LEOMINSTER — There will be a debate for the Fourth Worcester District state representative seat on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. between incumbent state Rep. Natalie Higgins, D-Leominster, and Republican challenger Josh Bowdridge, which will be broadcast live on cable access TV.
The Oct. 13 debate is being put on by a partnership between Fitchburg Access Television (FATV), Fitchburg Leominster Area Politics Television (FLAP TV), and Leominster Access Television (LTV), which have been combining to sponsor debates in Fitchburg and Leominster for over a decade. The debate will be held at the FATV studio without an audience, and it will be shown live on FATV and LTV and will also be available for viewing afterward on both websites and on the FLAP TV Facebook page.
A second debate that was planned for Oct. 7 at Leominster City Hall has been canceled. Organizer Rebecca Connors, host of a local cable access TV show called “Your Right to Know,” said the logistics of holding the debate at City Hall were too difficult to put together and it was called off. She said she had hoped to do a debate where the public could attend, but it didn’t work out.
Kevin Cormier, of “FLAP TV,” who has been one of those spearheading the debate coverage for a decade, said “A lot of cities and towns don’t have this anymore, we do and it’s because of the partnership between FLAP TV, FATV and LAT, the three of us working together. … It’s not a simple process.”
“We’re just looking forward to serving the community … and providing nonpartisan, nonbiased debates.”
He said they had tried debates with an audience in the past, but people in the crowd would sometimes be loud, interrupting the actual debate, so they went to debates without an audience, noting that even national debates now are done without an audience. “It really is the new normal.”
Bowdridge said he is looking forward to the debate. He noted he had gone on Connors’ “Your Right to Know,” cable access TV show and had spoken out in favor of debates with an audience, and he was pleasantly surprised when Connors later contacted him and said she was planning one at Leominster City Hall with an audience.
Both Bowdridge and Higgins had agreed to participate in both debates.
But when the second debate fell through, both Bowdridge and Higgins said they are still looking forward to participating in the one debate, run by the partnership of FATV, FLAP TV and LTV, on Oct. 13.
Higgins
Higgins said she is happy to go to the debate and talk about the issues and discuss her efforts, and would have also done the same thing with the second debate if it hadn’t been canceled.
Higgins said she’s been working hard as a state representative, saying, “I’m really proud of what we’ve done. … So much of what I do day to day is helping the people of Leominster, making sure they have access to what they need, making sure folks trust government and that we have their backs and will be there when they really need us.”
She ticked off a number of bills she’s been working on from housing to education to debt.
She said that having worked as a rape crisis counselor in the past, a key measure she got passed was to make sure all rape test kits collected from alleged rapes are tested in a timely manner. She said what was happening was that, for cases that were not prosecuted right away, the test kits were being put on a shelf and not tested, and there was a crime lab backlog of 6,300 of these.
Another problem with that, besides the difficulty in backtracking the kits and testing them if the case is later prosecuted, was that with modern technology able to cross-reference DNA samples of potential criminals, the data on thousands of crimes was never tested. It’s only now that the bill has been passed to have the lab process all kits within 30 days that the DNA information has become available on those crimes, which she said could be linked to other offenses, allowing police to track down repeat offenders.
Another key bill Higgins worked on was the Student Opportunity Act, which she said has brought in millions of dollars of extra aid for Leominster schools every year.
She said the state had a program to help so-called “Gateway Cities,” old mill cities fallen on tough times, of which there are 26 in Massachusetts.
The funds are “making sure that kids growing up in Leominster have an equal shot.”
But the needs were great, and said that starting in 2019 and going for six years, there was an effort to boost the amount of aid, “focused on the most marginalized school systems.”
Now that the level is higher, that program will continue to better help Leominster schools, and schools in other Gateway Cities, every year going forward, she said.
And now she’s turning her attention to bills on special education issues and school transportation.
Plus, another idea on her agenda is addressing the high cost of a college education.
“For so many of our working class community, they can’t imagine sending their kids to college,” Higgins said.
She said the switch of offering community college for free to students has been a big help, but she said she’d like to try to extend that to four-year colleges as well.
“The cost, even at public institutions,” has been too high for people to afford, she said.
Higgins was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in November 2016 and sworn in as state representative for the 4th Worcester District (Leominster) on Jan. 4, 2017. She is a lifelong Leominster resident, Boston-educated attorney, and former nonprofit director and rape crisis counselor, dedicated to service and advocacy.
Higgins has been appointed to five committees for the 2025-2026 legislative session, serving as House vice chair of the Joint Committee on Public Service, the House Committee on Ways and Means, the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, and the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy. She also serves as a co-chair of the Library Caucus, the Public Higher Education Caucus, the Protecting Animal Welfare Caucus, and the Sexual Violence Task Force of the Women’s Caucus.
Bowdridge
Bowdridge noted that he is a member of the Leominster School Committee and has worked with school issues as well as helping people with substance abuse through his volunteer efforts and has seen things he’d like to see addressed on the state level while doing his job for 20 years with the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office and as a member of the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council SWAT team, doing crisis communications.
“The reason I’m running is increasing transparency and accountability, I’m excited about that,” Bowdridge said.
And one key aspect of that is to support the audit by State Auditor Diana DiZoglio of the state Legislature, which was approved by a statewide ballot question in 2024, but which hasn’t happened yet.
“Part of transparency and accountability is to listen to the 72 percent of voters who wanted the audit, and not just the ‘shortened audit'” that he said the leaders of the Legislature have tried to offer instead of a complete audit. “Allow the state auditor to do a full audit.”
Bowdridge said that if elected, he’d like to try to improve programs for developing re-entry skills for inmates in state prisons.
“There’s no money for inmate programs, meaningful programs … as a state rep I’d like to change that, make sure these institutions have the resources.”
He said a lot of the funding for inmate transition programs was lost when the state decided to offer free phone calls to inmates, which he said is also a good program, but added that it shouldn’t have led to cuts in other programs.
“They should come out (of prison) with skills .. we’re not doing the general public a favor by trading off free phone calls and programming.”
Bowdridge volunteers with a program called The Phoenix, leading running groups, mountain-bike rides and fitness classes for people in recovery from substance use, under the theme of “Movement as medicine.”
He said that’s another area that needs more attention on the state level, “making sure that those people seeking recovery have a place to go and a bed to go to if they need it.” As he said oftentimes that’s a problem, with not enough services available.
He also serves as the opioid funding committee chair for the Ripple Effect Recovery Center, funding requests from people in recovery seeking help with sober housing.
“I think there’s a lot more we can do for these people.”
He also said he’s a big supporter of having social workers available to help police on calls involving people experiencing mental health difficulties, trying to find a resolution without it rising to the level of criminal prosecution, but in a lot of cases there’s no money for that.
“In negotiating with a barricaded (person),” he said he found that many times, “all they really wanted was someone to listen to them.”
Bowdridge is also a member of the Leominster Trail Stewards, doing hands-on trail work — clearing downed trees and improving drainage to keep the trail safe and open for everyone, is also is on the board of directors for Rawkstars, a nonprofit bringing the power of music to underserved youth including kids involved in the justice system. And he is a volunteer ski patroller for Wachusett Mountain Ski Patrol, responding to injured skiers and riders, maintaining trail safety signs, and helping guests — year after year, in any conditions.
State Rep. Michael Kushmerek, D-Fitchburg, has no opposition in the general election, so there is no debate involving him.
The election will be Nov. 3.
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