[UPDATE, Sept. 7, 2022.] With 90% reporting, the N.Y. Times lists Quinn prevailing with 65% of the vote to McMahon's 35%. This result is not surprising with a well known, insider incumbent. McMahon's strong showing as an out-of-the-box challenger will, I hope, keep the DA's office mindful of its accountability to the public. And I hope we'll see McMahon again in politics and public service soon.
Shannon McMahon is running for Bristol County, Mass., DA (press release) and has my wholehearted support (in my personal capacity*).
Attorney McMahon, a former assistant DA, is a colleague, friend, and former student, an alumna of UMass Law School, where I work. She was editor-in-chief of the newly constituted UMass Law Review in the early days of the Commonwealth's public law school project, in 2011, when I joined the faculty and served as law review co-adviser. At the same time, she worked as a bartender and raised two children. Oh, and she finished law school at the top of her class.
I deeply valued McMahon even then more as colleague than advisee; she was, and no doubt remains, bold in tackling problems head on. Her penchant for plain-speaking was a breath of fresh air in the stultifying environment of public higher ed, especially in staid Massachusetts.
McMahon has been accused of irreverence; what I see in her is a refusal to defer to the status quo, a flat denial that things must be what they are because that's how they always have been. No surprise, then, that McMahon has made headlines (e.g., The Public's Radio) for stepping out as the first challenger in 16 years to give voters a choice before the dynastic incumbent DA can walk away with a third four-year term.
"Given the dynamics of the community right now, between the drug crisis
and the mental health crisis and issues with the police and the
community, people are angry and upset that nothing is being done to help
with the people's problems, and I think right now, and it's imperative,
that people have a choice," McMahon told the Herald News.
Massachusetts can be unkind to people who are willing to topple the apple cart to effect needed reform. The state's veneer of progressivism is a thin veil for a social and political culture that demands conformity and doubles down on socioeconomic hierarchy.
For that very reason, McMahon is perfect for the job, and I hope she's only getting started.
You too can donate at McMahon for DA. Save the date for a March 28 event.
*As always, this blog is a product of my personal creation, even if it sometimes serves also to fulfill my responsibilities as an academic in teaching, service, and research, and as an attorney in the Bar of the District of Columbia. The Savory Tort is neither affiliated with nor within the editorial control of my employer, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. I produced this posting, "Shannon McMahon for Bristol County, Mass., DA," on personal time and with no public resources.
