Alison Leary highlights climate change, affordability and transparency in campaign to unseat state Rep. John Lawn

Alison Leary, Ward 1 city councilor from Newton, is challenging state Rep. John Lawn in the Democratic Party primary race for the Massachusetts 10th Middlesex District representative seat. The 10th Middlesex District comprises portions of Newton, Waltham and Watertown. 

Leary has been a Newton city councilor since 2013 and has lived in Newton her entire life. She lives with her husband, son and cat in Newton’s Nonantum village. Her daughter lives nearby in Brookline.

Leary graduated from Simmons College in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She left her full-time job last November to devote more time to her city council duties and her state representative campaign. This is Leary’s second campaign for the seat. She ran in 2020, with her campaign then consisting mainly of door-to-door canvassing. 

Leary credited her face-to-face interactions with voters for helping her win the majority of the votes in the Newton and Waltham portions of the district.

However, Lawn won the three precincts in Watertown to take the election..

Her current campaign is different. While she has still spent time going door to door, Leary has also attended many community events to learn about and connect with constituents. In Waltham, she attended City Councilor-at-Large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur’s town hall meeting on Flock Safety surveillance cameras and the time restrictions on Waltham Common events recently imposed by Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy.

“It was a great turnout. I just love local government. It’s people who live in the community raising their voices,” Leary said.

Leary said her involvement in local meetings is a contrast to Lawn’s attendance record, saying that as a Newton city councilor she found it difficult to reach him. 

“He was never really a part of our organization. He didn’t really show up at events. He wasn’t a part of the fabric of the community,” Leary said. 

If elected, Leary promises to be present and reachable for constituents as well as listen to residents and experts when developing policy. “You have to listen to experts, the engineers, the physicians, the people who are actually affected. I truly try and listen to all voices, because I think that makes for better policy,” she said.

“I am in frequent communication with Newton’s elected officials,” said Lawn in response. “I have hosted multiple meetings this year in my Statehouse office with Alison and the advocates she works with. I am proud to have been recognized by the Nonantum Neighborhood Association, Nonantum Children’s Christmas Party Association and the St. Mary of Carmen Society for my longstanding support of their vital work.”

Climate change and affordability

Leary’s campaign centers on several key issues, including climate change and affordability.

During her tenure on the Newton City Council, Leary worked with Green Newton, a litany of volunteers and fellow council member Emily Norton to institute a citywide plastic bag ban in 2015 and created an ordinance that requires stores to charge 10 cents for each paper bag used.

Leary said she wants Massachusetts to move away from fossil fuels and use clean heat services statewide. 

She is a member of Gas Transition Allies, an alliance of organizations and experts that advocates for transitioning away from fossil fuels and reducing methane emissions. Leary attends monthly meetings and follows the organization’s policy recommendations. She also wants to attack the problem at its source, working with organizations such as National Grid that are involved in the industry to create long-term solutions to move away from fossil fuels and reduce gas leaks.

Leary also listed housing and healthcare affordability as priorities. 

From May 2023 to November 2025, Leary was a program manager for Heading Home, directing their Families in Supportive Housing program that provided permanent housing for families experiencing housing instability and recovering from substance use. She wants to continue supporting affordable housing efforts on the state level through increased multifamily zoning. Additionally Leary supports nearly all legislative priorities outlined by Abundant Housing Massachusetts except for their position on more relaxed septic regulations.

Additionally, Leary has spent the last two and a half years facilitating and participating in forums discussing the benefits of a single payer healthcare system and sharing information on the “Medicare for All” act that is before the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. She believes affordable healthcare should be available to everyone, and plans to advocate for Medicare for all and a single-payer healthcare system if elected. 

“Yes, it’s a big lift. It’s complex. But if we can send people to the dark side of the moon, I think we can solve this just like the 18 other developed countries that have a single-payer system,” Leary said.

An advocate for transparency

Leary said she wants to bring more transparency to the state government. She noted that Massachusetts state legislature meetings are exempt from the Open Meeting Law, which requires in part that meetings of public bodies to be conducted openly and publicly. Leary wants to overturn this exemption. 

Leary also advocates for stipend reform. 

“There are [state] committees that very rarely meet or don’t meet at all,” Leary said. 

Even if these committees don’t meet, she said, chairs of the committees can still receive stipends of more than $40,000 for serving in the role. 

“I’m not saying someone shouldn’t get extra money for spending time on complex issues. But [the stipend amount] is kind of excessive. If there’s committees that haven’t met in a year or two, then maybe we shouldn’t continue to have those committees to save the taxpayer money.”

The Massachusetts 10th Middlesex District representative primary will take place along with other primary races on Sept. 1 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at precinct locations around the city. Residents can use an online tool on the Secretary of the Commonwealth website to find their polling location. Early voting for the primary takes place Aug. 22 through 28, though Waltham has not announced locations for early voting yet.