Commonwealth Journal; Interview with Gubernatorial Candidate State Rep. Steven Pierce on Voter Concerns in Massachusetts

This is the award winning Commonwealth Journal a weekly magazine of feature news and information brought to you as a public service of the University of Massachusetts at Boston on WM D F Ab. Today we continue our special series of visits with the gubernatorial candidates for governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and we extend a warm welcome to Republican Representative Steven Pearce our guest today on the program. This is Bill Moxley speaking inviting you to join us next on Commonwealth Journal. My guest on this special edition of Commonwealth Journal is Representative Steven Pearce one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates for the highest office in the Commonwealth. And I think to be fair to try to make it easy for our listeners to understand tell me in the last 45 or 50 days left before primary day how it is outside and how you are running and how you fit thirty nine hours into 24 and get it all done. Well I'm feeling very good about this race Bill I'm running for statewide office for the first time I've

had the privilege of representing the city of Westfield a small city in western Massachusetts for six terms in the Massachusetts House serving the last two terms as the Republican leader the minority leader and I made the decision to run about a year ago. Realizing what awesome challenges face the next governor of Massachusetts and what a difficult task it would be to to win and then to serve. But I'm very pleased with the response that we've had people want a change in Massachusetts and I'm finding that a large number of people believe that Steve Pearce can represent and bring about that change. We intend to win this election and intend to do the very difficult job of putting Massachusetts back on the right track. As you go down the highways of the Commonwealth the waves your family or do you really get a chance to see in one occasion. Well my family being two hours west of Boston I see them only infrequently but my wife Mary Jane is a registered nurse and is employed and so she's pretty busy and my son Jeffrey is 10 years old and he's engaged in all manner of summertime activities

so. And they're very supportive of what I'm doing and understand that. Sharing their husband and father with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a difficult thing but something the three of us collectively feel is important and essential. That's great when you take a look at it in running for a representative position as opposed to a statewide office. What do you find of the changes what do you find the changes in yourself how do you meet the public how do you greet the people differently than what you would have you were just representing the Westfield area. Well that's a very thoughtful question I hope I can give an equally thoughtful answer. Obviously there's a huge difference of scope. I've represented a legislative district of 36000 people and now I seek to be the governor of six million people. And the intensity of that race and trying to reach as many people as possible to learn as much as possible about different groups and different regions of the state and their different problems is very demanding. The length and breadth of a campaign for governor

in some ways while it's tiresome and tedious I suppose to campaign staffs and to the public is valuable in that it gives each candidate a sense of the breadth and the scope of the job of governor. It is an educational experience. It is an exhilarating experience. Sometimes frankly it's a very frustrating experience. But on the whole I think the length. And intensity of the current standards of the campaign for governor of Massachusetts really give one a sense of what it would be like to govern this state and the great diversity and complexity that is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We continually read hear see on radio television and newspaper the fiscal problem of the Commonwealth that is not going to be waved aside by one sentence between you and I in this program and it is certainly not going to be waved aside when you become governor the first day or the first month. So essentially However what is it that in your fiscal concerns and so forth you bring to the average voter about

your concerns about the fiscal crisis and how you see it. Well Bill I don't think any of the other candidates for governor bring to this race a sense of frustration and anger about the build up of our Commonwealth's fiscal problems because I've been there on the front lines the past four years particularly in the past 12 years generally warning about the dangers of all overspending. Warning about the dangers of failing to pay attention to what might happen one two and three years hence. Back in 1907 in 1908 when the Democrats in this state were pretending that there was no problem Steve Pierce was saying there was a huge problem coming. It's right on the horizon. And it's going to spell a lot of grief for the citizens of Massachusetts. So I've been out there offering solutions for several years and warning about the pending or impending fiscal disaster. Now it's here and I find myself amused and frustrated that those who discover there was a fiscal crisis after they became candidates for governor I believe what we've got to do is

