Usually, a retiring public figure gets at least a semblance of a victory tour before he or she exits the arena.
Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is being lauded in ballparks across the land in his final season. And maybe if he were able to hit a split-fingered fastball, departing Berkshire-Franklin State Sen. Ben Downing might be enjoying a similar send-off.
Instead, the five-term Democrat is getting a boot on his way out the door by the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which has included Downing in its “Dirty Dozen” lineup of state lawmakers supporting a plan to increase income tax rates on the Commonwealth’s highest-wage earners.
“The measure would go far as to write into the state constitution specific language on income thresholds and earmarked revenue,” the MFA’s “alert” read, going so far as calling it an attempt to “pervert” the Commonwealth’s tax system.
“If I’m going to be known for advocating for increased funding for education and transportation, that’s a badge of honor I’ll gladly wear,” Downing said.
Downing also believes the MFA’s opposition to the tax increase does not reflect the majority view in his Senate district, which is the Commonwealth’s largest, geographically speaking.
“Every time the issue has come up, people in my district support the idea because they understand the need,” Downing said.
So far, Downing and fellow Sen. Eric Lesser are the only western Mass. lawmakers on the dirty dozen list. Senate President Stan Rosenberg has managed to avoid the alliance’s wrath, despite doing as much as anyone to sell the graduated income tax idea, which has failed spectacularly each time it has been presented.
Speaking of Rosenberg, will he have an opponent this year or not?
A few weeks back, I ran into a guy collecting signatures outside the Greenfield Big Y. He was carrying a clipboard with the words “No New Taxes” emblazoned on the back. He declined to give me his full name but still asked me to sign his papers. I offered to interview him but he politely declined, saying he was merely testing the waters at that point. Since I haven’t heard a thing from him since, I’m guessing that test balloon didn’t exactly float.
Rosenberg told me recently that he’d heard of a potential challenger lurking somewhere in Worcester County, but didn’t have too many details on him.
“My understanding is that he was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on national television, but I don’t know much beyond that,” Rosenberg said.
Sounds like formidable opposition to me.
Another potential “David vs. Goliath” showdown pits 1st District Congressman Richie Neal against long-time Greenfield Community College Economics and Business Professor Thom Simmons, who is running as a Libertarian, in part, because of Neal’s support for standardized school testing.
“He has routinely voted to tie school funding to ‘outcome-based’ national standards testing, turning teachers into paper-pushers and he also has run unopposed for years,” Simmons said on his campaign website. “That must end — and it will end — this year.”
I don’t know what kind of chance Simmons will have, but I can’t wait to get him in for an interview. He’s a compelling speaker and I’m sure much more than just a one-issue candidate.
I wouldn’t recommend looking past him, not even an entrenched incumbent like Sir Richie.
I continue to be amazed at how freaked out Democrats are about the prospect of Donald Trump as the presidential nominee of the increasingly-fractured Republican party.
If I were a Hillary Clinton supporter, I’d be doing celebratory cartwheels at the idea of running against “The Donald,” because then the campaign goes from a simple discussion of whose ideas are better to why we need to save the country from him.
One need only look four years back to see how successful such a strategy can be. Before Mitt Romney had even been nominated, the Democrats were hammering him on every talking point in every platform they could find, and it worked — despite the fact that he was a relatively clean-living guy whose only crime seemed to be his status as a member of the dreaded “1 percent” of top American income earners.
Romney was a saint compared to Trump, and the left wing still found a way to demonize him. Can you imagine what they will do this year with all of the material already out there about the “presumptive nominee?” Talk about low-hanging fruit.
So Democrats should stop worrying so much. Forget the fact that only three points separate Trump and Clinton in this week’s tracking poll. The phasers are still set on “stun” at this point, and there’s plenty of time to remind everyone that when it comes to voting in modern-day America, fear remains the strongest motivator — which is why we so often wind up not with the best government, but the one we ultimately deserve.
Chris Collins, who worked in local radio in a number of capacities, has observed political life in Franklin County for years. He also is a former staff reporter for The Recorder and a Greenfield native.