Another lieutenant governor candidate, another expand-the-role advocate, what’s new? A lot, it turns out. Steve Kerrigan was the third of the three Dems who’ll be in the Sept. 9th primary who spoke with Left Ahead. He more than held his own.
We’ve had Leland Cheung and Mike Lake on as well, the trio on the Sept. 9th Dem primary ballot for the office. I’ll plug in their half-hour shows here. We can play FOX; you decide.
Each of the three (including Leland Cheung and Mike Lake) see the role of LG as crucial today and beyond. Each has a different slant on what the office should entail.
Kerrigan has the wow! résumé, working for or with Barack Obama, Tom Menino, Ted Kennedy, Tom Reilly and on and on. He then pitches himself as ready to accomplish big deeds with whomever gets the Dem Gov. nomination and presumably wins the office. As he put it, “There’s no room for on-the-job training for lieutenant governor.”
We covered a lot of topics and possibilities. Click below to hear what he would do in working with municipalities, transportation, infrastructure, education and even college affordability. You can see his platform here.
He was confident that he was the one of the trio with the experience and contacts from local through commonwealth and federal levels. He’s even sure he could develop the necessary relationships with our legislators.
A key aspect to his vision is turning the LG into a super-ombudsman. He says he’d be the key contact for municipalities, businesses and others. He’d aim to help them surmount obstacles, such as arcane regulations or funding problems. Click below to hear his stream of ideas.
Last week, Mike Lake was on.
He’s quick to point to his successes as president and CEO of Leading Cities. Among other those are working with the likes of Bill Clinton and of bringing contacts and business to Massachusetts. He says one of the roles of our LG should be marketer in chief for the commonwealth
His vision seems pretty progressive, aiming for:
- A livable wage for all workers
- High-quality education
- Safe neighborhoods
He discussed how the LG would coordinate with the governor, legislature and others to achieve what lumped together he calls the Massachusetts Promise.
Lake said he has spoken with all three Dem candidates for the gubernatorial primary about his platform. He says they all buy into it. He’s confident he could work with any of them.
He bills himself as the most progressive of the three Dems in the LG race. Listen in as he talks about his positions and the groups and politicians who have endorsed him. He also noted that he went into the party convention being outspent 4:1 by Steve Kerrigan (whom he did not name) but is even now. He says his 35% of delegates gave him a substantial boost to go with successful fund raising and campaigning.
In June, Leland Cheung was the guest. Note that he called in 13:41 into the show. I filled in with not so snappy patter while waiting and was about to shut down when he finally called in. I never got my attitude right afterward and found him a bit arrogant and patronizing. Those are not necessarily reasons not to vote for someone, but factors to consider. Listen and make your own call.
Leland Cheung has grand plans for the MA Lt. Gov. office. He’d pick up on the ex-LG mold of Tim Murray and go much farther. He sees himself as being able to complement any of the Dem Gov. candidates. He would run with some of his own projects, plus working behind the scenes with legislators to ease passage of the governor’s agenda.
Click below to hear him describe his vision for the office, and what he sees as unique qualifications for it. He claims to have the best qualifications, skill set and experience for a commonwealth he describes as at a tipping point. As well as his double masters degrees (Kennedy School Public Administration and Sloan MBA), he worked for a high-tech venture capital firm before becoming a Cambridge city councilor five years ago. That and government service is in his bio.
He figures MA can continue and expand Gov. Deval Patrick’s education and infrastructure for growth or go backward. Listen in as he talks about how an “innovation economy” effort would work to bring jobs to all 351 MA municipalities. He pointed to some of the world’s best high-tech schools and development facilities are all within an hour of Boston on a Lowell to Worcester arc. He sees inspiring established companies as well as start-ups to do their development and manufacturing right here instead of overseas or even in other states.
Overall, the three have no truck with those who note that we’ve gotten along for 14 months without an LG after Tim Murray resigned, so we should think of eliminating the office. All three see crucial roles the LG can play, offloading duties from the governor and accomplishing big tasks in the process.
Personally, l was most impressed with Kerrigan and second with Lake. I’d be comfortable with either in office.
~Mike
I figure from previous diaries we should have BMG folk who favor each of these guys. I’d love to get our positions.
Sure, many voters don’t get excited about down-ballot choices, even LG. As a warden at a Boston polling place, I fret when voters come in saying, “I don’t know anything about any of these people.” I try not to scold them, but it’s hard.
Who who likes whom and why?
—Mike
I want the Governor to decide what the LG gets to do.
Jobs like “super-ombudsman” and “marketer-in-chief” seem vague enough that it’s something Lieutenant Governors can try to accomplish while acknowledging that they don’t really have any real power unless the governor lets them have power. The LG office isn’t worth a whole lot, but as long as Massachusetts goes to the trouble of electing them separately, they should try to bring some sort of original ideas to the table.
No, I’m sure you’re standards are much higher, starting with actually letting people decide and being truly fair and balanced:)
I did not get a chance to listen, but did you ask if they were confident they could become Governor without any notice if circumstances warranted?
No, but I did ask them what obstacles if any they’d face expanding the power of the office, which gave them the chance to talk about what groundwork they’d done with the Dem gov. candidates to get buy-in.
Yours is a better question.
