A retired trial attorney and family court reform advocate is challenging incumbent Mara Dolan in this year’s race for the District 3 seat on the Massachusetts Governor’s Council.

Read more Keezer’s moving down the block; Simon’s can’t yet say what’s next

The challenge means that District 3, which includes Brookline, parts of Boston and two dozen other towns, will see one of the few contested races for the little-known body, responsible for reviewing and confirming judicial appointments made by the governor. The council has confirmed more than 100 judges nominated by Gov. Maura Healey since taking office in 2023. 

Challenger Margie Palladino  says she decided to enter the race after Dolan voted in April to confirm Mary Ferriter, the former head of a controversial court-ordered parenting program, as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court.

Palladino argues the vote reflected poor judgment and violated Dolan’s campaign pledge to prioritize trauma-informed judicial nominees. Dolan rejects that criticism, describing Ferriter as an “extraordinarily well-qualified” nominee who is “doing a beautiful job” on the bench. The two women will be on the Democratic primary ballot on September 1.

Dolan , a Concord attorney, became the first public defender elected to the Massachusetts Governor’s Council when she unseated 25-year incumbent Marilyn Petitto Devaney in the 2024 Democratic primary. She campaigned on bringing a defense attorney’s perspective to the council’s review of judicial nominees, pledging to prioritize trauma-informed judges, criminal justice reform, and the experiences of domestic violence survivors.

Among her supporters was Palladino, who backed Dolan’s successful 2024 campaign before becoming one of her most vocal critics. The split centered on Ferriter’s nomination, which became the first judicial appointment of Healey’s administration to face significant opposition before the Governor’s Council.

Until Ferriter’s nomination , Healey’s judicial nominees had been confirmed with unanimous or near-unanimous support from the council. Ferriter’s nomination, however, drew significant opposition  from domestic violence survivors, family court reform advocates and others who criticized her previous leadership of the High Conflict Parent Education Program at William James College. On April 1, the Governor’s Council confirmed her in a 4-3 vote, with Dolan joining Terrence Kennedy, Joseph Ferreira and Christopher Iannella in the majority.

“It was the councilor’s vote on April 1 that was the catalyst for my entering this race,” Palladino said. “To me, it wasn’t simply one vote. It revealed how she exercises judgment when it mattered most. It was deeply disappointing to the domestic abuse survivors. It was such a profound breach of trust.”

Critics have said  the nine-week, court-ordered program required some survivors of domestic abuse to participate alongside their alleged abusers  and complete exercises they said were retraumatizing, while supporters said the program was designed to reduce conflict between separated parents for the benefit of their children. William James College discontinued the program in 2024.

Defending her decision, Dolan argued critics had unfairly fixated on Ferriter’s nomination and wrongly attributed concerns about the High Conflict Parent Education Program to Ferriter herself.

“People not liking the program has nothing to do with the nominee,” Dolan said. “She didn’t design the program. The nominee didn’t order anyone to go into the program. Her job as the director was to make sure that the program complied with the court’s requirements and made sure that the participants got through as they were ordered to by a court of law.”

Though she opposes Ferriter’s nomination, Palladino declined to offer a broader assessment of Gov. Maura Healey’s judicial appointments.

“I can’t really comment on that because I have not reviewed all of them and have not been involved in the process,” Palladino said.

Dolan, by contrast, praised Healey’s record of appointing judges, saying she has been “incredibly impressed” by the quality of the governor’s nominees.

“I think she’s doing a superb job,” Dolan said of Healey.

Instead of focusing solely on Ferriter’s confirmation, Dolan said voters should evaluate the broader agenda she has pursued during her first term on the Governor’s Council.

“I ran to be the first full-time public defender on the Governor’s Council, on a platform of criminal justice reform, on a platform of helping to end systemic racism, making sure that judges were ready, willing, and able to fight systemic racism with every tool that the law allows… I also ran on making sure that judges understand the science of addiction and will work to support recovery, making sure that our juvenile court judges respect the science of brain development,” she said.

Read more Voter says Moulton the senator Cambridge needs

Beyond judicial confirmations, Dolan pointed to her efforts to prepare judges for increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. She said she was the first member of the Governor’s Council to question judicial nominees about how they would respond if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered their courtrooms, and said she has pressed nominees to allow bystanders to record ICE activity when appropriate so there is a public record of enforcement actions.

Palladino and her supporters, however, argue that confirming Ferriter undermined the values Dolan campaigned on. 

A first-hand experience 

One Brookline resident who is volunteering with Palladino’s campaign said she felt personally betrayed by Dolan’s vote. Brookline.News agreed to grant her anonymity to talk about her experience to protect her privacy and prevent retaliation from her former abuser.  

“I have never been so disappointed in elected officials. I have never been so disappointed in Mara Dolan. She made promises to me personally in a small room of women, then completely reversed her position,” said the volunteer, who said she shared her experience directly with Dolan and other members of the Governor’s Council before Ferriter’s confirmation hearing.

During her divorce and custody battle with her ex-husband, she said a judge ordered her to complete the program at William James that Ferriter directed. Although she had an active restraining order against her ex-husband and an assault and battery case against him was pending, she said the program required her to amend the restraining order, speak with him by phone each week and meet with him in person twice during the nine-week course.

The volunteer said her attorney asked the judge to excuse her from the in-person portion of the program, but the request was denied. She also alleged Ferriter contacted both her attorney and her ex-husband’s attorney without her knowledge.

Rather than comply, the volunteer said she accepted the risk that refusing could affect her divorce settlement or custody outcome.

“The tagline of the course is ‘co-parenting through anything,’ but it put me in a very dangerous situation,” she said. “I ultimately failed the course because I refused to be in contact with someone whom I had a very good reason to have a restraining order against.”

Through court spokesperson Erika Gully-Santiago, Justice Mary Ferriter declined a request for an interview and did not respond to the criticisms raised by Palladino and family court reform advocates.

After her own divorce and custody case, Palladino co-founded the Massachusetts Family Advocacy Coalition in 2022 to advocate for reforms to the state’s Probate and Family Court system. The organization supported Dolan’s 2024 campaign after she pledged to prioritize trauma-informed judicial nominees, but later opposed Ferriter’s nomination and is now backing Palladino’s bid for the Governor’s Council.

Although it’s been her main line of attack against the incumbent, Palladino said her campaign extends beyond opposition to Ferriter’s confirmation.

She said she wants the Governor’s Council to place greater emphasis on transparency, accountability and independent review of judicial nominees, while ensuring the experiences of people directly affected by the justice system receive the same consideration as lawyers, judges and other legal professionals. She said that philosophy would apply not only to family court appointments, but also to housing, criminal and other courts.

“My commitment is not simply to cast the right vote, but to ensure that every vote strengthens public confidence in the Governor’s Council,” Palladino said.

Read more A young voter praises Markey