Q: You are the youngest candidate in the field, and you have just over two terms as a State Rep.
That’s right, just beginning my third term.
Q: Do you think you have the experience necessary to be a congressman?
I do, and it’s interesting, the 5th Congressional actually has a history of being represented by young Congressmen — Chet Atkins, Paul Tsongas, Jim Shannon, were all Congressmen before Marty Meehan, and they were all in their late twenties to early thirties, so they were actually all younger than me when they ran and won. In terms of my experience, I think my strengths are that, yes, I have the legislative experience, but before that I was a Legal Aid attorney in the city of Baltimore and worked for Merrimac Valley Legal Services doing community economic development law, and then I had worked for State Senator Pam Resor and Bob Duran, and had been the Senate coordinator for the Deval Patrick campaign. What all that means is that I have experience working throughout the 5th Congressional, a mix of experience that I don’t think anybody else has.
On top of that I have a record of building coalitions, whether in the legislature where I served as the 4th division whip for the effort to stop the amendment to ban gay marriage, worked with a coalition to pass the minimum wage in the past year, and last year worked with my colleagues on establishing minimum education aid for every community, which meant an increase in state aid for all Massachusetts communities. On the grassroots level, in addition to my work for Deval Patrick, I have worked with a lot of different organizations in the district I represent, Habitat for Humanity, I’m on the board of directors of the Watershed Council. So I have a real progressive approach, not just ideology, but also a commitment to the grassroots, to outreach, to keeping my ear to the ground about what people are thinking and what their concerns are.
Q: Speaking of that, what do you think are the biggest concerns of the people you’ve talked to so far in the 5th district?
The biggest issue, probably around the country, is ending the war in Iraq. I was opposed to it from the beginning and believe we need to bring our troops home immediately. That seems to be the biggest issue, and it’s not just the fact that thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis are dying overseas. It’s also that it’s destabilized the region and created a whole new generation of terrorists who hate America. In many ways, most countries have a problem with our federal government, so it’s destabilized things. The other side of it is our soldiers coming home injured, having physical or mental stress and the burden that’s putting on the veteran’s administration in providing for the needs of our veterans. I think it’s really affecting the psyche of our country and that seems to be the biggest issue for people I’ve gone out and talked to over the last five weeks.
Read the rest of the interview at .08 Acres