what I've been urging for a long time because Massachusetts state government to live within its existing revenues. And that means causing it to abandon some of its old ways to restructure the way it delivers services to. Afflict the comfortable in Massachusetts State Government by telling them that they've either got to get out of the way or they've got to get to be a part of the solution. And I'm talking about the the very large number of highly paid state bureaucrats we have talking about stepping on some toes of people in state government I'm talking about reforming our Medicaid system reforming our welfare system changing the configuration of state agencies. In short doing a top to bottom look at this state because frankly nothing short of that is going to solve this fiscal problem. Otherwise it will continue to fester for years and years and years. Will it hurt. Yes it will hurt. And there are no easy solutions. I don't want to be elected governor in November having pretended to people that I have a magic solution and that we're going to be able to resolve this in short order in the beginning of

1901. It took years to get into this mess years of people deliberately closing their eyes closing their minds to what was happening in Massachusetts State Government and the problems it would pose. It is similarly going to take months and years of hard choices of some degree of. On Happiness for different people in order to work out these problems I'm not pretending it's going to be easy. I'm not looking forward to necessarily being a popular governor. I think it's important though to do what's necessary and what's right rather than what seems to be popular at a particular point in time. This is a great state. It can be restored to health but only if somebody gets into office who is not part of the old boy network or the old girl network who's willing to turn over some things and make some changes I think my record and my background reflect the fact that I am that person. My guest today on Commonwealth Journal is Representative Stephen Pearce Republican gubernatorial candidate for highest office in the Commonwealth. I want to talk about several of the

issues I want to get down to that but I'd like to go back to one of the things that you said it seems to me that when I travel around the state in the position that I hold. I hear the frustration I hear the anger but I also hear people saying gee if somebody would only tell us the truth then I might be able to understand better why we have to do the things we do. Do you sense that when you're out on the stump and when you hear that from people. No question Bill. I've I've watched again I go back to fighting this battle on an almost daily basis to 1987 and 1988 when the presidential election was over in 1988. Even the Democratic leaders admitted that we had a budget deficit. But what happened during 1909 and throughout this year as the campaign picked up steam and as our fiscal crisis grew we moved from just a budget deficit to a credibility deficit. And now people are worried about an economic deficit. They're worried about losing their jobs and they're worried about their paychecks shrinking even further because of an

increased tax burden from a state government that really doesn't know any other solution to solve its problems other than raising other people's taxes. The lack of credibility out there and the anger that you refer to is really disturbing because any political system in order to maintain its health its political health needs to have some level of acceptance of credibility on the part of its leaders. And there is no credibility that attaches to really any of the Democratic leaders in Massachusetts because first they've held so much power for so long and secondly they so obviously abuse that power not told the truth and not dealt with our problems when they should have been dealt with. Take a shot at a couple of issues probably simplistically stated but I'm sure your answers will be complete. Your stand on this petition. Well I support the CLTV petition. I have stated for some time that we wouldn't need government by referendum if we had elected leaders and government who are responsive and responsible. I didn't write the C L T petition I

have a few reservations with respect to it that I have shared with its proponents. I know that it's going to make my job. As governor more difficult if it passes but I think if you look at the events of the last 12 to 18 to 24 months you will see that the frustration that's been pent up is going to have no other outlet than the C L T petition. Those on Beacon Hill who say that its passage would be an unmitigated disaster. Went recently and did the very things that would cause its passage including the enactment of a 1.6 billion dollar tax increase. So I think the SEAL team petition is going to give myself as the next governor and the next legislature some mandate some direction and some leverage to accomplish what we need which is a restructuring of state government. The abortion question. I have had a consistent and basically life long view against abortion. I believe that abortion is the taking of an unborn life. And I have a I've held to that view throughout my 12 years in the

legislature. I understand of course that it is a emotional and and without question the most socially divisive politically divisive issue of our time. I'm not sure we're ever going to achieve a national consensus on it but I think that people of goodwill and reason over a period of years even people who are pro-choice will come to see that abortion is a tragedy for certainly for the unborn baby. Many times for the woman involved and also for society at large. I recognize that the Massachusetts Constitution protects abortion rights. That's why I've said that if a bill that completely banned abortion came to my desk as governor I would be required to veto it as unconstitutional. But I stay consistent and strong in my view that we ought to not have 1.5 million abortions a year in this country. And I think most people to a greater or lesser degree share that view. When you walk in to be governor on the very first day the talents and the characteristics you bring

