DENNIS A. BENZAN

Benzan’s frustration over Democrat Martha Coakley’s loss to Republican Scott P. Brown for a seat in the U.S. Senate spurred him to run for the State Senate, he told The Crimson in January.

“There is a lot of frustration and disappointment in people across the state and the country that their elected officials are not really meeting their needs,” he said.

Benzan, a Cambridge lawyer who ran for the Mass. House of Representatives in 1996 and 1998, said that the open State Senate seat gave him the opportunity he had been seeking to jump back into politics.

Benzan emphasized education as a part of his platform, saying that math skills for young children and college readiness for minority youth are among his top priorities.

“While we are in a bad economy, the state does have resources,” he said. “Cambridge has great resources and yet we’re failing our children.”

Benzan said he believes “if programs don’t work, you don’t need to spend money on them.”

“Sometimes we have a tendency to complicate policy,” he added. “It’s very simple—people want a good education. They want jobs. They want healthcare. They want streets that are clean and infrastructure that’s not rotting away.”

SAL N. DIDOMENICO

A native Cantabrigian, DiDomenico has been involved in politics since his college years, beginning as legislative aide to State Representative Peter A. Vellucci. At the time of Galluccio’s resignation, DiDomenico was serving as his chief of staff.

In 2004, DiDomenico was appointed to the Everett Common Council and was unanimously elected in 2007 to serve as President of the Council.

DiDomenico emphasized a need to take prompt action to sustain small business, seeing them as a prime area for job creation.

“We have to bring down the unemployment rate of 9.5 percent,” he said.

Motivated by his two sons—both of whom attend public schools—and his wife—a special needs teacher—DiDomenico said he opposes teacher lay-offs, shrinking school budgets, and elimination of critical curricula.

He also outlined specific goals for each town in the district. For Cambridge, he envisions working with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to create jobs and ensuring adequate funding for safe and affordable housing.