Continuing our focus on politics, we talk to State Representative Brian Mannal, a Democrat who is being challenged by Republican Adam Chaprales in the general election for the Second Barnstable District.
Brian Mannal was raised in Barnstable. His parents, Dr. Richard Mannal, an orthopedic surgeon, and Karen Mannal, a nurse practitioner, live in Centerville.
As a child, Brian Mannal attended the same Barnstable Public Schools that his children attend today. As an undergraduate student, he studied religious studies and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.
In 2000, Brian Mannal worked on a U.S. presidential campaign before accepting a job with the State of Ohio. In 2008, he earned his Juris Doctor from Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio.
In 2009, Brian Mannal and his wife Sara Mannal moved ‘home’ to Cape Cod, where Brian Mannal opened a general practice law office in the village of Hyannis. He volunteered on the Cape & Islands Workforce Investment Board and the Cape Cod Economic Development Council. Between 2009 and 2012, he served as a member of the Centerville Elementary School Council.
In September 2012, Brian Mannal defeated a 14-year incumbent state representative in the Democratic primary election. In the subsequent general election, Brian did not face an opponent. Accordingly, Brian Mannal was officially elected to the office of state representative of the 2nd Barnstable District on November 6, 2012.
As a member of the 188th General Court of Massachusetts, representative Mannal serves on the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, the Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs, and the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development. In September 2013, the Speaker of the House, Robert DeLeo, appointed Rep. Mannal to serve as the lone House appointee on the Special Commission on the Sale of Illegal Tobacco.
