23-year-old from Arlington wins House seat

Sean Garaballey (second from left), campaigning last month with with Governor Deval Patrick, shook hands with Arlington Diner owner Themis Boretos. Peter Boretos, the owner's son, is to the governor's right. (JOANNE RATHE/GLOBE STAFF)

Sean Garballey, a 23-year-old Arlington Democrat, will become one of the state's youngest legislators after winning a special election yesterday to fill a vacant state representative seat.

Garballey, a School Committee member, defeated Republican John L. Worden III and independent Robert V. Valeri, both of Arlington, to earn the 23d Middlesex House seat vacated when James Marzilli won a special election for the state Senate in December.

Garballey had 3,591 votes to 1,727 for Worden, a former town moderator, and 222 for Valeri, a former Town Meeting member, in the district that includes parts of Arlington and Medford.

Interviewed by phone from his victory celebration at the American Legion Hall in Arlington, Garballey said he was thrilled.

"It's not every day a young person gets elected to the state Legislature," said Garballey, who was elected to Town Meeting at age 18 and to the School Committee at age 20. A 2007 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, he is now enrolled in a dual master's program in public administration and political science at Suffolk University.

Calling his campaign a "conversation with voters" on how he could improve their quality of life, he said: "I think people had confidence in my ability to do that. I will not take it for granted."

The special election was one of four to fill House seats yesterday. In all of them, Democrats emerged victorious.

Democrat Katherine M. Clark of Melrose defeated Republican Mark B. Hutchinson, also of Melrose, to claim the 32d Middlesex seat that Michael E. Festa vacated when he resigned last October to become state secretary of elder affairs. Clark, a lawyer and former School Committee member, picked up 3,455 votes to 2,037 for Hutchinson, co-owner of a family real estate agency. The district includes Melrose and part of Wakefield.

"It's a tremendous feeling, and I'm very grateful to the voters of Melrose and Wakefield and to everyone who volunteered on the campaign," Clark said.

"Our campaign reflected the concerns of the families and people of this district," said Clark, until recently chief of the state attorney general's policy and government relations division. "They are worried about the public schools and the economy and job growth and public safety. And those were the issues that the campaign was based upon."

In the Eighth Essex District, Democrat Lori Ehrlich won a race among three Marblehead residents for the seat of Douglas W. Petersen, who resigned in November to become state commissioner of agricultural resources.

Ehrlich, a self-employed certified public accountant and cofounder of two environmental organizations, had 3,545 votes to 2,133 for Republican John Blaisdell, a retired Marblehead police officer who owns a mortgage brokerage business, and 549 for lndependent Mark Barry, a lawyer, in the district that includes Marblehead, Swampscott, and two Lynn precincts.

"I'm elated and delighted and grateful to everyone who worked on the campaign and everyone who voted," Ehrlich said.

She attributed her win to a "good, old-fashioned, grass-roots campaign" and to her message.

"I think people were looking for a fresh voice for the district and somebody that they could put their confidence in to bring the issues that they care about to the State House," Ehrlich said.

Kevin Aguiar, a Fall River Democrat and School Committee member, defeated Libertarian Raymond Leary of Fall River to win the Seventh Bristol seat formerly held by Robert Correia, who resigned after being elected mayor of Fall River last November.

Aguiar, a guidance counselor in the New Bedford public schools, received 2,373 votes to 405 for Leary. The district includes 12 precincts within Fall River.

"I've shown a dedication to doing the job I was elected to do," Aguiar said of his efforts as a School Committee member.

"I think that carried over to this election. People truly believed in my ability to do the job. I intend to go to Boston to prove them right."

Globe correspondent Manny Veiga contributed to this report.