He seems to us to like the anti-incumbent, giving Dem primary voters a distinct option. The oddly formed 9th runs from South Boston West to Norfolk and South to Plymouth.The electorate is mostly white and white-collar, with a range of politics even in the party.
Mac told us he was bringing an organizers spirit to the campaign and hoped to bring it to Congress. That seems obvious for someone who was the SEIU political director for years. In practical terms, that means he shuns lobbyists’ money and pressure, getting the majority of his contributions in $100 and under lumps. By the bye, he said that while he started late after Harmony Wu said she would not run, in the first six and one-half weeks before the reporting period, he raised $90,000.
Listen in as he describes what he would do and would not. For the latter, he differentiated himself from Lynch as:
- no on the Iraq war
- yes on health reform
- no on the PATRIOT Act
- yes on extending unemployment benefits
- no on limits to a woman’s right to choose
Like a true progressive sort, he also likes to go to underlying problems with issues. For example, he wants good teacher pay, longer school days, and moving charter-school best practices to all schools. To pay for such, he’d eliminate the Bush tax cuts and drastically reduce military expenses paid to private contractors. He argues where the money is.
Similarly, he wants to eliminate subsidies for petroleum companies. “If the market was allowed to act like a market,” he said, “perhaps we’d have more fuel efficient vehicles by now.”
Mac wants to debate these and many other fundamentals with Lynch. We’d love to hear that too.
Where can I pick up a bumper sticker or lawn sign?