Senate Race Heats Up As The Jan. 19 Election Nears
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Attorney General Martha Coakley, left, is the favorite in the state's race to fill Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate Seat. Her challengers are Republican state Sen. Scott Brown, center, and Joe Kennedy, right, a Libertarian candidate.
Ask Scott Brown, the Republican running to replace Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate, how he plans to beat the Democratic candidate in this heavily Democratic state, and he will tell you that he offers an alternative, something different.
“I certainly have a lot to offer the people of Massachusetts in terms of a different way of looking at things,” said state Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham. “We have 12 people right now in Washington who vote the same way, are beholden to special interests and it’s time to have someone down there that’s different.”
Three-Way Race
Brown is one of two candidates vying to upset the Democratic favorite in the race, Attorney General Martha Coakley. Brown, along with Libertarian candidate Joe Kennedy — no relation to the former senator — will square off in the fast-approaching Jan. 19 special election to fill the seat.
Kennedy, who is originally from Worcester, is a vice president at State Street, the Boston-based financial services corporation and is an IT professional by trade.
Brown has been the state senator for parts of Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex counties, including parts of Natick, Sherborn and Wayland, since 2004 and has been in the state House of Representatives since 1999.
While Coakley has been reticent to talk to the media (she declined repeated interview requests from the Worcester Business Journal and submitted only a written statement), both Brown and Kennedy are making their case to the media.
For example, Brown said the economic situation was caused first and foremost by the housing bubble that burst, leading to the stock market crashing. He said that to improve the economic climate and create jobs, government needs to remove regulations, taxes and costs that make it difficult and costly to do business in the state. He’s also opposed to expansive new regulations for the financial sector, like what he said Coakley is supporting.
“We have regulations; we need to provide tools for the regulators to enforce them,” Brown said.
“If there’s an area we need to fix, let’s look at it, but you don’t just regulate and regulate to the point where businesses don’t know where to go.”
Coakley, on her web site, advocates for expanded loan modification programs that would allow mortgages from national lending agencies to be restructured in an effort to stem the foreclosure crisis.
She also proposes “robust reporting requirements” for asset-backed securities, which would reduce reliance on credit-rating agency findings.
And Coakley supports the creation of a new Federal Consumer Protection Agency that would aim to prevent unfair and deceptive bank and credit card practices.
On her campaign web site she states she would support providing the federal government with tools to appoint the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission and Securities & Exchange Commission as a receiver for large financial holding companies that pose “a threat to financial stability.”
Healthy Disagreement
Brown and Coakley also have strongly differing opinions on the health care reform packages that are being debated.
The U.S. House and Senate have both passed sweeping health care reforms, but the bills now need to be combined into one piece of legislation that would have to be approved again by each chamber.
All Republicans in the Senate voted against the bill, and Brown said he would have, too. As proposed, Brown argues that the legislation would increase costs for businesses and lead to fewer people having care.
“We need to look at reforming the product we have,” Brown said. “We need to provide a more affordable coverage and a better streamlined product.”
For example, Brown said health care costs can be curbed by reducing mandates and managed care and implementing “smart billing” procedures.
“Let’s use the Internet for billing instead of the old fashion mailing system,” which Brown said could save 10 to 12 percent on health care costs.
Coakley, on her campaign web site, said she supports an individual mandate and a public insurance option, which is included in the House bill, but not the Senate one.
As for energy reform, Brown said the key for companies and residents to invest in clean energy resources is for the government to give them the means to do so. He said if the government can cut the cost of doing business, freeing up capital that companies have, business leaders will voluntarily invest in new energy resources.
“We need to provide a market for these goods,” Brown said. “When we are asking for high taxation and the high cost of doing business, it’s not very competitive for businesses to embrace green technology.”
And, he said, the United States should look to a “total approach” of energy reform, including exploring nuclear power plants.
Brown criticizes Coakley for supporting cap-and-trade energy emission standards.
Coakley, however, defends her position on her web site, saying that “by providing economic incentives to industries for achieving emissions reductions, we can achieve superior environmental protection and give businesses both the flexibility and direct financial incentives they need to find faster, cheaper and more innovative ways to reduce pollution.”
Shrinking Government
As opposed to the two traditional-party candidates in the race, Kennedy said he’s running because he doesn’t believe Brown is fiscally conservative enough to enact reforms and he thinks Coakley would continue to expand government.
His main criticisms against the state, and the country, revolve around there being too much government.
“Why doesn’t business come to Massachusetts, including Worcester, even though we have incredible brain capital?” Kennedy said. “Because it’s too expensive to live and work here, it’s too expensive for businesses to survive.”
State and federal government has too many “bureaucrat” workers draining payrolls and eating tax dollars.
Kennedy would like to see the income tax removed and corporate taxes cut.
He said states should have more autonomy in governance, for example, in education.
He said the federal Department of Education could be eliminated and money that is used to fund it could go directly to states to implement individual state-created education policies.
Removing the income tax would give each state resident an extra $3,700 and, he said, nine other states in the country don’t have an income tax, proving state budgets can survive without it.
Kennedy said his message is one of fiscal conservatism with liberal social values.
“While there are layoffs at companies around the country, government is growing,” he said. “That’s wrong.”
Watch the first part of our two-part interview with Senate candidate Scott Brown:
Watch the second part of our two-part interview with Rep. Scott Brown:
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