© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Green-Rainbow Party Candidates For Statewide Offices Tour Berkshires

Jim Levulis
/
WAMC

Green-Rainbow Party candidates for three Massachusetts statewide offices toured the Berkshires on Tuesday.

The three candidates traveled from North Adams to Lenox on Earth Day discussing issues ranging from North Adams Regional Hospital to public transportation. Scott Laugenour is the party’s state committeeman for the Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire District. With a statewide enrollment of roughly 6,000, the party has a chance to grow since more than half of the state’s voters are unenrolled, he says.

“We are offering voter choice,” Laugenour said. “The thing for our slate is getting at least three percent of the vote [which] puts on the map in terms of the Secretary of the Commonwealth gives us party status and gives us the opportunity to form more town committees. So it’s a growth strategy.”

Danny Factor is running for Secretary of the Commonwealth.

“Our commonwealth needs an economic bill of rights,” Factor said. “That must include the right to healthy food, clean water, education, universal single payer healthcare and decent housing.”

Factor points to Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond, Calif. as a successful Green Party elected official.

“[McLaughlin] has used eminent domain to purchase mortgages and then negotiate with homeowners,” he said. “Foreclosures have ended in that city of 90,000 people. There’s no reason why that can’t be done statewide.”

Factor says the state shouldn’t support casinos, calling them a poison to communities, and instead invest in businesses that prove they benefit the public good. Along with Republican David D’Arcangelo, Factor is challenging Democratic incumbent William Galvin.

“I would dispute as to whether anyone who’s been in office for 20 years is a strong incumbent,” Factor said. “I would say that that’s a person whose time is past.”

Ian Jackson is making a bid for treasurer.  He believes a single-payer healthcare system could have prevented North Adams Regional Hospital from its abrupt closure.

“That levels the playing field so everyone knows what their benefits are,” Jackson said.  “You don’t have the staff looking into what’s covered and what’s not covered. You can simplify your answers.”

State Treasurer Steve Grossman is one of the Democratic frontrunners to succeed Governor Deval Patrick, who is not seeking reelection. Three fellow Democrats, State Representative Tom Conroy, State Senator Barry Finegold and 2006 candidate for lieutenant governor Deborah Goldberg, are vying for the treasurer’s seat.  Republican businessman Mike Heffernan is also in the race. Jackson, a software engineer, says he’s running because he wants to give back to communities by helping students attend college without suffering from debt.

“We’re all kind of unknown quantities as far as taking care of people’s money,” he said. “But I’ve taken care of my church’s money.”

“If you can take care of God’s money….he’s more dangerous than anybody in the commonwealth,” Jackson said with a laugh.

MK Merelice is hoping to become state auditor. She says the state needs to not only audit its financial resources, but also the commonwealth’s human and environmental assets. Merelice says the state can redirect money spent to imprison nonviolent criminals in training and treatment programs.

“The $45,000 to keep somebody in prison, that’s spending,” Merelice said. “That’s not going to contribute to the future of that individual and it’s not going to contribute to the future of the economy of the commonwealth. Whereas if you invest in their wellbeing, in their training, in their education and in their treatment, that’s worthwhile.”

Along with Republican Patricia Saint Aubin, Merelice is challenging Democratic incumbent Suzanne Bump. Merelice says she decided to run because many people she values asked her to, and says she’s been surprised at the support she has received.

“The government is the people,” she said. “If people get disenchanted about voting, that’s like saying they’re disenchanted about democracy.”

Green-Rainbow Party state committeeman Laugenour says with roughly 250 party members, Berkshire County is just the place where a non-traditional platform could take root.

“There is so much dissatisfaction with the status quo and with Democrats in office who have in the past just gotten routinely reelected and reelected and reelected,” Laugenour said. “We are here in Pittsfield though in the Third Berkshire District where just a few years ago Mark Miller came within 200 votes of winning the state representative’s seat and beating [Democrat] Tricia Farley-Bouvier.”

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
Related Content