Natalie Blais and Jo Comerford, state representative-elect and state senator-elect, respectively, will have had four months to prepare by the time they head to the Statehouse in January, since their defacto elections in last September’s primary, followed by uncontested elections last month.
And Blais, the Sunderland Democrat finishing up her long-post as Franklin County Chamber of Commerce executive director, along with Comerford of Northampton, a campaign director for MoveOn.org, have been busy preparing to be first-time elected officials in Legislature that’s experiencing a progressive wave and a sea of new Western Massachusetts faces.
“I feel its a moment for thinking big thoughts,” says Comerford, who won a four-way race as a write-in candidate for the Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester Senate seat with 53 percent of the vote. The seat has been vacant since the resignation of Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, earlier this year.
Particularly because of the wins of other progressive House candidates around the district, and overwhelming support for a referendum on the November ballot supporting a single-payer health-care system, she added, “I feel it’s a new day, an opportunity for the community to really dig deep and think very long-term about things like our commitment to public education, to achieving health care as a human right and our commitment to health care for all and our commitment to big, bold environmental measures” commensurate with the “crisis” over a changing climate.
Comerford, who hopes to organize a Health Care For All Caucus when she enters the Senate, because what seems “a bugle call to me” from ballot referenda in four of the House districts that are part of her area, said, “The class that’s coming in is energized and, from my vantage point, disproportionately progressive.”
When it comes to creating a more progressive energy policy, which passed the Senate this session, but was watered down by the House, Comerford said, “It’s going to take a careful strategy because what passed was not the Senate bill and fell far short of the Senate bill. The risk is that members of the House and Senate feel they’ve done that work, so now we’ll move onto new things.”
Constituents can meet with legislators at a “legislative coffee” event Dec. 8 from 10 to noon at Trinity Church on Severance Street in Shelburne Falls, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Franklin County.
In the House, where 22 new Democrats — including many progressives — will join the 127-member Democratic majority, State House News Service says some members are looking forward to what that could mean for key issues, like immigration, that have faltered in the past. The news service reports it seems unlikely at this point that House Speaker Robert DeLeo would face any significant challenge to his speakership, yet it’s too early to rule out a challenge, symbolically or otherwise.
It also remains to be seen whether groups within the House, like the Progressive Caucus, can continue to try to work within the system, or change their strategy altogether.
“Our freshman class is very diverse,” said Blais, who in September won a seven-way primary race to replace Rep. Stephen Kulik, the Worthington Democrat whose retirement after 25 years comes, along with that of Rep. John Scibek, D-South Hadley and the death of Rep. Peter Kocot, D-Northampton. “We’re lucky to have number of really passionate members in the Pioneer Valley who are ready to work together for Western Mass. It’s very clear to us there are a number of issues that permeated each of our campaigns,” said Blais, who has already been meeting with Comerford as well as newly elected representatives Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, Dan Carey, D-Easthampton and Mindy Domb, D-Amherst. “I hope we’ll be able to work together on each of those: health care, climate change, education,jobs and the economy. We’ll be looking at ways to support each other in these efforts for our constituents.”
She added, “We saw from the responses on the ballot questions that we received in western Mass, that the general populace feels strongly about those issues as well. I think that that helps us advance that agenda in Boston. We in western Mass. recognize the importance of standing together on these issues, which we’ve seen in the previous delegation. Standing with one another, and leaning on each other really made a significant impact. We recognize that and will hope to do the same.”
Proposals around health care reform could be coming from Gov. Charlie Baker in the first weeks of the next two-year legislative session, State House News Service reports, though the governor said Thursday he wants a sense of the “rhythm” of the session before deciding just how his administration settles on a possible course of action.
Over the last two years, the Legislature has largely eschewed Baker’s health care proposals in favor of pursuing, although not ultimately agreeing upon, its own ideas. The governor, House speaker and Senate president have all indicated health care will again be a main focus of work in the 2019-2020 session.
Asked whether he plans to submit a package of health care legislation in the new session or wait for the House or Senate to make the first move, Baker said Thursday that’s something he needs to talk about with legislative leaders.
Baker also hinted that the annual state budget bill he must file in January could also address health care issues, putting his ideas in front of lawmakers at the very beginning of the two-year session.
“We can either propose those as standalones, or we could just incorporate them into a budget,” Baker said of his administration’s ideas. He added, “I think it’s likely you’ll see some initiatives there.”
Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, agreed that having more progressive leaning colleagues in the House should help advance some of the issues he’s advocated for, including a more robust energy policy and on environmental issues, as well as “Mabye more of an opportunity to get a little more progress on health care, although I’m realistic in that I don’t think single payer is going to be the law of the land in the next two years. But it’s realistic to say we could at least have a plan in place, or a study to put a realistic plan in place. In this coming session, it will lead to traction and more excitement about single payer, so we could realistically get it done in the next couple of sessions. A lot needs to be done, but I think there’s a realistic groundswell right now.
He added, “There’s a lot of turnover on both (House and Senate) … and with turnover comes uncertainty, and uncertainty causes fear, but at the same time, with turnover there’s a lot of opportunity that comes with new energy and a willingness to try things people may have been reluctant to try.”
For his part, Mark, who has co-chaired the Legislature’s Redistricting Committee, said he hopes to push for the Secretary of State’s budget to include additional funding to encourage participation in the 2020 Census.
“That affects us in how get our legislative and congressional districts redrawn, and there are also over 1,000 programs based per capita on how many people are residing in an area,” said Mark, who hopes to be re-appointed to the redistricting panel. “We want to make sure in the small towns I represent, we’re getting our fair share.”