Susan Tucker's surprise announcement Friday that she won't seek re-election has sparked a rush of contenders for the state senate seat she has held since 1999.
The names of several well-known politicians on both sides of the aisle popped up in various media outlets over the weekend as possible candidates for the Second Essex and Middlesex District seat, which covers Lawrence, Andover, Dracut and Tewksbury.
The flood of interest does not surprise Tucker, 65, who said there were at least seven candidates in 1998, the last time there was no incumbent on the ballot.
"I announced my decision that I'm not running early to be fair to people who may want to run," she said yesterday in an interview at The Eagle-Tribune offices in North Andover.
Nonetheless, the Andover senator stressed that there's a long way to go and a lot she wants to get done before leaving the Statehouse.
"I want to emphasize I'm still a senator for another year, during which casino gambling and a lot of other important legislation and issues are likely to be decided," Tucker said. "My first priority is to get Lawrence financially stabilized. After that, it's to defeat casinos."
Tucker has championed education funding, affordable housing and tougher domestic violence laws, but she may be best known for her efforts to keep casino gambling out of Massachusetts. She is credited with delivering a passionate closed-door address to her Senate colleagues in 2003 that led to the defeat of a pending casino bill that was believed to have a good chance of passing.
"Senator Tucker gave an impassioned speech against gambling," then-Senate Democratic Leader Fred Berry of Peabody said at the time. "She spoke from the heart and provoked a lot of thought. She got a lot of senators, especially those who were on the fence, to get cold feet."
Tucker said she will leave the Statehouse in January to spend more time with her family and because it is time for her to do something else. She said she has non-family related plans, too, but isn't ready to reveal them.
One thing she will do more often, she said, is visit her two sons, Mark and David, and her 1-year-old granddaughter, Secoya, who all live in California. Tucker also took the opportunity to dispel rumors that the health of her husband, Michael, had anything to do with her decision not to run again.
"Mike had been sick, but he's better now," she said.
Tucker's Statehouse career began in the House of Representatives, where she served from 1983 to 1990. After taking a break from politics to work in the private sector, she returned to the Senate in 1999, where she has been ever since.
She counts her involvement in Lawrence's automobile insurance fraud crackdown and in crafting legislation that added new protections to victims of domestic violence and those at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure among her proudest accomplishments.
"There were so many good drivers in Lawrence who just couldn't afford the high cost of insurance," Tucker said. "Some businesses with big fleets of vans are saving thousands of dollars every year due to the legislation we passed and the efforts of Lawrence police Chief John Romero and his team."
Her foreclosure bill allows tenants who are paying rent to stay in homes that are being foreclosed upon until ownership of the property actually changes hands.
While a member of the House, Tucker said, she helped craft a bill passed in 1990 that made violating a restraining order a crime.
She also played a prominent role in the passage of a bill that sparked recreational rail trail pathways across the state by releasing utility companies from liability on abandoned railway beds. And she worked with former Registry of Motor Vehicles chief Dan Grabauskas to improve customer service and reduce wait times at the oft-maligned agency.
Before she leaves the Statehouse, Tucker said she hopes to pass legislation making financial education part of the public school curriculum.
Tucker said she had been thinking about leaving the Statehouse for some time, but made the final decision quickly. She said she was not influenced by the current political climate, which has seen many other incumbent Democrats decide not to seek re-election.
"I actually realized I was more worried about winning than losing, and having to spend three more years in this incredibly intense job," she said. "It's true I don't like how nasty politics has become, but I love the job and the people. I don't mind campaigning or even fundraising. It's just time to do something different."
Despite her love for the job, Tucker's work on Beacon Hill hasn't always been easy.
One of her most stressful times came in the early 1990s when gay marriage was the subject of fervent debate. The issue of legalizing gay marriage came to a head during a Constitutional Convention of senators and members of the House of Representatives. Tucker is a strong supporter of gay marriage.
The convention, a joint meeting of both legislative bodies, lasted several days. In the middle, Tucker's mother, Jeanne Shaffer, who lived in Arizona, became very ill. At her mother's urging, Tucker stayed in Boston until the end of the convention. As soon as it was over, she traveled to Arizona, arriving eight hours after her mother died.
"I had visited her right before the convention, so it wasn't like I hadn't seen her," Tucker said. "She told me I had a job to do and to stay until it was over. It was a tough time for a lot of reasons. People took it very personally if you were on a different side of gay marriage than they were. At the same time, my mother was dying. Sometimes people forget we have lives, too."
Tucker was born Nov. 7, 1944, in Winfield, Kan. — the same day Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to a record fourth presidential term.
"My mother told me my fate in politics was sealed by the date I was born on," said Tucker, who calls Andover — where she has lived with her husband for 40 years — her hometown.
Tucker is the second woman to represent the Second Essex and Middlesex Senate District, and the 22nd female member of the Massachusetts Senate since 1790.
Since Tucker's announcement, those said to be interested in succeeding her include state Reps. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, and Barbara L'Italien, D-Andover, former Lawrence Mayor Mike Sullivan, former Lawrence mayoral candidate David Abdoo, Lawrence Veteran's Services Director Francisco Urena and Andover School Committee member Deb Silberstein. Prior to Tucker's announcement, Jamison Tomasek, Mark Baldwin and John Kelly had said they planned to run against her.
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