Transportation advocate Chris Dempsey is running for Massachusetts state auditor in the September 6th Democratic primary. He’s up against State Senator Diana DiZoglio in the race to replace outgoing three-term auditor Suzanne Bump, who has given Dempsey her endorsement. Republican Anthony Amore is running unopposed in his party’s primary. Dempsey spoke with WAMC about bolstering investment in rural communities, his time leading the No Boston Olympics group, and why he wants to audit the state police.
DEMPSEY: Well, I've laid out a vision for the office that is bold and that addresses some of the most pressing issues around the commonwealth, whether it's oversight of federal stimulus dollars, making the office a national leader on climate and environmental justice, or oversight and reform of the Massachusetts State Police. I'm so honored in this race to be endorsed by incumbent State Auditor Suzanne Bump, the first woman to ever hold the office and the person who knows the job the best, as well as by the Mass Democratic party with a win at the convention in June, where we won the three westernmost senate districts. We’re very strong across the Pioneer Valley and in the Berkshires, and really honored to have that great grassroots support.
WAMC: Let's talk about your proposed audit of the Massachusetts State Police. First off, let's set the stage: Before we get into the details of the audit, what inspired you to include that among some of the core tenets of your campaign?
Josh, let me start by saying that I have great respect for our troopers on the front lines, and they put themselves at risk each and every day. That agency as a whole is not doing its best to keep them safe and keep them well. And I've met, over the course of this campaign, people who have lost close loved ones in the line of duty as state troopers. They have told me the agency needs more reform. In meeting after meeting that we've attended over the last year with regular folks who are part of the democratic town and city committees who want to hear from their elected officials and provide feedback. We heard time and time again that people respect our state troopers, but that the agency needs more oversight and reform. And the state auditor is one of the few positions on Beacon Hill where we can bring that oversight, do it in partnership with the troopers there, and make sure that we restore faith and trust between taxpayers and residents and the State Police.
Now how would you achieve that? What are the points of the audit?
We put out a 15-point plan and it covers everything from hiring, to training, to promotions, to looking at evidence handling, to looking at access for State Police troopers to privileged information centers like the criminal background check system, to looking at stops and the potential for racial profiling in those stops and in ticketing. So, it's a very comprehensive plan, and we're going to tackle it piece by piece. That plan was informed by former Secretary of Public Safety Kevin Burke, and even from people across the aisle, including retired State Police troopers who had been on the inside who know that that agency needs more attention and who informed our 15-point plan to make it better.
Let's turn to public transit in Massachusetts. With the current struggles of the MBTA, a lot of people are interested in more oversight of that agency. Should you be elected auditor, what kind of attention would you turn on to the state's public transit authorities?
Public transit is a deeply personal issue to me. I am a regular MBTA and broader transit rider and I will be the first statewide elected official to commute to Beacon Hill on transit in over 30 years. But I am well aware of two things: Number one, that state tax dollars from across the state are going to pay for the MBTA system. Even though many people in anywhere west of Worcester really aren't benefiting from that system on a day-to-day basis, we need to make sure that every single dollar we spend at the T is spent well. And number two, that there are far too many people across Western Massachusetts that don't have adequate transit service, transit does not feel like an adequate option for them because we don't provide enough for those agencies as a state. And so I want to make sure that dollars are coming back to Western Massachusetts and being invested in agencies like the PVTA and the Berkshire RTA. Those are critical services for people that rely on them every day. They are all about economic opportunity and mobility, and they're also about addressing our environmental concerns and issues. So we have to be investing more in transit. And I'm going to be front and center in that debate on Beacon Hill.
I wanted to turn the clock back for a minute, Chris, and look at your efforts to oppose the bid for Boston to host the 2024 Olympics. Tell me a little bit about how you got involved in that movement, and give us a sense of what it took to effectively communicate that to the Boston community.
Josh, in 2015, some of the most powerful corporate interests in Massachusetts got together behind closed doors and they put together a plan for the Boston 2024 Olympics. But that plan required that all of us as state taxpayers cover 100% of the Olympic cost overruns. Whenever I'm in Western Massachusetts, as I was two days this week, I say this: If you liked the Big Dig, you would love the Boston 2024 Olympics. It was going to be billions and billions of dollars spent on stadiums and other venues all essentially within 128 in downtown Boston, and it was going to be your state taxpayer dollars paying for that. I'm the son of public school teachers. Over the course of their career, I saw my parents to union to their own pockets to pay for school supplies for their students, and it does not sit right with me that we would put together a $15 billion proposal for the Olympics when our basic needs in public education, public health, public transportation are not being met. And so I created a grassroots group called No Boston Olympics. We went up against those corporate interests, and we got outspent 1,500 to 1. But we were successful because we argued with the facts and the data, and the people of Massachusetts rallied to our cause. And I'm so proud that so many folks in Western Massachusetts were a part of that effort to push back and say we have more important priorities for this state.
Looking back over current Auditor Suzanne Bump’s time in office, are there any particular audits from her tenure that you think particularly well represent the duty of the office?
I want to say again how proud I am that she has endorsed my campaign, because she is the person in the state who knows this very particular and unique job the best. She has been a leader on raising rural issues. Last year, she put forward something called the Rural Rescue Plan that drew attention to some state formulas, things like payment in lieu of taxes for state owned land and the chapter 90 program which funds roads and communities, local roads across the entire state. Those formulas are unfair to rural communities. They don't take into account all of the needs of rural communities and the people who live there, and she shone a light on that. And I think what's really important about this statewide role is that when she put that report out, it wasn't just covered by great outlets like WAMC. It was also covered by the Boston Globe and WGBH, two of the major media outlets in Eastern Massachusetts. It shows that when the auditor does their job well, they can take what are regional issues and make them statewide issues. And that's the kind of work that I want to do as the next state auditor.
In a recent debate with your opponent Diana DiZoglio there was a back and forth over voting records on non-disclosure agreements. DiZoglio has come out throughout her time in state governance as strongly opposed to them, and she made an accusation that earlier in your political career, you had not taken an opportunity to resist them on your own. I wanted to give you a chance to speak to that claim.
Yeah, on this issue. I stand with victims and advocates for victims’ rights. NDAs should never be used to cover up harassment or abuse. It's entirely unacceptable. Nobody should experience that. But when you talk to victims advocates who work on these issues day in and day out, what they say is that an NDA can in some cases be a helpful tool for victims because there are some people who just want to move on from the issue. And that should never be forced on anybody, but it should be a tool in the toolbox if it's something that victims and their advocates choose. I've been consistent on that position throughout my career, and I'm not changing because that's what victims advocates and victims themselves are saying,
Chris, at this point in the campaign, what do you think the biggest issues are with just days left until voters hit the ballots?
I appreciate that this is an office that isn't at the top of everybody's agenda, and so I'm out there every single day, and again, we were in Western Massachusetts two days this week. I stayed overnight on Wednesday night in Springfield at the home of city councilor Jesse Lederman, who is the council president and supporter of my campaign. We are meeting as many voters as we possibly can, raising awareness of the office and raising awareness of the plans that I've put forth. Just today, I'm very proud to share with you that I've been endorsed by the Boston Globe with a very strong endorsement of my candidacy. And again, so proud of the support that we have from leaders across the Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires, people like the Representative Smitty Pignatelli, State Representative, Tricia Farley-Bouvier, State Rep Natalie Blais, State Rep Bud Williams. The list goes on and on and on of folks from Western Massachusetts who have sized up the two candidates in this race and have come down squarely on my side, just as Auditor Bump has.
