Markey, Lynch submit signatures for U.S. Senate

BOSTON (WWLP) - “Ladies and gentleman my name is Ed Markey and I’m running for United States Senate!” said Congressman Ed Markey, officially announcing his candidacy for U.S. Senate on the steps of the Massachusetts State House Monday.  A special election will take place June 25 to fill the vacant seat left by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Markey supporters delivered more than 52,000 certified signatures to the state’s Elections Division to get his name on the ballot. This Wednesday is the deadline to submit at least 10,000 certified signatures to qualify for the U.S. Senate special election. 

“He speaks to me, there’s environmental stuff he seems better on, women’s issues he seems much stronger on …and so those are some big issues for me,” said Isaac Maze-Rothstein, a student from Williams College in Williamstown.

Earlier Monday morning, Democratic challenger Stephen Lynch submitted more than 23,000 signatures.

“He’s been in congress for ten years, but before that he had a long career as a working iron worker,” said Lynch for Senate campaign spokesperson Conor Yunits.  “As he’ll tell you, he doesn’t work for Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid, he works for the people of Massachusetts.”

Both Democratic Senate hopefuls have signed the “people’s pledge” to discourage outside groups from running ads during the special election. They’re encouraging Republicans to do the same.

“From the beginning they’re saying they’re not going to take the pledge …to keep out the Karl Rove, the Koch brother money,” said Congressman Markey.  “Steve Lynch and I are challenging these Republicans to say no and we’re going to stick with that.”

Republican candidate Dan Winslow says the pledge is “inauthentic” and that both Lynch and Markey have collected a lot of out-of-state money to fund their campaigns.