Progressive Massachusetts, the new, statewide grassroots organization focused on issue and electoral organizing and education that launched in October sent a candidate questionnaire to the Democratic and Green/Rainbow candidates for the U.S. Senate. Have you been wondering where the candidates stand on the issues that are important to progressives? We can help! Progressive Mass received completed questionnaires from Democratic candidates Marisa DeFranco, Jim King and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Independent candidate Bill Cimbrelo. Progressive Mass is among the first organizations to receive completed public questionnaires from all three Democratic candidates.
The candidates answered questions covering revenue, tax policy and the deficit; health care; the social safety net; jobs, economic development and banking regulation; choice, civil rights and immigration; energy and environment; education; and foreign policy. Click here to read the responses. This is a unique opportunity to compare the candidates’ stances on issues. We are committed to keeping progressive voters informed, and we hope you will take the time to visit our website and see where the U.S. Senate candidates stand on the issues you care about.
Progressive Mass is being built from the ground up by organizers and activists from across Massachusetts. We are committed to organization building, educating and training progressive activists, creating opportunities for ongoing engagement, working to elect more progressives to public office, and continually holding elected officials accountable for their positions on issues.
We hope you will join us as we work to build a progressive reality in Massachusetts. Visit our website and sign up for our email list, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Unfortunately, it looks like you have to join to access the responses.
Please post a summary of your results here and we’ll be happy to front page it.
…why do you require registration at all? I went ahead and registered, but since it’s free and anyone can why bother with that extra step?
Which is why I didn’t want to do it – I get too much political email already…
and yet the questionnaire addresses the issue weakly and poorly. It shows, on the part of the organizers, a lack of depth of understanding of environmental issues. This is incredibly disappointing for an organization purporting to be progressive – I would hope to see a more forceful addressing pushing back against the anti-science and anti-environment agenda of the right. In fact, energy and the environment is buried until item #6 of 7, and here is the way the question is worded:
If we fail to reduce global warming pollution significantly, many scientists predict that our climate in Massachusetts will resemble that of South Carolina’s by the years 2070-2099 along with a sea level rise in 10-24 inches. Coastal areas, including parts of Boston, will experience significant shoreline changes and permanent flooding.
a. Do you oppose all new or expanded public subsidies for fossil fuels?
b. Do you oppose mining our national parks and the surrounding areas for uranium or other rare-earth
elements?
c. Do you support restoration of the Clean Water Act to its original intent, protecting all of the waterways
of the United States.
First of all the question equivocates – by saying “many scientists predict…” rather than forcefully stating what we know – “almost all scientists realize that climate change is happening now and caused by human activities”
Secondly, only sub-question (a) has any direct connection to climate change (burning of fossil fuels being the main cause of climate change) and that question does not really force the candidate to reveal how he/she plans to deal with climate change (beyond simply ending subsidies for fossil fuels). Sub-questions (b) and (c) are important questions but largely unrelated to the the point of the main question.
In my view, Progressives Mass blew it on this question. I wonder if the organizers of this poll even asked a scientist for help in writing the question.
By the way, here is Elizabeth Warren’s response: I strongly support ensuring that our communities have clean water to drink, and I will work to protect rivers and streams. I will defend the Clean Water Act against attack, and I support the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers’ historic authority to protect wetlands and other bodies of water. (and she answered “yes” to the sub-questions). I’m disappointed in her written response. Where is the sense of urgency around climate change? Where are her ideas for addressing what is the most existential threat to our species? I am supportive of her campaign and have even volunteered to help her get elected, because we’ve got to get Brown out of there. But I am left with serious unease after reading her response.
Not only are we losing the debate on climate change, but it is getting so liberals downplay it because we see no hope of making progress. Democratic Party officials and functionaries mention it only in passing if at all.
When humanity pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it stays there for a very long time. It is quite possible to reach a point of no return. At this point, that’s where we’re heading. There’s no sign we’re going to turn back.
What is meant by a point of no return? A 4 degree centigrade increase in the average global temperature would be simply catastrophic to human life as we know it. That’s precisely where we’re heading. Good-bye Mumbai. Good-bye agriculture.
As a teacher I am disappointed with the Education question. Clearly not very important to the organizers, as it is item #7 of 8. Here’s the question:
7. Education
a. Please pick your top three federal policy solutions to address the school achievement gap. ___ reducing collective bargaining rights of
___ charter schools ___ race to the top ___ smaller classrooms ___ school voucher programs ___ pilot schools
teachers ___ increasing teacher pay
___ maintaining standardized testing as a ___ graduation requirement
___ measure of teacher performance ___ eliminating standardized testing ___ repeal No Child Left Behind
___ bilingual education ___ increased technology in classrooms ___ other __________________________________________________________________
Again, as with the environment question, the organizers seem to have a very simple-minded view of education – “take three solutions and call me in the morning”. The issue of how to fix the school achievement gap is clearly not an easy one to answer. But the most obvious cause of the achievement gap is poverty. I’m tired of policy people and politicians looking at education in a vacuum. You simply cannot address education policy without addressing poverty at the same time. OK, we can disagree about this – but as a progressive-minded organization this should have at least been something put forward for the candidates to respond to.
By the way here is Elizabeth Warren’s response on that issue:
My very first job after college was as a teacher in a public elementary school, working with special needs kids. I saw first-hand how important it is for a child to have great teachers and get a first-rate education. It’s why my first love is teaching, and it is why I am appalled at the frequent attacks on public school teachers around this country. A great teacher can make a huge difference in a child’s life, and we need to invest in getting great teachers in classrooms everywhere.
We need to go back to seeing education as an investment in our future. We need to support early childhood education, to give kids a fair shot at success from their earliest days. We need to continue support for school lunch programs so that no child needs to worry more about a growling stomach than about an education. We need to experiment with new ways to close the achievement gap. Here in Massachusetts, schools and nonprofits have taken leadership in expanding the school day and supporting after school and summer programs. We need to work collaboratively with teachers – not against them – to improve the performance of students, teachers, and schools.
If there are going to be X number of questions, SOMETHING has to be last, but I’m sure they are all important.
I wonder if it represents some ranking of what the authors of the question think is most important. But maybe you’re right – perhaps the order doesn’t matter. What really rankles me is how poorly these two questions were thought through.