From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Francis Galvin (born on September 17, 1950) is the current Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth (Massachusetts's Secretary of State).

Galvin was born in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts) and educated in Brighton public schools. He attended Boston College and graduated cum laude in 1972. He received a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1975. Galvin resides in Brighton with his wife, Eileen, and their daughter, Bridget.

He began his political career in 1972 as an aide to the Massachusetts Governor's Council while an undergraduate, and won a special election to the Massachusetts General Court as Massachusetts state representative from the Allston-Brighton district the same year he graduated from law school. He was the Democratic nominee for Treasurer, but has defeated by Republican Joe Malone. He was first elected Secretary of the Commonwealth in 1994.

Galvin has been an active participant in the National Association of Secretaries of State, serving first as Chairman of the Standing Committee on Securities, then as Co-Chairman of the Committee on Presidential Primaries.

At one point during the administration of Gov. Mitt Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, Galvin became the Acting Governor of Massachusetts when both Romney and Healey were out of the state. During the administration of former Gov. Jane Swift, Galvin automatically became Acting Governor whenever Swift left the state, since there was no lieutenant governor in office at the time. When Swift gave birth to twins in 2001, she chose to keep full executive authority and did not hand over the governorship at any point to Galvin.

While it had been widely rumored that Galvin would run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2006 as a Democrat, he announced at the end of 2005 that he will instead seek reelection as Secretary of State. Voting rights advocate John Bonifaz had already declared that he would run for the office, and stayed in the race to challenge Galvin for re-election. However, Galvin defeated Bonifaz in the September 19th Democratic primary. Galvin defeated Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein, a medical doctor and environmental health advocate who ran for Governor in 2002, in the November general election.

The Democratic primary race received relatively little attention or press coverage for most of 2006, but in the last few weeks before election, a controversy over Galvin's refusal to debate his opponent broke into the news with a front page story in the Boston Sunday Globe^[1]. This is the first time a front page story appeared about this race in any major Boston paper.

• Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth official page
• Bill Galvin campaign web site
• Bill Galvin alt campaign web site
• Video of TV interview with Galvin - "Meet Democratic Secretary Of State Candidates" on WCVB-TV Channel 5 Boston