State Reps. Linda Dorcena Forry and Nick Collins, former rivals who faced off in the April 30 Democratic primary, lunched on Beacon Hill this week, ahead of the general election to replace Jack Hart. Photo courtesy Dorcena Forry’s office.
Election season isn’t over yet: Voters will again go to the polls on May 28, this time to choose the person who will take over for former state Sen. Jack Hart.

Long viewed as the “Southie seat,” the First Suffolk District, which includes South Boston, Dorchester, Mattapan and a portion of Hyde Park, will see two Dorchester candidates squaring off on the ballot: state Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, a Democrat, and political activist Joseph Ureneck, a Republican.

Dorcena Forry won an April 30 Democratic primary with 10,214 votes. State Rep. Nick Collins, a South Boston Democrat, picked up 9,836 votes, while Maureen Dahill, a blogger from South Boston, received nearly 1,600 votes.

Ureneck, who was unopposed in the Republican primary, received 829 votes, according to the Election Department.

Turnout will likely be significantly lower this time around, as most of the focus is on the first open mayor’s race in 30 years, as well as the race for former U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s seat.
Joseph Ureneck Photo courtesy Ureneck campaign

Hart left his state Senate seat earlier this year to take a job at a local law firm, setting up the special election to replace him. If Dorcena Forry wins on Tuesday, a special election to replace her in the 12th Suffolk House seat is expected to occur.

Dorcena Forry, who is married to Reporter editor Bill Forry, is likely to coast on Tuesday, given the heavily Democratic make-up of the state Senate district.

She has been in South Boston almost “every other day,” she said on Wednesday, and recently lunched with Collins and Dahill on Beacon Hill and in South Boston. Several of the unions that backed Collins are now supporting her, she added.

“We’re all in this together,” she said.

Her campaign is also holding a fundraiser at Anthony’s Pier 4 on Thursday evening.

In the weeks before the Democratic primary and a few days after it, Dorcena Forry’s campaign spent $125,250, with a good chunk of it going to getting the word out about the election on various radio stations. Her campaign also received significant support from liberal groups like Mass Alliance and Mass. Equality.

Ureneck has spent $300 on yard signs, according to filings on the website of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

Ureneck had pressed for a debate after he and Dorcena Forry had won their respective primaries. On Tuesday night, the two faced off on “Talk of the Neighborhoods,” hosted by Joe Heisler.

Before it aired, Ureneck said he expected it to be a “debate of sorts.”

“We’ll take what we can get at this point,” he said.