Watertown Councilor John Lawn Running For State Rep.

Watertown Town Councilor John Lawn announced Monday that he will run for the state representative seat vacated by Peter Koutoujian last month.

Lawn, who has served six years on the Town Council, joins the race for the Democratic nomination for the 10th Middlesex House seat, which includes part of Waltham, Watertown and Newton. Koutoujian left the seat he had held for 14 years when he was named Middlesex Sheriff.

“I’ve been contemplating it since Peter moved on,” Lawn said. “I’ve been speaking with people and friends in Waltham, Newton and Watertown to see what the landscape would be. I am committed to running an all out campaign.”

Lawn joins Waltham City Councilor Gary Marchese, who announced he was running at the end of January. Another Waltham councilor, Robert Logan, announced he would not be running.

While a majority of the district is in Waltham, Lawn said he sees an opportunity with Koutoujian's departure.

“I’ve always looked at the seat and had an interest in it,” Lawn said. “Peter was there quite a long time, and he had built up a good reputation and with (the district) being heavily Waltham, it made it difficult to run effective campaign against him.”

Lawn has run his own real estate agency for nine years, and worked for Fidelity for 10 years. He said that gives him a good background.

His work on the Watertown Police Station Building Committee will also serve him well, Lawn said.

“That provided a great experience working together with neighbors and town officials to build a state of art police station and bring it in under budget,” Lawn said.

The three communities share some common interests, Lawn said, including the Charles River, the Charles River Path and the Pleasant Street corridor.

State issues he would like to focus on include reform of the state’s parole board and the probation department.

“Something needs to be done,” Lawn said. “People are upset about it, and with state government. I am interested in resolving this so people have confidence in state government again.”

Watertown has been adding "green" technologies, such as geothermal heating and water-less urinals in the new Police Station, which Lawn said would be important to the future of the Bay State.