First, he is the only one of the three that I can see stepping in if something were to happen to the Governor and governing right away.
Second, he has a breath of experience as an elected official, political aide to a number of state wide office holders, and executive positions in charitable organizations.
Third, he has a vision of what the office should be that aligns with what I believe.
Fourth, he has a lot of experience problem solving and his approach to issues is in sync with what I would want in a LT. Gov.
Fifth, he is charming, funny, quick, smart, extremely personable. I think he would be a great asset to whoever wins the primary.
Sixth, I have heard him speak about 5 times. Each time he spoke with passion and conviction. Each time I find myself moved.
I’m working for and voting for Leland Cheung for Lt. Governor. A two tern Cambridge City Councilor, Leland has dealt with the issues facing Massachusetts on the frontline of municipal action. As the only currentl elected office-holder running for LG, Leland has a voting record that is progressive and shows where he stands on workers’ rights, LBGT issues, economic development, and community involvement.
I appreciated the role LG Tim Murray played under Governor Patrick -as the lead statewide official dealing with cities and towns. While the Governor decides the role of the LG to a large extent, Leland’s experience on the municipal level is a great lead-in to being a liasion to 351 cities and towns.
Leland get the need to create jobs in a new economy. He was Governor Patrick’s appointee to the Economic Delelopment Commission.
Leland was the first Asian American elected to the Cambridge City Council. The son of immigrants and a new father himself, Leland brings intelligence (those Stanford, Harvard and MIT degrees don’t come easy), private sector experience and public service to the table as LG.
disclaimer – my union has endorsed Leland Cheung
I get you’re a Mike Lake supporter but you downgraded comments from myself and others who simply posted positive comments on the candidates we support. Just as we were asked to do up-post.
What, you can’t handle the competition?
You guys used to get along famously.
His resume proves it. The others may say they want to do this or that, but Steve knows how to accomplish stuff in the political arena. He worked for Sen. Kennedy, who had the best staff on Capitol Hill and, among other things, he ran the fantastic 2012 Democratic National Convention. We need an LG who can work with people to actually GET STUFF DONE. Steve’s the guy.
Kos today frontpaged a diary that lists “all” of the nations’ LG races.
But not ours.
(And it bestows LGs on some states, that don;t have them, like NH.)
Thanks for noticing. I plugged this diary and linked to Galvin’s listings for LG on Kos. Maybe they’ll update their post as well.
Your account appears to have been banned from the site because their bots think you’re a spam account since you posted links in your comment today, which was your first.
I carry absolutely no weight there but vouched for you.
…actually from a couple of alert BMGers.
I did wade through the help system to leave a not-too-whiny complaint. They got back in a couple of hours agreeing with us. Allegedly my account is clean and ready to go.
but the states in question elect Lt. Gov. independently. Ours is elected as part of a ticket once the primary’s over.
No clue what they’re smoking with NH, etc.
The DK diarist acknowledged that NH does not have an LG, but talked about the Senate President who is next in line.
They’re treating the “next in line” as a de facto Lieutenant Governor.
has a heck of a lot more political role in NH than the next LG will have in Mass.
on the contrary, I welcome the competition. But does that mean I have to support your candidate, too?
Of course we all have the right to express ourselves.
Sometimes I choose to give voice to my opinion by downgrading a comment. Is that a crime ?
It may do us all some good in the coming battles to remember Saul Alinsky’s Rule # 5 which I am particularly fond of : “Ridicule is a man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”
Fred Rich LaRiccia
“The Happy, Competitive Warrior”
BUT FRED IF YOU WANT TO DOWNGRADE THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH YOU ITS A FREE COUNTRY. MAKES YOU LESS CREDITABLE IN MY EYES BUT ITS YOUR CHOICE. IF YOU CANT SUPPORT YOUR CANDIDATE WITH A POSITIVE COMMENT I GUESS YOUR STUCK DOWNGRADING THOSE WHO SUPPORT OTHERS. I DOUBT SAL WOULD BE PROUD. HAVE A GOOD NIGHT.
this ain’t beanbag, folks, this is hardball. And if, as Harry Truman said : “you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”
Wise,old Harry also said : ” Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive. And don’t ever apologize for anything.”
Good night and good luck.
If you think this is hardball you ain’t ever really played the game.
I think Harry would want you to carry the Shift key into battle as well.
Let me start this by saying I like Mike Lake and would have probably dropped into his fold had Steve Kerrigan decided not to run. I could have overlooked Mike’s obvious flaws…overzealousness to the point of seeming insincere, a Washington internship vaguely spun as high level resume bullet point, and a scattered approach to climbing the political ladder. First, he wants to be State Auditor and now he wants to be Lt. Governor. Mike really needs to take a step back, focus on winning a lower level election and plan a more focused political career instead of flitting from race to race impulsively.
We need to focus on electing a candidate who can beat Polito in the race. She is well funded and we need to get behind a candidate like Steve Kerrigan who has the resume and chops to go up against her. This isn’t a race for someone running on a whim.
Steve has put in years working for Ted Kennedy and his list of accomplishments is long. Not that he asked but I personally think he could have done well in the Governor’s race, maybe not won it but held his own. This guy could easily move up into that position.
I also think someone like Steve can make the Lt. Governor position into something more than just waiting on the bench.