PITTSFIELD — The three Democratic candidates seeking legislative nominations in the Sept. 8 primary participated in wide-ranging candidate debate recently at Berkshire Community College.
Democratic Senate candidates Andrea Harrington, of Richmond, Rinaldo Del Gallo, of Lenox, and Adam Hinds of Pittsfield, who are vying to replace Sen. Ben Downing, D-Pittsfield, debated for over 90 minutes.
Progressive positions — and often which candidate was the most progressive on an issue — dominated the debates.
The Senate debate, moderated by former Judge Fredric Rutberg, president of The Berkshire Eagle, included numerous questions, follow-up questions and candidate-to-candidate questions.
Del Gallo claimed the “Bernie Sanders progressive” mantle, saying he is running a Sanders-style campaign and stressing strong measures to close the income gap with tax reform to shift the burden more toward the wealthy.
He also several times asserted that he was the first of the three candidates out front on such issues as opposition to the proposed Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline project that was dropped amid strong opposition, and to support a $15 minimum wage.
Harrington and Hinds disputed that claim, saying they also early on took the progressive stand on those issues.
Del Gallo also asserted that he has been “a visible member of the community for 15 years,” advocating for causes like a ban on polystyrene in Pittsfield and writing numerous newspaper columns on a range of progressive subjects. He added that Hinds only recently returned to the area to accept a position in Pittsfield and Harrington has not been “visible” on the political scene.
Hinds, a Buckland native, said he has been directly working in the community and tackling tough issues like gang violence and drugs as the founder of the grant-funded Pittsfield Community Connection program for at-risk youth and later as the executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition in North Adams.
He also cited his work with the U.N. in the Middle East where he said he learned to work with communities toward collaboration while also encountering negotiators “with some tough actors.”
Harrington described herself as someone who has “always been for the underdog” and said she’d be a tireless advocate for working families, which she said are increasingly unable to afford to live in the Berkshires and get ahead.
She promised to pursue “a progressive agenda” in the Senate and added, “I am not a politically connected person, but what I am is a fighter. Don’t let my size or my gender fool you,” said Harrington, who is slight of build.
The candidate said her work as an attorney and her experiences growing up in a working class family in Pittsfield have given her the ability to forge collaborations but also the insight to know when to stand up strongly in opposition.
Hinds said the Senate position “needs someone to be effective in pushing an agenda,” saying his experiences growing up in a family that stressed education, his local work with youth the low-income residents, with the U.N. and working for former U.S. Rep. John Olver, D-Amherst, has prepared him for the job.
Del Gallo said in his closing remarks that “I am the anti-establishment candidate, no doubt about it.” But he asserted that more than his opponents he has been out in the community and active for more than a decade and he would fight hard against income disparity, which he said is at the root of many other problems.
“You need someone with fire in his gut,” he said.
In November, the winner will face Christine Canning of Lanesborough, who is running unopposed as the Republican candidate.