovation.

“We need innovation from both young and more established people to develop Massachusetts into an innovation and entrepreneurial heaven,” he continued.

A longtime member of the Weston Democratic Town Committee, Mullin served as a selectman in Weston from 1989-1998. Presently, he is a trustee at the Weston Public Library and chairman of the registrar of voters in town.

As well, he is an emeritus member of the Democratic State Committee, having been elected for more than 20 years, and was elected to the United States electoral college in 1992, shortly after his first run at the Third Middlesex District seat in 1990. In that race, he won the primary but lost the general election to former state Sen. Lucile ‘Cile’ Hicks, who held the seat until 1996.

Following that loss, Mullin said he became “very active” with the Third Middlesex Area Democrats, trying to “get good candidates to run.”

But now he feels the time has come to run again himself.

“I decided I have a story to tell and it’s time to throw my hat back in the ring,” he said.

Mullin has lived in Weston since 1979 with his wife Madeleine, with whom he has two grown daughters. He holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a graduate degree from George Washington University.

Two other candidates, Mara Dolan of Concord and Alex Buck of Chelmsford, also announced their intentions to run for Fargo’s seat at the recent Third Middlesex Area Democrats meeting. Waltham Police Detective Sgt. Timothy King has said he will likely run and Mike Barrett, a Lexington resident is also running. Concord residents Greg Howes and Mara Dolan have announced their candidacy, as well.

Howes and Sandi Martinez of Chelmsford, who has also indicated she's making another bid for the seat, are Republicans. Dolan and Barrett, like Mullin, are running as Democrats.

The Third Middlesex district is comprised of Waltham, Chelmsford, Concord, Bedford, Weston, Carlisle, Lincoln, and parts of Sudbury and Lexington.