Gaskey and Hewins get ready for 2nd Plymouth District race

Republican nominee for state representative of the 2nd Plymouth District John Gaskey "accepts the challenge" presented by Democratic write in candidate Sarah Hewins.

"She has every right to do a write-in campaign," said Gaskey.

Gaskey acknowledged that he and Hewins "have different views on things" but he is not planning on changing his campaign strategy.

"We had decided before the September primary that if we were successful we were going to keep campaigning at the same rate that we were," said Gaskey. "We've regrouped a little bit to expand the message and collect new data before we really hit the ground running again."

Gaskey had defeated longtime 2nd Plymouth District State Representative Susan Williams Gifford in the September Republican primary for the Republican nomination.

When Gaskey decided to run for state representative for 2nd Plymouth District, he did so with an eye toward the legislature’s recent decisions.

“I’ve been very upset with a lot of the legislation that has come out in the last cycle,” said Gaskey. “The more I look at things, the more disturbed I feel about things, and [about] the lack of presence that our representatives have on Beacon Hill."

Some examples Gaskey gave were around the topics of gun control legislation and immigration policy.

“I consider myself a [Second Amendment] absolutist, [and] a firm believer in civil rights, the constitutional civil rights that were guaranteed to us through the federal constitution,” said Gaskey.

Gaskey explained he "saw the horrors that [migrants] were being subjected to to get here" during his 23-year career with the Coast Guard where he worked with mass migrations from Cuba and Haiti.

Gaskey explained he has a "personal vision" of how government bodies' policy hurts "the people they’re allowing in.”

In an interview with Wareham Week, Hewins explained Gaskey's win had contributed to her decision to run a write in campaign and she was "really surprised" when Gifford lost the nomination.

"I felt like I had to do this," said Hewins.
Hewins has been recognized by the state for her environmental work and has based her campaign on environmental issues like protecting local cranberry growers as well as issues surrounding affordable housing.

Hewins said that affordable housing should be implemented “in such a way to respect everyone, so that the housing units that are affordable are integrated into the market units.”

The vote for state representative will be held during the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5. In Wareham, voters in precincts one and six will cast their ballots at Memorial Hall at 59 Marion Road; precincts two and three will vote at Ethel E. Hammond School, 13 Highland Ave. ; precincts four and five will vote at Redman Hall, 845 Main St.