Somerville councilor Matthew McLaughlin runs for 2nd Middlesex Senate seat, citing affordability crisis

Matthew McLaughlin grew up in a Somerville that people called “Slumberville” — a low-income, working-class city that outsiders looked down on and that insiders survived. His father, a custodian like his mother, died when McLaughlin was 12, making him, by his own account, something like the head of a household with four siblings. His mother worked nights cleaning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He is now 44, a seventh-term Ward 1 councilor, a Harvard Kennedy School master’s degree candidate and a candidate for the 2nd Middlesex District state Senate seat — running, he says, because 12 years of local legislating have taught him exactly where municipal power ends.

“We’re reaching our limit for what we as a city can do to address the affordability crisis,” McLaughlin said in a February interview. “We need the state to do something.”

The district, based on McLaughlin’s description of the race, includes Somerville, Medford and portions of both Cambridge and Winchester.

A fourth-generation Somerville story

McLaughlin describes his family as fourth-generation Somerville. He was one of five children, and the neighborhood he grew up in — before transit investment and demographic change remade it — was a place where, he said, friends went to prison and died from substance abuse.

He joined the Army in 2003 and served two tours in Iraq as a military journalist, stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland. He said he covered the war, escorted civilian press on assignment and received an award for a story about an Iraqi colonel who brought sectarian tribes together — a story he said was picked up by Time and Newsweek.

“I joked that it was the second best job in the military after Army Band,” McLaughlin said. “But I don’t play an instrument.”

He was discharged in 2008 and enrolled at Tufts University on the GI Bill, studying political science. He graduated in 2013.

Within months, a seat on what was then Somerville’s Board of Aldermen opened up. McLaughlin ran a three-way race that no one, by his account, expected him to win.

He won.

He has held the seat — the body is now called the Somerville City Council — for approximately 12 years and is simultaneously running for his seventh council term. He is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Harvard’s Kennedy School, attending class, he said, from 1 to 6 p.m.

A record built on what wasn’t happening

McLaughlin frames affordability as the defining issue of his campaign, and his municipal record on housing is substantial, though not without complications.

He described himself as a driving force behind Somerville’s inclusionary zoning requirement, which mandates that 20% of units in new developments be affordable — a rate he said is the highest in Massachusetts. He said the policy was adopted around 2016, before a broader wave of progressive councilors took office.

Figures on the base calculation and units produced were not available.

Despite that requirement, Somerville’s overall affordable housing stock remains below 10% of its total housing supply, McLaughlin acknowledged. The denominator — total housing units in Somerville — was not provided in available materials.

He also claimed primary credit for the “triple-decker ordinance,” which allows a third unit by right in existing two-family homes. He said the measure brought Somerville into compliance with the MBTA Communities Act, which requires transit-served municipalities to zone for higher-density housing. He noted Somerville is the state’s most densely populated city.

“If every city allowed a third unit, that would go a very long way in addressing the affordability issue, while also not having a huge impact on neighborhoods,” McLaughlin said.

He said Cambridge adopted a similar third-unit policy after Somerville and that Boston is now exploring one.

On harm reduction, McLaughlin said he was an early advocate for requiring Somerville’s first responders to carry Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal drug. The Fire Department complied immediately, he said, while the Police Department initially resisted, citing contract negotiations and liability concerns.

He described a turning point when a childhood friend overdosed. Police arrived first, but they did not carry Narcan and could not administer it. The Fire Department arrived later and saved the man.

McLaughlin said he shared the story with the mayor, who then ordered the Police Department to carry Narcan.

“He’s alive,” McLaughlin said of his friend. “His mother doesn’t have to go to his funeral.”

He said he supports state-sanctioned safe consumption sites and has been publicly on record supporting them in Somerville. He acknowledged the effort has stalled under the current federal administration.

He also said he opposed an affordable housing development at Clarendon Hill because the developer sought to circumvent the state’s prevailing wage law, making him one of few officials who voted against it. He said the same developer was later found guilty of wage theft by the Massachusetts’ Attorney General Office.

The limits of local power

When asked what vote from his 12 years in office he most regrets, McLaughlin did not deflect. He cited the eminent domain taking of a property at 90 Washington St., which the city acquired intending to build a public safety building. The former owners sued, arguing the site’s potential as lab space dramatically increased its fair market value.

McLaughlin said the city ended up spending millions of dollars more than anticipated.

“It’s a vote I regret,” McLaughlin said, “but it’s also a vote that — had I known then what I know now — I wouldn’t have voted for it. But at the time, it felt like a very just taking.”

His reason for seeking a state Senate seat, he said, is institutional frustration. He said Somerville has submitted numerous Home Rule petitions to the State House — requests for tenant protections and affordable housing authority — and they routinely die without action.

“I’ve testified multiple times about safe consumption sites,” he said. “I’ve told stories about friends dying on the streets, and have people like say, ‘Thank you for coming, thank you for your testimony,’ and then nothing happens.”

McLaughlin said the State House is structurally opaque in ways that exhaust local officials. Municipalities are bound by the state’s Open Meeting Law, he noted, while the Legislature itself is not, with conference committees negotiating final legislation outside public view.

“Nothing’s getting done now,” he said. “And that’s what’s incredibly frustrating.”

He said he led a five-year overhaul of Somerville’s city charter, a process that included community input and collaboration. The measure passed the Legislature, was signed by the governor, and won approval from 85% of city voters.

He said Cambridge and Medford later launched their own charter reviews.

A crowded race

The race opened in December when Sen. Patricia Jehlen, first elected in 2005, announced she would not seek re-election.

As of March 3, four candidates had entered: State Rep. Christine Barber, who cited her work on health care, housing and local infrastructure; Winchester School Committee member Tom Hopcroft, who has emphasized transparency, National Institute of Health funding and climate standards; and Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem, who is running on MBTA expansion, housing and climate; State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, who said in her announcement that she is "pledging to be an unabashed progressive voice in the Senate..."

McLaughlin argues the candidates will likely share similar positions but says his record sets him apart.

“I think if you look at every person who’s going to run in this race, we’ll probably all vote the same way,” he said. “What I’m trying to bring is a transformation.”

The primary is Sept. 1, with the general election Nov. 3.