The MA Treasurer/Receiver General race has glories and worries. On the Dem side, three solid candidates want to replace Steve Grossman as he stepped aside to run for Governor. All three spoke with Left Ahead on the past three successive weeks. Their half-hour shows appear below.
On the negative side, unless you really pay attention, deciding among three good contenders is tough. Moreover, this is down ballot in what is likely to be a low turnout primary (better for governor two months later). As a Warden in a Boston polling place, I dread hearing voters say they don’t know anything about the candidates. I won’t be allowed to scold them or to discuss the candidates.
Note that we would have talked with the GOP nominee Mike Heffernan…if only he had responded to any of the requests.
The links below are to their show. Each discusses expanding the role of Treasurer even beyond what activist Grossman has. Each presents a persona (click their names to visit their sites):
- Barry Finegold, MA Sen., as self-made success who takes gutsy legislative stances
- Tom Conroy, MA Rep., who sees himself as the leading financial lawmaker in the State House
- Deb Goldberg, former Brookline Board of Selectmen Chair, who although an heiress to Stop & Shop has lived and worked as a progressive dogooder
Following the show links, I’ll insert some of their ideas as teasers. Then I’ll conclude with some personal takes.
Click below to hear Deb Goldberg. (She starts around 7:28):
Click below to hear Tom Conroy:
Click below to hear Barry Finegold. (He starts a little over 2 minutes in and leaves 8 minutes early):
Finegold
He talks about his goals if he wins the primary then the general. Some are relative easy sells on the campaign trail — use pension funds to create more MA jobs, improve education, return more to municipalities, and promote financial literacy. Those are much in the line of the current Treasurer Steve Grossman. He touches on less pow! duties of the office — fully funding the pension liability and improving bonding capacity. He sketches is plan to fund pensions by 2036, starting with putting 10% more in annually for awhile.
He’s candid about his personal feelings, integrity, background and votes in the MA House and Senate. In fact, you can pick up hints of Elizabeth Warren’s personal style. For example, he likes saying that no one every gave him anything, he started in a Hyde Park Housing project and earned everything he’s gotten.So far, voters have appreciated his stances. Even when his districts disagreed with his votes against the death penalty and for same-sex marriage, they reelected him regardless.
Conroy
Tom Conroy offered clear but not radical visions of the office. He identifies as a team player (marvelous tale of being a middle child who learned to be persuasive to get his share of his mom’s pies), who would work with the governor and legislators to enact his agenda.
He has school smarts, as well as financial professional experience and seven years as a state rep. He’s proud of his work on driving the minimum-wage hike and other key financial issues. He says not only is he the single candidate with the expertise and experience but that he can implement as Treasurer.
He would continue current programs such as using state funds to foster small-business growth and pressuring banks to do the same. On the other hand, he did return to the team-player mode. He said he’d convene a task force on the commonwealth’s economy immediately after he 1) won the primary and 2) the general, in November to fix his direction.
Goldberg
She had a straight-ahead performance. Two telling comments came near the end. One is that she has a serious agenda, which she would like to have 4 or 8 or 12 years to bring to fruition. The other is that she defines herself as an unabashed, lifelong progressive Democrat who does not see any conflict or distinction among the professional, personal and political. Click below to listen in.
Goldberg said a high priority would be ensuring the stability and growth of the 60B public-employee pension fund. She said the current Treasurer has set a high standard in returns. She would want to match or better that. She’d speak with each fund manager to make sure they balanced safety and growth goals.
She sees huge challenges in the school building authority. As with much MA infrastructure, we have deferred maintenance and face large expenditures to give kids safe places to learn.
As with the other two Dem candidates, she sees a big need for financial literacy. She praised Grossman’ pilot effort here for all ages and genders as well as immigrants. In fact, repeatedly throughout the show, she returned to the currently disadvantaged that she saw the commonwealth and the Treasurer’s office in particular could help. Listen in as she describes how the office might improve the lives of women, minorities and immigrants.
While she praised Grossman’s efforts in many ways, she has additional programs in mind. One of the more striking is a state public bank. The model she referenced is in North Dakota. She spoke highly of it aiding in state development as well as weathering the big recession best in the nation. She wants us to join states like Illinois in considering it.
She has definite plans on how to use the office to promote MA businesses, from lending to procurement.
The Trio
The three guests came by happenstance. I didn’t pick the order. Yet I found that I liked them in politics, platform and personality in increasing amount week to week. If you listen to all three shows, you’re likely to find much to appreciate in each. I suggest Finegold to Conroy to Goldberg, as I got them.
I try not to endorse for primaries either here, on Left Ahead or at Marry in Massachusetts. Yet in a first for this season, I’ll admit that I pick Goldberg.
It was not the deciding factor, but if you listen to her show, you’ll here that she and I speak a few times about her uncle Norman Cahners. I worked for Cahners Publishing and in fact for the only magazine he founded and wrote for, Modern Materials Handling, originally the Palletizer. He married Goldberg’s aunt. Everybody loved Norm. Otherwise, I have never met any of the three candidates before speaking with them.
Finegold has specific plans for fully funding the pension fund, but otherwise seems derivative of Grossman. Conroy has a strong financial background and promises to do the same and better as Grossman. His big plank of a task force between November and taking office seems to lack leadership and direction. Goldberg as the unashamed progressive with very clear ideas has the edge to me.
Moreover, she spoke of not kicking against the goads (my classical training, not her phrase), but of all she could do without approval of the new Governor or the legislature. She’s ready to roll.
~Mike
She’s top-shelf cream-of-the-crop excellent.
I’ll be voting for her.