to the office as Stephen Pearce. Well I think the first one is that I am the product of a hardworking mother and father that ran a small business and I have I guess I'd say private sector values. I know the value of hard work. I know how hard most people have to struggle to make ends meet to educate their children to get the good things out of life and I don't. A corollary of that is that while I think government has an important role to play I don't believe that government has all the answers or all the solutions that we've got to rely on the efforts of people and churches and private sector agencies to make the kind of wholesome positive society that we want. I think that's a belief that has served me well in my political life. The second is that I have a background educationally through a law degree at Duke University and my wife being a registered nurse that also opens up a window on the diversity in our society that some others who have really spent a lifetime in

government don't have. Finally I think it's that having been close to the problem but not part of the problem on Beacon Hill gives me a unique set of credentials to solve the solve this mess. I know it's fashionable this year to be an outsider and I would contend there is no more better credentials an outsider than to have a Republican Party membership card in Massachusetts for the last couple of decades. But I also think people want somebody who understands how government is supposed to work. And I think as Governor while I bring credentials as a critic as an outsider as somebody who's been a tough and I hope effective partisan critic I also understand how government's supposed to work. Nobody's going to have to introduce me to the people in the legislature or the rules of the legislature. I I think it's important people want a governor who can get in there and put his hands right on the levers right away and begin to make it work the way people want. And I think that talent of knowing the value of compromise of being an effective person in

terms of communicating my point of view and dealing with other people whether it's privately or publicly I think that's what people want somebody who shown a track record realizing what's gone on of having been a good strong critic about it but also who can get in and then do the job of putting the state back together. Will you feel as pressure on the very first day when you walk into the statehouse as governor the need and I hate the word but let's use it for what it is a grandstand symbol the stick approach to something dramatic that will catch people's attention that says we've got somebody in charge here and therefore he has done something dramatic to really say I'm here and I've taken over. I think Bill that I don't I'm not a grandstanding type person. I think a solid dependable person that does what he says and moves along without waving a flag of a lot of different colors that says Here I am I'm here on the other hand. And so the answer I guess in that sense would be no.

And I did and I'm going to say to people throughout this campaign and when I am governor there are no magic solutions this is going to be a long struggle to pull ourselves out of that hole that we fell into so consistently over so many years. On the other hand I think there is going to be a short window of opportunity early next year when I'm governor and with the new legislature to set up a framework a very visible framework. For doing what needs to be done. I don't plan to let much time go by before seizing the reins and showing the legislature the rest of government the appointed officials in the bureaucracy and certainly the citizens of the state that there is a new governor and that he means business that he's going to use the power that is his and the time that is his to begin to effect appropriate necessary in some cases very tough solutions. So I don't think there'll be a need for a lot of grandstanding but I think people know that there's a new person in charge and that he's going to do what needs to be

done to get the state back on the right track. My guess is Representative Steven Pearce one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates for our highest office in the September primary one of the major things that I think crosses my mind more than anything else as I'm sure you hear it too that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts stops where the tea stops and I I question that only because if I do enjoy my time that I spent in the western part of the state I get to Holyoke Greenfield and so forth. But I feel alienation when I talk to people out there that Boston might as well be over in Belgium somewhere because I have no access to my state capitol. How do we get these six million people together all pull in the horse the same way and know that the government quote unquote in Boston is going to represent them in Ludlow as well as a dozen Chelsea. Well I think that raises to my mind Bill two other credentials if you want to call him that that I bring to this race on the youngest of the five candidates for governor at the old age of 40 and I kind of like that as an asset.

