2018 election

Five of the six candidates for the Suffolk County district attorney seat and the two running for Middlesex County DA gathered at a Greater Boston Interfaith Organization forum last week, with most signaling agreement with the group’s progressive-leaning criminal justice reform agenda.

Democratic activists cite as factors in the unusually active primary season a crop of left-leaning candidates challenging long-term incumbents, a rare open race for the Suffolk County district attorney’s seat and a national political environment that has much of the liberal-leaning Boston electorate on edge.