FOXBORO - Two Democrats from Foxboro are seeking to unseat state Rep. Jay Barrows.

A retired Foxboro postal worker with a taste for filing legislative bills and a 23-year-old college graduate aiming for a career in government have taken out papers to run for the Democratic nomination for state representative.

William Patrick Darcey Jr., 57, of 18 Cocasset St. retired in 2004 as a senior clerk in the Foxboro branch of the U.S. Postal Service. He is past president of the Foxboro local of the American Postal Workers Union and was the union's state vice president and legislative director.

Devin Patrick Romanul, 23, of 282 Ware St. in Mansfield is a 2003 graduate of Mansfield High School and a 2007 graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., where he was president of student government and earned a degree in political science.

Barrows, a Republican from Mansfield, is serving his first term as the state representative for the district that includes all of Foxboro and parts of Mansfield and Norton. He is seeking re-election.

The Democratic and Republican state primary elections will be held Sept. 16, the state and presidential election Nov. 4. As a private citizen, Darcey filed three bills for the current legislative session, one of which would allow persons to carry non-lethal weapons, such as pepper spray, without obtaining a firearms identification card. That right would not apply those who are ineligible to obtain a card, Darcey said.

Other bills Darcey has filed would eliminate the motor vehicle excise tax after five years, and create a committee to look into the costs of education.

Darcey, who attended Boston Technical High School, first moved to Foxboro in 1975. He has four adult children, all of whom attended Foxboro schools.

Living in Mansfield for a time, he was a member of the Mansfield Democratic Town Committee. He is a past delegate to the Democratic State Convention and has campaigned for Sen. James Timilty in four elections.

Darcey said he has a number of "serious differences" with Barrows.

Romanul served as a volunteer legislative aide to Timilty in 2005-2006, campaigned for the senator's re-election in 2006, and is a member of the Mansfield Democratic Town Committee.

After graduating from college, he worked in a temporary position as an office coordinator at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

As a legislator, he would want to focus on health care, jobs, alternative energy, education and transportation.

"I feel that the people of Mansfield, Foxboro and Norton deserve a full-time legislator who is actively engaged in the issues that will affect their everyday lives both in the long and short term," Romanul said. Romanul achieved the rank of Eagle Scout as a member Troop 55 in Mansfield.

Active in theater and musical performances, Romanul is playing the role of God in a production of the musical "Children of Eden," which runs tonight (April 10) at Coyle-Cassidy High School in Taunton.

Romanul said he plans this week to put up a campaign web site, votedevin.com.

He said he hopes to have a career in government.

"I really do enjoy public service," he said. "There's no going back."