Candidates are already running towards November 5.

Above, Charles Bailey speaks at the Franklin VFW on Thursday.

Perhaps it’s the dog days of summer that are putting the candidates on the line. John Deaton, one of three Republicans hoping for a chance to take on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November, is making his second recent stop in Franklin today at Camp Haiastan on Summer Street at 3 p.m. to meet with members of the region’s Armenian community.

Friday night, incumbent state Rep. Jeff Roy
was intended to provide visibility, and perhaps official campaigning, and musical entertainment for a Franklin Food Bank benefit concert at La Cantina.

And his challenger, Charles Bailey, spent Thursday night with supporters at the VFW, his first major fundraising event. In front of a near-capacity crowd, Bailey, introduced by his wife, Anna Bailey, as her “hero,” gave insight into his life of service, in the Army’s famed 10th Mountain Division and back in Franklin as a member of the Franklin Fire Department. As he put it, “I’ve seen the end of life and the beauty of new life.” Bailey also has an extensive track record as a high school and college hockey coach and a teacher of future paramedics.

Speaking about his candidacy, he revisited comments he made at the last City Council meeting, in which he rebuked local and state leaders for their lack of transparency regarding Franklin’s overcrowded migrant hotel and the costs and safety risks of exceeding legal occupancy limits. He contrasted that situation with the approach in Norfolk, where the state representative and city council worked together to keep the public engaged and informed about their sudden population growth.

He lashed out at other policies whose merits he questioned, particularly in the legislature, and closed by promising to give Franklin a voice on Beacon Hill, “a voice of common sense and reason,” he added.