Tom Conroy for State Representative

Tom Conroy

Your Voice in the U.S. Senate

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Boston Common

 Hello everyone, and thank you for joining me today to celebrate a fascinating and enriching journey across Massachusetts.  And a hearty thank you to the entire campaign team, and all of the volunteers who have contributed to this enormous effort.  Jon, Robin, Karen, Kay, Kristen, Deb, Martin, and particularly all those who walked with me so much:  BZ, Drew, Ariana, Andrew, Phil, Basil, Dan, and Katy and all of the others that joined me along the way, too many to name.  All of you shared a faith with me in this effort and in the collective goals of this walk.  Without you, this journey would not have been possible.  With you, it has been a huge success.

 I have made this journey because I want to help, serve, and be the voice of the people of Massachusetts in the United States Senate.  To hear first-hand the voices of the people, to empower all of you who have felt disillusioned and disenfranchised, I have walked around the state during the past two months, over 650 miles.  I’ve walked to over 125 towns and cities, and talked with thousands of people just like you. 

 And here is what I have heard.  

 The people of Massachusetts are worried, anxious, concerned.  Voters, families, fishermen, firefighters, business owners, carpenters, electricians, hotel workers, students, teachers, and the tens of thousands of unemployed all across Massachusetts are worried.  And the refrain I heard again and again and again is the need for jobs, jobs, jobs.  I heard Bob in Fitchburg, unemployed, age 52, unsure of where he can get a job, and scared about how he gets by for the next ten years.  Dottie and Pat are seniors in Gardner, on fixed incomes but facing rising health care, gas, and food costs.  They don’t see how they can make ends meet if this keeps up. I heard Jen on my way to North Adams, struggling to care for her developmentally disabled daughter, now an adult, but still in need of daily supervision.  Jen cannot afford a personal assistant for her daughter, and fears she may lose her job because she has to take time off to help her daughter during the day.  Terry in Brockton is embarrassed at being unemployed for the past 2.5 years, after holding a good middle class job for 25 years as a prototype mechanic producing microscope slides.  When I met him, he was hoping to get a minimum wage job for a day in order to put food on his family’s table that night. 

 All of these people were better off ten years ago, but now face a very uncertain future.  They are scared. 

 The thousands of people of Massachusetts I have met want a predictable and secure future.  Those without work want opportunities for steady middle class jobs with decent wages and decent benefits.  Those who have jobs are worried about losing them.  All are worried about their futures, the value of their homes and retirement savings, the rising cost of health care and college.  All want the economy to be strong.  All want the private sector to start hiring again, instead of outsourcing jobs overseas.  All want Washington to function again, with a Congress that puts the people’s priorities front and center.   

 But the people of Massachusetts want even more than this, and they deserve it.  They want to have faith again in America’s promise to them.  A promise, or compact, that if we study in school, and work hard, and abide by the law, and are respectful of others, that America will offer us an opportunity to succeed.  If we are determined, diligent, and disciplined, we will have the freedom to choose a career path that offers stability and security, fulfillment and reward.  If we uphold the character within all of us that has made Massachusetts such a great state — courage, judgment, integrity, and dedication — we will enjoy a quality of life beyond the dreams of our ancestors.  And most important, we will preserve the promise for the next generation, and our children’s children. 

 At this distressing point in our history, many fear that America’s promise is broken, this compact has cracked.  They believe our country has changed, and for the worse.  Indeed, too often we see greed on Wall Street rewarded with massive salaries and bonuses, out of proportion to common sense and decency.  Too often we see selfish CEOs exalted as models of success, with their millions in stock options coming at the expense of American jobs.  We sense that opportunities exist only for the few, and the vast majority of us are being left behind. 

 America’s promise is also being threatened by the forces of the radical right, people like Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachman, and Grover Norquist.  In addition, huge corporations are squelching and drowning our voices because of the Citizens United decision, PAC money, and huge special interest funds. 

 To all those who are worried, anxious and fearful, I offer confidence in our ability as communities, as a Commonwealth, and as a country of diverse people and diverse voices to overcome such obstacles.  America and Massachusetts have a long and successful history of continuous progress, of responding to adversity with courage, resilience, and ingenuity.  As a free people we have always adapted, changed, created, and improved our collective situation whenever we have faced threats to a better future. 

 And I have seen and heard that courage, resilience, and ingenuity during my walk.  In Fitchburg, a manufacturing company and the city government joining in a public-private partnership to lower energy costs at the plant and keep 200 jobs in the city.  In Western Massachusetts, the corporate owner of a paper mill with 120 jobs was going to close it, but the management team stepped in, took some risk, bought the mill, kept it open, and saved the jobs.  In Quincy, a visionary $1.6 billion development in the center of the city will revitalize the downtown and put thousands to work.  In Roxbury, a non-profit is using local, state, and federal funding to provide 16 to 24 year olds construction skills and apprenticeships, turning them away from gangs and violence and toward a better path for a successful future. 

 These are the success stories I have seen and heard along my walk, and there are dozens of others out there across Massachusetts to provide all of us confidence in a brighter future. 