She’s one of the nicest people I’ve met in MA politics, and she’s a true progressive champ with a background well suited for this office. I, too, will be voting for Deb.
It happens every few months for mysterious reasons.
Deb Goldberg is a sincere, honest person, with the utmost of integrity. She’s witty with a great sense of humor. Deb will be getting my vote on September 9th.
Deb Goldberg has the best plan to take over the treasurer’s job. It is in her blood to help people and create opportunities for the less fortunate. She will be a treasurer that is committed to the long term fiscal growth of Massachusetts. I endorse her too!
Tom Conroy is by far the most qualified of the candidates for State Treasurer. With two advanced degrees in economics and several years of experience working in finance, his qualifications far surpass those of the other candidates. His record in the legislature is one of a caring and compassionate leader who led the fight for the highest minimum wage in the nation.
Tom has written laws that helped improve our state’s credit rating, saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Long before the current effort to repeal the casino bill, Tom wrote a cost/benefit analysis of the original casino proposal, showing that it would not deliver its promised benefits.
Tom is not a lifelong politician. Prior to his election to the Legislature in 2006, he worked for 16 years in finance. Before that, he managed refugee programs in Thailand and Haiti. Before that, he served as an aide to Senators Gary Hart and Barbara Mikulski, devising an alternative to Reagan’s huge military buildup.
Tom has received the near-unanimous endorsement of Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts (over 80% of the vote) and the only newspaper endorsement so far in this race (Metro West Daily News ).
Tom Conroy is an experienced, trustworthy public servant and expert in finance, but is also a truly principled leader. I have been privileged to have Tom as my state representative, and I will vote for him for State Treasurer in the Democratic Primary, September 9.
But I’d argue that with a Harvard MBA, BC JD, and experience as a business executive and head of local government who negotiated successfully with public and private-sector union leaders, plus her current work as a nonprofit president and volunteer with numerous other charities, government entities such as the Treasurer’s Commonwealth Covenant Fund, and progressive organizations, Deb is just as qualified for this job. She is not a lifelong politician either. She’s a business woman and a proud progressive activist who’s running for major office (not counting Town Meeting and DSC) for the first time in 8 years because she believes she can do this particular job really well, and as she said in this interview, she wants to be our Treasurer for a long time to execute her big plans.
I was not able to find anything from any of the candidates concerning how they would run the lottery. Would they continue Grossman’s expansion of the lottery by promoting online gambling and the use of credit cards?
Running the lottery is the one thing the Treasurer does that affects the lives of the citizens the most. But I checked all three web sites–nothing.
All three of the spoke of the lottery vis-a-vis casinos. The big concern is that the $5 billion take yields $1 billion net for local aid, a.k.a. revenue sharing for municipalities. Casinos would bleed that money, with the profits going to the gambling companies instead. They all seemed to agree that any casino payments to the commonwealth would not begin to compensate for lost revenue.
All three said they’d have to find a way to offset the cannibal effect. None was that specific.
I’ll be voting for the most qualified candidate for Treasurer – Deb Goldberg, Ms. Goldberg has the public service and private sector experience needed to run the Treasuer’s office and, when it comes to my policy priorities, Deb Goldberg is the only candidate to stand solidly with Massachusetts workers.
Deb Goldberg was an early supporter of increasing the minimum wage (she has consistantly urged a living wage) with indexing. She opposed cuts to unemployment benefits and opposed linking a minimum wage increasing to cutting unemployment benefits. It was beyond wrong that while Republicans in Washngton DC refused to extend federal unemployment benefits, the Democratically controlled Massachusetts Legislature was actively considering cuts to benefits for citizens jobless through no fault of their own. Deb Goldberg actively opposed that UI cut.
Deb Goldberg has been a long time critic of expanding charter schools that drain money away from public education. She came out against charter schools during her 2006 campaign for LG and unlike her opponents opposes increasing the cap today.
As Chair of the Brookline Board of Selectmen, Deb Goldberg dealt with collective bargaining on the local level. She worked to settle contracts that respected public employees service, dealt fairly with taxpayers and addressed health care and pension costs. What she DID NOT do was vote for legislation that stripped away the right to bargain over health care cost from municipal workers and employees at state authorities. Deb did the hard work of finding solutions instead of denying one side a voice.
Deb has made tackling economic justice and wage inequality cornorstones of her campaign and will take the lead on those isues as Treasurer.
The state treasurer’s administrative duties include bargaing with unions within her office, overseeing the school building fund that provides communities with resources and creates jobs, managing the state pension system that provides futures for thousands of families, educating citizens on financial issues and making sure taxpayer dollars are invested correctly.
As a Massachusetts resident and taxpayer, Progressive Democrat, and union member I’m voting for the progressive, pro-worker candidate for Treasurer -Deb Goldberg.
He is touting his support of the Market Basket boycott.
and in general he’s no slouch when it comes to jumping on bandwagons.
Almost every elected official has indicated support for the workers, but Barry has been really out in front. It wouldn’t surprise me if Artie T. contributes since MB is HQ’d in his Senate district, but I’d be curious if you can cite that to show you aren’t just speculating.
Arthur T. maxed out to Barry in 2013 and 2014, and his wife Maureen did the same in 2013 according to OCPF.
ATD does not appear to have ever given to Goldberg or Conroy, or any of the other statewide Democratic candidates for that matter.
all of the statewide candidates want to see an end to the Market Basket boycott. I feel sorry for the employees and the people that depend on this business However, It seems a little opportunistic for Barry to be using this family issue to gain political points.
This is the biggest labor story this country has seen in a long time. Employees are going the mat for a CEO who treated them well, yet still managed to keep prices low and turn a huge profit. This may be just the shot in the arm the labor movement needs.