Jacobs Defends Her Record Ahead of Sept. 1 Primary

I sat down with Governor's Council member Tara Jacobs yesterday, and she's in the middle of a real fight to keep her seat.

Jacobs represents District 8 on the Governor's Council, the elected body of eight that confirms judges, parole board members and other key appointments in Massachusetts. The district covers Berkshire County along with Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire counties, plus part of Worcester County. She's held the seat since 2022 and lives in North Adams.

Now she's facing a primary challenge on Sept. 1 from Mike Fenton, the Springfield City Council president and an attorney. What makes this race interesting for us here in the Berkshires is who's backing him. The Berkshire District Attorney, the Berkshire Sheriff and the Berkshire Clerk of Courts are all endorsing Fenton over our own sitting councilor.

Jacobs sees a pattern in those endorsements. She told me she believes they trace back to political allegiance to U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, the longtime Springfield congressman.

When I asked her about her record, Jacobs pointed to the judicial nominees she's helped confirm from Western Mass. She said she's proud not just of the numbers, but of who those people are. She described wanting judges who are humble, kind and compassionate, people who follow the law but also see someone who did a bad thing as more than just a bad person.

I have been serving a shortage of (nominees) which has historically been the case for Western Mass. in a way that I'm very proud of - and not just in numbers, because numbers are only one part of a story, but literally WHO these people are, that we have nominated, confirmed, and are now presiding in Western Mass. - the kind of people they are, the diversity of experience that they bring, powerhouse qualifications, but genuinely the kind of humans you want to see serving from the bench, people who are respectful, humble, who are kind, who are compassionate, who will enact justice and follow the law but will do it in a way that sees people for who they are and seeks to set them on the path to success even if that includes a term of incarceration - but who see people for doing a bad thing rather than seeing people as a bad person. -Tara Jacobs

With Sept. 1 closing in, this primary is shaping up to be a real test of who Western Mass. voters trust to hold that seat, someone with deep local roots or a challenger backed by the county's top law enforcement officials.