 So I offer to be your voice, a voice proclaiming our collective ability to overcome adversity, and preserve America’s promise for all of us.  As your next Senator in Washington, I vow to carry your voices to the halls of Congress, to advocate for your priorities, to shout out your vision, ideas, successes and solutions for a brighter future.  Here’s the vision that many shared with me on my walk:

• We want a just and fair society, that rewards hard work, good citizenship, and responsibility;
• We want job opportunities so that we can grab onto a wrung of the middle class ladder and pull ourselves up;
• We want great schools so that we can be the best educated citizens and workforce in the world;
• We want a stable economy that preserves and grows the value of our homes and retirement savings;
• We want health care that is accessible, affordable, and high quality;
• We want an environment that is protected from the selfish and careless;
• We want a tax policy in which the super rich contribute their fair share of the price of our civilization;
• We want the security that comes from a strong national defense that is not overextended beyond our borders;
• We want a Congress that puts the people first, rather than themselves.

 While walking I have also seen the potential of the people of Massachusetts turn a crisis into an opportunity.  The crisis is our crumbling infrastructure.  The opportunity entails putting people back to work rebuilding it.  On this walk, I have seen with my eyes and felt with my feet the rundown, decaying, and rusting of our roads, bridges and dams.  Our public transportation systems are woefully outdated, falling apart and in desperate need of upgrades.  Here’s what we have to do:

• $20 billion worth of maintenance for our roads, bridges, dams, and tunnels to make business and workers more productive;
• $1 billion for broadband in Western Mass so people can start small businesses;
• $4 billion for Cape Cod, to keep their water clean and preserve the tourism industry;
• $1.5 billion for the South Coast rail project to Fall River and New Bedford to lower the 16% unemployment rate in those cities;
• $500 million to extend the T’s blue line from Revere to Lynn;
• $900 million to extend the T’s green line from Cambridge to Somerville;
• Pay off the $8 billion in debt that resides on our state’s transportation balance sheet so it can buy new locomotives and upgrade tracks;
• $500 million to double the T’s parking spaces.

That’s over $36 billion, and given that we have a state budget of only $30 billion, and cities and towns are broke, we need help from the federal government.          

 So the idea, and I have heard this echoed by many people on my walk, is to get that money being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring that money home and invest it here, and create jobs.  And let’s end the Bush tax cuts on the super-rich that created the deficit problem and use those funds to rebuild our infrastructure and put carpenters, plumbers, electricians, pipefitters, sheet-metal workers, and engineers back to work. 

 That’s what I want to do as your U.S. Senator.  And that’s just one example of how I will use your voices and my experiences, which are so relevant to the challenges we face as a nation, to create a better Massachusetts.  These challenges involve our economy, jobs, budgets, finance, our debt, national security, and the role of our government in society.  The people of Massachusetts have told me that they want a U.S. Senator who has skills and abilities in all of these areas, as I do.  They want an effective legislator who can solve real problems with real solutions, as I have done at the State House.  And the majority of folks I have met want someone who can win, someone who can beat Scott Brown, someone who knows how to win against an incumbent Republican, as I have done.  These are my experiences, and no else in this race —declared or undeclared— has all of them like I do. 

 Finally, I pledge to lead by example in Washington.  I have refrained from accepting campaign contributions from lobbyists, special interest groups, and political action committees (PACs), to ensure that your voices are not drowned out by others.  When the Great Recession hit, I turned down a pay raise as a state representative, which made me the lowest paid legislator in the entire state.  I will refuse to accept the gold-plated health care plan that is offered to Members of Congress unless or until all of you get to have the same plan.  I pledge to put all of you first.  I am a public servant, here to help you and create a better future for you and your families.   

 Now we look forward to the next phase of this race.  I am ready.  I am ready to win.  I have walked the state.  I have met with people from all walks of life.  I have seen what you can only see when you walk with people and talk with people in their own neighborhoods amidst their own families and schools and communities and workplaces.  What I know is that the vast majority of voices that I heard are voices that are not being heard in Washington D.C.  These are voices of reason, of practicality, of good will, and concern for one’s neighbor. These are the voices of this great Commonwealth and of America that have always spoken for what is right and what makes America strong:  liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness.

 So we now conclude this very successful walk and enter a new phase in our quest to be the voice of the people. We have a plan to win.  We will be solidifying the connections we have made with thousands of people and connecting with thousands more.  We will be proclaiming more success stories and job creation ideas that are worthy of being replicated throughout our state.  We will be raising the serious money it takes to win against the big corporations and billionaires behind the Tea Party and Scott Brown.  We will be reaching out to every delegate to next year’s Democratic Convention to earn their support. Most of all we will continue to connect with the people of Massachusetts, to address real challenges with real solutions.  It is the people of this great state — not pundits, the press, or pollsters — who, in the end, will choose the next United States Senator from Massachusetts. 

 With your help, we will succeed in this quest.  I am confident.

 So again, thank you all for coming today.  Thank you again to the wonderful campaign team for making this journey possible. 

 Please pledge your support for me to go to Washington, to carry your voices and ideas into the United States Senate, to help secure a brighter future, for yourselves and your families, and lead this country on a winning path forward. 

 Thank you and God bless