PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray joined local Democrats on Monday to kick off the final leg of the 2010 campaign season.

Some 75 party members and officials were on hand to open the campaign office at 31 South St., just recently the headquarters for Tom Bowler's successful campaign for sheriff.

"We forged some tremendous and wonderful friendships - we hope everlasting friendships - we developed some fantastic partnerships working from this location," said Bowler. "We wish the coordinating campaign all the success on Nov. 2 that we did on Sept. 14."

The get-out-the-vote drive may have greater significance on the statewide level where recent polls have Gov. Deval Patrick and Republican challenger Charles Baker in a dead heat than at the local level.

In the heavily Democratic Berkshires, the 1st Berkshire District and county sheriff were decided primary night when no Republicans chose to run. Going into the general election, only Democratic nominee Paul Mark of Hancock has a GOP opponent, Michael Case of Washington; both Reps. Christopher Speranzo of the 3rd District and William "Smitty" Pignatelli in the 4th District will be vying against Green/Rainbow Party candidates Mark C. Miller and Scott Lee Laugenour, respectively.

Patrick, on the other hand, is working hard to fend off Baker, former head of Harvard Pilgrim; Murray's opponent is Richard Tisei, state Senate minority leader. Trailing behind are Treasurer Timothy Cahill, running as an independent, and Green-Rainbow candidate Jill Stein for governor and Stein's running mate Richard Purcell for lieutenant governor. (Cahill's running mate Paul Loscocco jumped ship last week.)

Murray reminded those present that he was selected by them, not the governor, but kept his sharpest comments for Patrick's opponent. Baker, a state budget secretary in the 1990s, is running on his fiscal acumen, but Murray dismissed his reputation, saying he raised insurance premiums 150 percent while at Harvard Pilgrim and pointed to his role in the state's modern symbol of waste and fraud.

"The architect of the Big Dig financing plan now wants to be your governor," he told the appreciative crowd.

U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, who is facing Republican Bill Gunn, was supposed to attend but had to cancel. Also missing was Attorney General Martha Coakley, who was in Lee that morning and at The Berkshire Eagle in the afternoon, and Suzanne Bump of Great Barrington, who's running for auditor.

Olver's campaign manager Debra Guachione stepped in to make a pitch for the entire Democratic ticket. "Only four years ago, we broke a 16-year chain of Republican leadership," she said of Patrick and Murray. "Those governors wanted to be in Mexico, Canada, Washington and New York — not Massachusetts."

Murray said Patrick had the perfect cover for the leaving the state during its worst years: "The president of the United States asked me serve."

"But he didn't. He didn't cut and run," the former Worcester mayor continued.

Downing, a former Olver staffer, said it was important to return the Amherst professor to office.

"We need him to continue to be our voice on Capitol Hill," said Downing. "When Democrats remain in power in 2010 and when we make sure the president's agenda isn't stalled by a party that just wants to say no to anything."

In addition to the candidates, the local party members attending included Mary K. O'Brien; Mayor James M. Ruberto, who gave a passionate plug for his friend Patrick; former North Adams Mayor John Barrett III, who has been a strong backer of his former mayoral colleague Murray; Daniel Bianchi; Sherwood Guernsey; and Pittsfield Councilors President Gerald Lee, Christine Yon and Melissa Mazzeo.

Field organizer Josh Hochberg said the vote drive would depend on "friend banks," to prevent people from being inundated with phone calls.

"Open up your cell phone, open up your address book and call your friends," he said.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Former governor and Williamstown resident Jane Swift has endorsed Republican candidate Bill Gunn for the 1st Massachusetts District.

Gunn, a 48-year-old Ware roofing contractor, is hoping to oust Democrat John W. Olver in November. He's a registered Republican running on tea party principles, including repealing the federal health-care reform bill and limited government.

In her letter, Swift, who ran unsuccessfully against Olver in 1996, explained her reasons for endorsing Gunn. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — For 24 years, Dan Bosley has been working on educational initiatives, community programs and big budgets — very big budgets. He'd hoped to translate those skills into the sheriff's office but it wasn't to be.

Voters overwhelmingly backed Tom Bowler's bid to become the first new sheriff in 32 years.

"I had a tough job," said Bosley at his gathering at Taylor's Restaurant. "I had to explain what the sheriff did and then explain why I was the best candidate, while the other person just said, 'I'm the best candidate.' "

Bosley said he'd called Bowler earlier to congratulate him and offer his support. "I think he ran a great race."

The candidates agreed on a number of things but diverged most prominently on the function of the job. Bosley defined it as public safety; Bowler, a Pittsfield Police detective, as law enforcement. He gained the endorsement and active support of local law enforcement agencies, the district attorney and the corrections officers. Saying the sheriff is a lawman and not a warden fit with the voters.

"I think the voters were more interested in security, more interested in putting a lawman there," he said. "And the voters have spoken."

Bosley had hoped to counteract Bowler's grip on Pittsfield with a higher turnout in Northern Berkshire. "I just couldn't crack that Pittsfield market," he said. Turnout was high enough in Pittsfield to give Bowler the advantage but not enough in North County to make a difference for Bosley, who won both Williamstown and North Adams but not Adams.

With a new representative selected on Tuesday in Gailanne Cariddi, the man whose name was once bandied about as a potential speaker of House has options open for the first time in years.

"I really have no idea what I'm going to do. I focused on this race and now tomorrow I'm going to focus on something else. ... well, I'm going to focus on some things my wife said I absolutely have to do," he laughed. "I'm a pretty talented guy, I'm pretty smart and I'll find something to do."

He decided to leave the Legislature because it was just time, he said, not because of any of the reasons many have speculated on, including his loss of stature with the new House speaker.

