Patrick O’Connor will be the new state Republican state senator from the Plymouth and Norfolk District, but the 31-year-old Weymouth town council president may want to hold off on new drapes for his State House office until November. That’s because less than six months from now he may find himself in a rematch against Democrat Joan Meschino.

O’Connor defeated Meschino in yesterday’s special election by just over 900 votes out of about 17,000 votes cast, reports Politico. O’Connor will continue the streak of a Weymouth resident representing the district that goes back to 1971, according to the Patriot Ledger.

But Meschino looks poised to go back at O’Connor this fall, and she has at least some grounds for optimism. Based on figures from the 2012 presidential election, turnout in November across the eight towns that make up the district should be more than five times greater than it was yesterday. More than 96,000 voters showed up in the district for the last presidential contest. What’s more, in contrast to yesterday’s 6 point win by the Republican, it was nearly a dead heat between President Obama and Mitt Romney, with Obama carrying the Senate district by less than 200 votes.

Gov. Charlie Baker and the state GOP strongly backed the O’Connor effort, eager to retain one of six Republican seats in the 40-member Senate and not see any shrinkage in the party’s already anemic numbers in the Legislature.

State Democratic Party chairman Tom McGee sounded ready to rumble again in November. “I know Joan is going to be back in the fall and we look forward to working alongside her to take back another Republican seat,” he said in a statement to Politico.

Complicating the path for Meschino is the fact the only towns that Obama carried four years ago were her home town of Hull and O’Connor’s home town of Weymouth. But in much larger Weymouth, there were more than four times as many votes cast as there were in Hull. And the town’s residents seem perfectly comfortable splitting their ticket and voting Democratic in the presidential race, while letting geography trump party affiliation and supporting a local Republican for Senate.

The longtime senator from the district, Republican Robert Hedlund, who gave up the seat after being elected mayor of Weymouth, beat his Democratic opponent by more than a 2-to-1 margin in Weymouth in 2012, even as Obama was carrying the town by nearly 3,000 votes.

Both O’Connor, who served as a legislative aide to Hedlund, and Meschino could face primary opponents in the fall, but a rematch between the two seems the most likely November line-up.

It’s easy to see why Meschino would take another stab at the seat. But reversing yesterday’s result will be no cakewalk.

–MICHAEL JONAS

BEACON HILL

State Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton apologizes for the rollout of the rattlesnake island proposal at the Quabbin Reservoir. (Masslive) WBUR’s David Boeri explains how rattlesnakes have become a wedge political issue.

Gov. Charlie Baker moves to gain greater control over professional boards overseeing everyone from doctors to barbers. (Eagle-Tribune)

Baker says he fears the opioid epidemic would worsen if marijuana is legalized, but his own administration and outside experts don’t appear to see a link. (Masslive)

A Herald editorial raises questions about an increase in witness protection funding that the state’s district attorneys secured from state budget-writers, but then failed to use.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

The Barr Foundation is training its philanthropic sights on a new mission: promoting sound planning and activities along Boston Harbor. (Boston Globe)

Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter is defending his use of a private email account for city business after officials sent a $10,000 estimate to a former mayoral candidate for his public records request for city-related emails from Carpenter’s Gmail address. (The Enterprise)

Bourne’s Community Preservation Committee will hold a hearing on whether to rescind grants to a cultural center that allegedly misused the funds and submitted falsified invoices during an audit. (Cape Cod Times)

Dartmouth selectmen voted to move ahead with a controversial plan to build a maritime center they hope will revitalize the town’s waterfront. (Standard-Times)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

An AAA study says marijuana OUI laws are useless. (CommonWealth)

ELECTIONS

Unlike Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg is sitting out the marijuana referendum. Boston City Council President Michelle Wu says she’ll vote yes on the November ballot question to legalize pot. (Boston Herald)

Donald Trump takes West Virginia and Nebraska primaries, while Bernie Sanders wins the West Virginia Democratic primary. (Time) Anyone waiting for the Etch-a-Sketch reset by Trump may not want to hold their breath: The presumptive GOP nominee says he has a “mandate” to continue to be the guy he is. (New York Times)

Hey, Joe Biden, who’s the best candidate to succeed your boss? “I would have been the best president.” (U.S. News & World Report)

A Washington Post story says Boston Herald columnist Adriana Cohen is part of a handful of commentators who have become hot commodities on national TV shows because of their support for Donald Trump. Cohen calls the piece part of the real “war on women” and says the story vastly undercounted her pre-Trump national TV appearances, a complaint that seems to have generated an update to the WaPo story.  (Boston Herald)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

State Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante (thumbs up) and former Inspector General Greg Sullivan (thumbs down) discuss the film tax credit. (Greater Boston)

MACOM agreed to expand its operations and add 47 jobs in Lowell after receiving a $1 million tax break. (The Sun)

The job market is tough for those without college degrees and even more daunting for high school dropouts, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute. (New York Times)

Kerry Byrne, a part-time food writer for the Boston Herald who also runs the Cold Hard Football Facts website, won an $8,000 a month contract to market the city of Quincy and its redeveloped downtown, beating out several other bidders including GateHouse Media. (Patriot Ledger)

EDUCATION

A Pennsylvania real estate company is buying a downtown Lowell office building and plans to convert it into a dormitory for UMass Lowell students. (The Sun)

TRANSPORTATION

A Globe editorial says the Baker administration should “figure out how to finish the extension, not whether” to proceed with adding Green Line stops into Somerville and Medford.

US Rep. Seth Moulton says the so-called nonstop Worcester-to-Boston “bullet train” is nothing like the Japanese trains that travel 130 miles per hour. T officials say they don’t call the line a bullet train, although the reference was mistakenly included in one presentation. (Masslive)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

A Westborough man is sentenced to probation and anger management classes for locking a Verizon worker in an underground vault. (Telegram & Gazette)

A knife-wielding Taunton man is shot and killed by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy after the assailant stabbed and killed two people — an 80-year-old woman and a New Bedford teacher —  and wounded others at an East Taunton home and at the Silver City Galleria Mall. (Standard-Times)

MEDIA

Worcester Superior Court Judge Brian Davis dismissed a lawsuit brought by Gordon Davis against Turtleboy Sports Blog for calling Davis “crazy,” “mentally unstable,” and “senile.” (Masslive)

Jon Keller looks back on his 30 years at WBZ.

Journalist/author/lightning rod Ta-Nehisi Coates canceled plans to move into a $2.1 million Brooklyn brownstone, saying he fears for his family’s safety after the New York Post revealed he and his wife bought the home through a limited liability company they set up to keep the purchase anonymous. (New York Times)