People respond very well I think that conveys a sense of freshness and newness that I think people are going to be looking for in this election. Secondly in response to your geographic point I am the only candidate for governor who lives outside of Route 128 and I find that when I campaign not just in Western Massachusetts where I'm from but in the central part of the state on the north shore certainly on Cape Cod there is that sense to a degree of alienation that you talk about where people feel that their needs have not been attended to sufficiently by state government. I certainly see that in New Bedford Fall River and certainly in the central and western parts of the state and of course I've experienced that in my years as a legislator from from Westfield on the other hand I take second place to no one in understanding and saying to my constituents in the western part of the state that Boston has some particular needs that it has terrible problems from crime and drug abuse not that there are problems elsewhere in the state but that Boston is important to Massachusetts

as an economic center a financial center. Transportation Center of course is our state capitol so that I think somebody from from there if you will can balance these things. And I have done a great deal of campaigning in the urban neighborhoods of Boston and really become familiar with their problems so I believe that I bring the balance to be the governor of all the people of this state and I will always keep that foremost in my mind that there are six million people out here that there are the loud lows and the gills and the North fields and switches as well as the problems of Boston in Brockton in Quincy and so forth. Touched on a couple of the questions I wanted to ask of you. Number one neither which are easy and I'm not sure in the time remaining we can touch on them adequately but we'll try to do so. First of all the priorities of our educational system. I'm concerned about as an educator a parent friend of children. I'm concerned also the fact that we seem

to be headed for higher illiteracy rates in this country. Concerned about the fact that we seem to be spending inordinate sums of money and I'm still dealing with children who can't even complete a simple sentence. What do you what are your policies on education what do you see. Well Bill I was very fortunate to go to Westfield High School in the Westfield public school systems back in the 50s and 60s when I think their sense of mission and their sense of direction was much better defined and much more narrowly focused and certainly the performance was much stronger. Something happened in the 70s and 80s. Maybe we ask the educational system to do too much. I tend to not think it was a function of lack of funding because in Massachusetts the per pupil funding rate grew in excess of inflation during those years when measurements of academic performance were falling. And I think we've moved too far in the direction of being concerned about kids feeling good about themselves as opposed to feeling good about what they know or don't know.

This is a very competitive world that we're entering into the events of the past year or so around the world should really shake us into some reality that we're going to be competing with a united Europe. We're certainly competing with our with our Asian friends and their children. Are being educated for a one world economy. Our children are not. I believe we've got to do a lot of strong tough things to redefine and refocus the mission of education. I believe in competency testing for teachers and for students. I believe in school based management to give principals and teachers a sense of accountability and responsibility. Give them the resources give them the discretion to make decisions and then hold them accountable. I think the public and the taxpayers deserve no less for that than that. And I don't think as a society we can get any less than really accountability and performance in our educational system. It's taking it one step further. The drug situation and the drug problem I refuse to call it a war because I think it's an ill apt word. When you

take a look at it as governor what would be one of the two things you would propose right on often dealing with the drug situation that may or may not be done right now that you can see. Well one thing that is being done now and I will credit Governor Dukakis for and I don't often credit him with a lot but he did put some emphasis on early education against drugs in the school system and I've seen the benefits of that with my son Jeff who has just finished the fourth grade in Westfield. If we're going to win the drug war and I might call it I think it's going to have to take place over the term of more than one governor. We've got to start looking a decade ahead and two decades ahead. I mean it is credible critical that we win this conflict because it is tearing the very heart of our society out. And that means we have got to invest in early childhood education about the dangers of drugs so that 10 years from now when they enter high school we hopefully see the payoff in terms of resistance to whatever peer pressure is left and to reduce demand

for the drug product. The other thing I think we need more of in the state and I've called for this recently is continuous and ongoing cooperation between our state police and miscible Milly's other states have employed this much more vigorously and I think very successfully to merge the intelligence gathering operations of the state police with the local street smart knowledge of Minnesota police. And while that's being done to some extent in Boston I think it ought to be done on a permanent basis and around the state insofar as possible. As Governor could you see the potentiality of working with the federal government in trying to get more of a stricter control over distribution from the foreign states like through the OAS and so forth through some sort of sanction on this is there really military but economic or restrain of trades and some forth in dealing with the supplier countries that are putting this murder on our back is that a viable possibility. Without any question Bill the drug war and I use that again you know it

