(Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series of articles on the 9th Essex District House race, the political contest on the Nov. 3 State Election ballot, which is expected to draw the most interest from local voters.)
Over the weekend, Pete Meaney brought his campaign for state representative to Saugus, knocking on doors and speaking with residents he encountered along the way, introducing himself and asking what they want from their next elected lawmaker.
“You don’t want to annoy them,” Meaney said of approaching people at home. “You always want to leave a positive interaction.”
Meaney, a 41-year-old dentist, Lynn city councilor representing Ward 1, and father of three, is the Democratic nominee challenging state Rep. Donald Wong (R-Saugus) in the 9th Essex District, who has represented the district since 2011. Meaney says he is running to make the state government more accessible and responsive to residents’ concerns, while addressing affordability, including the cost of child care. One proposal is to expand pre-K to more working families. He called universal pre-K “the most realistic thing we could probably pull off in the first two years.”
But why he wants to serve reaches beyond just the campaign’s policy list.
Meaney has cited a dispute over Route 129 repairs as one reason he decided to run. In a January interview with The Saugus Advocate, he said he received numerous complaints from his constituents about the condition of a section of Route 129, also known as Lynnfield Street, likely from utility repairs. He then tried to contact Wong, Meaney said. “Months went by and I never got a response,” Meaney said.
Wong later told The Advocate that, after reading Meaney’s criticism in the paper, he called Meaney and contacted MassDOT about the status of repairs on Route 129 and left a voicemail for Meaney with the information, including about how the agency planned to repair the state-owned section after the broader Lynnfield Street project was completed.
But that experience made him wonder whether residents were getting adequate representation, Meaney said in a January interview with The Advocate. “I was a sitting city councilor who wasn’t getting any response,” he said. “Imagine what it would be like if I were just one of [Wong’s] constituents.”
But politics, or even the stable life he currently has, were not always on Meaney’s radar. His childhood was marked by his father’s alcohol use as well as by his mother’s generosity despite working in a factory to make ends meet. “She’d give you the shirt off her back,” he said. “I think that’s the basis of why I like to give back.” Meaney graduated from high school in 2002. Soon afterward, a fight with his father led to him being kicked out of the house, he said.
Meaney then joined the Navy and returned to Lynn in 2006 and attended North Shore Community College, where he worked as a truck driver while taking classes. He later studied chemistry and biology at the University of Connecticut. In 2009, between semesters at UConn, he lived in his car. “I had nowhere to go,” Meaney said. “I was just hanging out in the gym.” He then got accepted into Boston University’s dental school, where he graduated from in 2014.
Since 2016, he has been the owner of Broadway Family Dental in Lynn. He started with four employees and now has 12. Meaney said he built his career through long hours and persistence. “Worked my ass off,” he said.
His campaign manager, Damon Xavier Mitchem, said Meaney often leaves the dental office in the afternoon and immediately dives into campaigning, whether it’s knocking on doors, making calls or attending events. “He’s always trying to genuinely get to know what [residents’] problems are and how he can help them,” Mitchem said.
Some Saugus residents said Meaney’s personal manner helped him win their support. Margaret Lankow, who returned to Saugus after decades away, called Meaney “very friendly and down to earth” and said she voted for him in the Democratic primary.
Mary Robblee, who also said she plans to vote for Meaney next month, called him “another regular guy.” She said she wants the district’s representative to listen to residents’ everyday concerns, including about taxes.
Meaney said public service gives him a chance to help people directly. While not every resident was home when Meaney knocked, he said the work he’s asking to do is for the whole district.
“We need to make a change,” Meaney said, referring to his opponent’s long tenure. “Make a change, good things happen,” he said.