Lambton Wins First District Seat; Lower Cape Towns Back Dems

Democrat Christopher Lambton won the First Barnstable District state representative seat in Tuesday’s state election over Republican Joe B. Glynn.
 Lambton carried Brewster, Yarmouth and Dennis, the three towns that make up the First Barnstable District. Unofficial results had Lambton with 15,028 votes district-wide to Glynn’s 6,798.
 Lambton takes over the seat previously occupied by Chris Flanagan, who did not seek re-election. He is under federal incitement for wire fraud and falsifying records.
Following the national trend, Lower Cape towns backed Democratic candidates in regional and statewide contests, including Gov. Maura Healey, Senator Ed Markey and Congressman William Keating, all of whom were returned to office for another term. Voters also backed State Senator Julian Cyr, D-Provincetown, and Fourth District Representative Hadley Luddy, D-Orleans, both of whom ran unopposed.
Falmouth’s Dan Gessen, a Democrat, won a seat on the Barnstable County Commission over Republican Adam Hogue. Lower Cape voters strongly supported Gessen.
Local voters also backed the establishment of a Barnstable County Charter Study Commission, fought back attempts to repeal the sale of recreational cannabis and kept existing gun control laws in place. Statewide, voters approved ballot questions extending the Public Records Law to the legislature and governor, establishing a Natural Resource Conservation Fund, and retaining recreational cannabis sales. The gun control rollback was defeated statewide. As of early Wednesday, a ballot question allowing single-family homes on lots as small as 5,000 square feet was too close to call.
In the only other local contested race, Thomas R. Clarke, Jr. won a seat on the Barnstable County Charter Study Commission over Seth Taylor 1,802 to 1,363.
 Voter turnout was relatively high in all four Lower Cape towns. In Chatham and Orleans, 68 percent of voters cast ballots; 67.7 percent of those registered in Brewster voted; and in Harwich 60 percent of those registered voted.