has to be fought at every single level and obviously there are certain things that only the federal government can do such as interdiction and dealing with foreign countries. But as governor one of the largest states in the country and one that has probably a greater drug problem than some others I would want to work with the federal government to help them accomplish that. At the same time a lot has to be done in local communities with local police and a lot has to be done by private citizens PTA Xand and others to help when this and it's got to be a coordinated multifaceted effort from top to bottom. If we do that we can win. I'm sure we can win the drug war I think we have to not as a naive question but because of the fact it was asked of the other representatives and people who are running for governor. But it is legalization of drugs and the answer no it is not an answer as far as I am concerned. I think legalization of drugs would be a capitulation to the problem. I think if a substance is harmful if it can be abused in so many ways as drugs can be. To legalize it is complete folly in my

opinion. In a moment or two that we have remaining. One other comment that I would want to ask of you as well and that has to do with our population of 50 plus. We see that population increasing more and more. I'm concerned as I think anybody is who is now preaching those great golden years. What do you as a governor would do in dealing with the situation as we find our population getting a little bit older in the Commonwealth. Well I have dealt with a lot of these problems for our population 50 years and older for a long time. I think I think there are several of them. One is that Massachusetts is a very inhospitable place to retire for a lot of people approaching retirement who have made some investments and tried to salt away a small amount of savings. Our taxation for those who want to retire here is very great in fact people are often told that retirement seminar is the first thing they should do is establish an address in Florida or New Hampshire in order to get better treatment for the retirement savings that they may have put away. A second major

issue I think for those approaching retirement age of course is medical care. And I think we've got to develop products for long term care insurance because ultimately our reliance on Medicaid reliance on nursing home care. We have already seen causes problems for our state budget that we almost can't deal with. I think there is time to get the Medicaid in long term care component of our budget in place and in check or in some control. But I think we have to have different ways to do that and one of them is long term care insurance. I have also proposed tax credits for those who care for elderly relatives at home who may have things as debilitating and difficult as all timers disease to those who have less serious needs but if we can encourage. Sons and Daughters and other relatives to care for elderly citizens at home. I think that will really solve a great social need and relieve some of our fiscal pressure as well. Finally I'm a strong supporter of home care so that the elderly can continue to stay in their own homes in a cheaper environment certainly

but more importantly and one that is a lot more positive and nurturing for their for their own peace of mind. On a personal quick note a chance between now and September just to get a day's worth of rest and relaxation. Well those are somewhat hard to sandwich in but I I am going to find some with with my family and we're keeping up a strong pace but you only do that by finding a little time for recreation and and I think we'll have some chance to do that. I hope that you do and I thank you for the time you spent with us to thank you Bill. We appreciate it very much enjoyed it. My guest today on Commonwealth Journal has been Representative Steven Pearce Republican gubernatorial candidate for governor the views and opinions expressed by the gubernatorial candidates on these special editions of Commonwealth Journal are their own. I do not necessarily reflect the views of radio station WUOM BFM the University of Massachusetts supporting groups or stations of Commonwealth Journal. Democratic candidate John Silber through his

staff has failed to respond to numerous requests to also appear in this gubernatorial series featuring one on one conversations with each of the other candidates. You've been listening to the award winning Commonwealth Journal a weekly magazine feature news and information brought to you as a public service. The University of Massachusetts at Boston WM BFM. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Executive producer Callahan producer Kevin De Rocher your letters are important to us. Write us at Commonwealth Journal. The radio University of Massachusetts Boston Massachusetts 0 2 1 2 5 3 3 9 3.

Thank you for joining us. This is Bill McVeigh speaking. Join us this week for the award winning Commonwealth Journal a weekly magazine of feature news and information. A very special program this week an informal half hour

program featuring Republican gubernatorial candidate Representative Stephen Pierce on Commonwealth Journal on this station. This is Bill McCabe speaking.