By Killian Maree
For the North Star Reporter
David Cannata is making another run for an elected office, this time for the 14th Bristol District state representative seat held by Adam Scanlon.
Cannata is running as the Republican candidate for the seat, which Scanlon has held for the last four years. Both ran unopposed for their respective nominations.
Cannata, a lifelong resident of North Attleborough, said that the biggest issue that he has heard people talking about is the basic cost of living.
“Energy prices are through the roof. Electricity, groceries, housing, it’s all getting really difficult for people to manage,” said Cannata, who ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign against Congressman Jake Auchincloss in 2022.
Canatta said his campaign plan for the next three months is to get in front of and meet as many people as he can. His background is in construction and teaching contractors how to navigate the new energy bill. He said this gives him a unique perspective on the bills that other candidates might not have. This includes the costs of building new homes as well as renovating them.
Scanlon (D-North Attleborough) said that he is very proud of the accomplishments he has been able to make while in office, specifically aid for the district.
“This year alone in the budget, we as a town received the largest increase for Chapter 70, which is education-based aid,” he said.
Scanlon said that the role of a state representative is to ensure that their community always has a seat at the table. Scalon thinks that he has done this, but also “built a bigger table.”
In Scanlon’s first year he advocated strongly for the North Attleborough Schools to be able to get into the eligibility period for the Massachusetts School Building Authority pipeline. The town is now in the process of seeking reimbursement for a high school renovation project.
Scanlon said that it’s important to have someone as a representative who not only says they want to do things, but has a record of doing them as well. Scanlon added that he is passionate about spreading awareness for mental health and addiction recovery services.
“I think things that we need to continue to look at is realizing that we have a housing crisis,” he said. “I’d like to continue to build on successes within the work that we’ve done. We just passed a $5,000 housing bill on provisions that I advocated for.”
