Republican John Gaskey wins 2nd Plymouth District seat

Republican John Gaskey won the house representative seat for the 2nd Plymouth District, formerly held by the recently deceased Susan Williams Gifford over Democratic write in challenger Sarah Hewins in the general election Tuesday, Nov. 5.

In the Middleboro precincts part of his district, Gaskey won over 73% of the votes and 66% of the votes in Wareham as well as 63% of the votes in Carver.

"It's fantastic, I'm glad to have everyone's support," said Gaskey. "I can't wait to get to work for everybody. I am going to go up to Beacon Hill and do my best for everybody in the district."

One of the first topics Gaskey said he would like to tackle is removing the sanctuary status of the state.

"I would like to see the state start move forward to take care of the immigration issue," said Gaskey.

After her unsuccessful write-in campaign, Hewins congratulated Gaskey on his victory.

“We knew from the outset that a write-in candidacy would be very difficult,” said Hewins. “But, as I said before, the voters of our district deserved a choice. I offered the voters my experience and my history of success in delivering for the residents. However, the voters chose Mr. Gaskey. I wish him success and hope that he will work with his colleagues at the State House on behalf of all the residents of the district.”

Gaskey won the Republican nomination in the September primary against longtime incumbent Susan Williams Gifford. The broadly popular Gifford, who did not vigorously contest the primary challenge, succumbed to cancer in October.

Gaskey, a father of two, moved to Carver in 2017 with his wife Mary Dormer after a 23 year career in the Coast Guard. Gaskey grew up in El Paso where he attended Texas Tech University before joining the Coast Guard. Following retirement from the military, he put his engineering skills to work in the private sector, focusing on medical equipment.

Gaskey has coached flag and tackle football in Carver and is nearing the end of his first five-year term on the Carver Planning Board, Gaskey said he wanted to get involved at the state level to protect the civil rights of those in the district.

"I feel like the government is using a lot of different things to take nibbles and bites out of our civil rights little by little," he said.

One area that he explained bothered him were mask and vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I really felt a calling to step up and say something about it because during my time in the guard, you give up your rights to defend your country," said Gaskey. "To watch the government come through and ignore the data that was out there and the real reasons why people were getting sick really bothered me."

Gaskey explored a number of different topics that he says are important to the district.

Housing: Gaskey said there are only two ways to combat high housing costs: more housing or fewer people. He said building more housing would not be the best solution because the district does not have the necessary space, and the current infrastructure could not support it.

Gaskey explained that very few homes in the district are on town water and that having a large number of residences dependent on septic systems and wells limits the amount of housing that can be made available because space between septic systems and wells is needed to prevent contamination.

When it comes to affordable housing, Gaskey is looking to continue Gifford’s effort to get an affordable housing designation for mobile home parks.

"We've got four [mobile home parks] in Carver, six or eight of them in Wareham and I'm sure Middleboro has its share and the state refuses to acknowledge that as affordable housing," said Gaskey.

He said he sees the potential positive impact of accessory dwelling units as allowed by the state’s new Affordable Homes Act.

"We had a guy in [Carver] that was wanting to do that for their family and because of town bylaws they were unable to," said Gaskey. "Now that it's been approved statewide, he can take care of his mother on his property."

Under the MBTA Communities Law, all 177 state designated MBTA communities must create a zoned district of multi-family housing units. Gaskey said this is not the best option because it promotes renting which is a tax negative for towns and renters might not become active members of the community.

Immigration: Gaskey would work to eliminate the sanctuary status of the state to remove "illegal aliens" and "get the criminals off the street."

"Hundreds of thousands of people have come into Massachusetts illegally," said Gaskey. "The state is overpaying for housing for these people and it is driving the housing price up and is driving the tax-paying citizens out of the market. If we get illegal immigration under control and start removing people, the housing inventory will increase and prices will go down."

Education: School should get "back to the basics." Gaskey wants schools to dedicate more time to subjects like math, science, social studies and English. Gaskey added he would like to see a push for more physical education to combat rising obesity rates.

He opposes the effort to abolish passing the MCAS tests as a high school graduation requirement. Despite not being a "big fan of standardized testing," Gaskey said abolishing the requirement would be a "huge disservice to loosen up standards."

"My son has math every other day and they just touch on it and he comes home and doesn't know how to do the work," said Gaskey. "I'm having to re-teach a bunch of math to him and a lot of kids don't have that resource so I can only imagine what they're having to deal with."

Gaskey added he wants to hold kids more accountable for their actions during school to help them mature.

"We would've been expelled for similar behaviors when I was in school so whatever it is they're doing they need to stop," said Gaskey. "They need to reverse it and really push the responsibility and accountability back down on kids and help them understand what growing up is actually all about."

Other education topics important to Gaskey are the "progressive policies regarding transgender and LGBT stuff in classrooms."Gaskey previously said he wants to "do my best to get the state and the Legislature to step back from the transgender, progressive direction that they’re going."

Environment: With a toxic substance known as PFAs, a "forever chemical" that can contaminate soil, water air and food being found in drinking and groundwater, Gaskey explained that a top priority is ensuring the people in the district have access to clean water. While Gaskey said he does not have a concrete plan for tackling the problem, he wants to work with each town to quickly address any contamination people might.

Gaskey added he has some personal experience with PFAs contamination.

"Shortly after we moved in we got a knock from the health department saying 'by the way your water's contaminated,' said Gaskey. "We've gone through a lot of trials and tribulations with that and I want to make sure clean water is available to everyone."