"It's been 24 years. I've done everything I've set out to do," said Bosley, referring to his work in education, insurance and green jobs, his efforts on economic development bills and in making Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the science center at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and the reconstruction of the Hadley Overpass a reality. "I'm grateful for the support I had and we accomplished everything."

All but one bill he's been working on for a decade. Bosley doesn't think that one will ever happen but he plans to spend the next three months on tying up his two dozen years of service and transitioning everything over to Cariddi as smoothly as possible.

"I'm going to work hard until Jan. 3 and then, hopefully, I'll be down there to see her sworn in; I'll applaud and I'll leave.

"It's been a privilege serving the people of Berkshire County for 24 years."

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Gailanne Cariddi emerged as the winner in the 1st District, the first new state representative in 24 years and the first woman to occupy the seat. Although a primary election, there's no Republican running so the Democratic winner will coast to victory in November.

The longtime North Adams city councilor was surrounded by well-wishers at Petrino's Cafe on Main Street in North Adams as numbers continued to flow in from the district's hilltowns.

"I'm sure that it really hasn't hit me yet because it's so wonderful for so many voters to come out and support me," said Cariddi. "I really want to thank all the voters because without all of them, and the team we put together to run this election, we wouldn't be this happy right now."

The city native felt she was the leading candidate and her father was sure. He wasn't excited Tuesday, she said, "he said he knew I was going to win."

"Right along I felt I was the leading candidate but I told everyone I had two opponents from Adams nipping at my heels so I had to keep going," said Cariddi, referring to House hopefuls David Bisssaillon and Edward MacDonald.

Cariddi easily took North Adams, pulling 1,710 votes to Bissaillon's 575 and MacDonald's 379. She came in second in Adams, no surprise, with Bissaillon sweeping the town with 1,328 votes; Cariddi took 356 and MacDonald 261. It was in Williamstown, however, that Cariddi pulled far enough ahead that it would have been tough to catch her. She pulverized both men with 70 percent of the vote. Some 1,028 ballots were cast for Cariddi in the Purple Valley compared to 293 for Bissaillon and 164 for MacDonald.

She continued to roll up the smaller towns, gaining 221 votes in Clarksburg (Bissaillon, 120; MacDonald, 48) out of the 425 votes cast, and took Charlemont with 84 votes.

Cariddi believed her stances on the economy, jobs, community development, green initiatives, agriculture, small business, tourism and arts and culture put her over the top.

"They want somebody with a positive attitude who's going to keep moving our district forward," she said. "I think all of those things resonated with the voters. I talked about them time and time again. People wanted issues; I gave them issues."

The party was winding down at the Bounti-Fare in Adams for David Bissaillon. The former Berkshire Chamber president said he didn't want his supporters to leave sad.

"The people who worked for me, who supported me, they were my heroes. I'm grateful for what they've done," he said.

He wasn't ready to speculate on if he'd make another try at elected office — "not tonight" — and planned to take a breather and get back to work at Coakley, Pierpan, Dolan & Collins Insurance Agency.

"Unfortunately, my message didn't resonate with the voters," Bissaillon said. "We ran a clean campaign and I learned a lot. .... I wish Gail all the best. It's a great victory for her."

Edward MacDonald, who had been confident of a surge on Sunday, had already closed up his gathering at the American Legion in North Adams before we got there. The Chester town administrator had worked hard but couldn't catch Cariddi nor capture his hometown of Adams.

Update: According to reports from MassLive.com, Paul Mark has won the 2nd Berkshire District Democratic primary with 2,762 votes (44 percent) and 21 of 23 precincts reporting. Coming in second was Thomas Szczepaniak with 2,310 votes (37 percent) and Noreen Suriner with 1,229 votes (37 percent).

The race  to chose a new representative from the 2nd Berkshire District appears to be going down to the wire, with Democrats Tom Szczepaniak of Dalton and Paul Mark of Hancock running neck and neck.

An update from PCTV at 11 p.m. had Mark in the lead by 6 percent of the vote.

The campaigns were still awaiting official results from the sprawling district, which includes parts of 22 towns spread across three counties.

On the Republican side, Michael Case of Washington appears to be the choice to represent his party in the Nov. 2 general election, which will also include independent Stefan Racz of Buckland, who unsuccessfully ran against Guyer in 2006.

On the Democratic side, Szczepaniak, a Dalton selectman since 2001 and owner of Variety Trucking and Demolition in Pittsfield, said he was confident he would pull through against two other Democrats. In his hometown, he won 788 votes to 413 for Paul Mark of Hancock, and 228 for Noreen Suriner of Middlefield.

At about 10:30 p.m., he said he was confident of a strong performance in Berkshire County, but unsure about other towns that still hadn't reported.

"It's been a long, vigorous campaign," he said from Shamrock Restaurant and Pub in Dalton, where he was awaiting the results with supporters. "Meeting the people has been a blessing. It's a new world for me and I'm excited about it."

For the Republicans, Michael Case, a veteran and longtime Pittsfield police officer, said he had put up a clear lead against Rosanne Frieri of Pittsfield.

"I'm glued to the TV," he said from Jacob's Restaurant in Dalton, where he was gathering with supporters. "I've got a feeling I'm going to win."

The district is geographically the largest in the state and includes the Berkshire towns of Cheshire, Dalton, Hancock, Hinsdale, Lanesborough, New Ashford, Peru, Richmond, Becket, Washington, Windsor, and a part of Pittsfield. It also includes the Franklin County towns of Colrain, Bernardston, Ashfield, Buckland, Leyden, Northfield, and Shelburne, and the Hampshire County towns of Cummington, Middlefield, and Plainfield.

The winner of the race will replace Denis Guyer of Dalton, who was first elected to the seat in 2004, winning that election with 70 percent of the vote. He replaced Republican Shaun Kelly of Dalton, who had represented the district since 1990.