3 Democratic candidates for governor passionately state their case

FALL RIVER – The three Democratic candidates for governor, all living in the Boston area, presented many similar “progressive” priorities that sat well with a receptive audience at a recent Coalition for Social Justice forum at Bristol Community College.

The differences were sharp, however, in terms of experience in government and how Bob Massie, Setti Warren and Jay Gonzalez might govern, while naturally agreeing the Republican administration of Gov. Charlie Baker was not doing its job fighting for the majority of citizens.

“The defining issue of our time is economic inequality,” said Warren, 47, of Newton.

The former eight-year mayor of his hometown, an Iraq veteran with a law degree, Warren in his opening statement said that all three agree on many issues in contrast with Baker.

Those shared priorities include things like $15 an hour minimum wages and single-payer health care and building the full route for South Coast Rail even though it will cost more and take more time.

Warren said it’s also essential “to ask people doing well — particularly those earning more than $1 million a year — to contribute more.” He said Baker has not done that.

In his closing, Warren cited as “remarkable” the outspoken Parkland, Florida high school students that lost their peers and teachers to gun violence.

“They decided they were not going to embrace the status quo,” Warren said. “We need to take heed and listen to them.”

He said their national message inspired a movement against gun control that needs to be expanded to other issues, which he referenced during the two-hour CSJ forum.

“If I’m your governor, I will fight for a living wage, paid family leave, affordable housing and debt-free college,” said Gonzalez, 47, of Needham.

A former health insurance CEO and secretary of administration and finance under the prior Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, he said bringing single-payer health care would make quality care affordable for all.

Gonzalez said President Donald Trump “is taking us backwards,” while calling Baker “a status quo, wait-and-see governor” with a poor record fighting discrimination.

“Charlie Baker has set us up for a fiscal crisis,” Gonzalez said. He claimed “rainy-day funds” are low and called the state’s finances “the scandal nobody is talking about.”

Massachusetts will be one of 36 states electing its governor in November.

While all three Democrats trail the popular Baker by huge margins, Gonzalez was undaunted: “We’re going to win this election,” he said.

“I’m a movement guy like you,” Massie, 61, of Somerville, told the BCC audience of approximately 100 people. He and his wife are both union members as an author and a college instructor, respectively.

Massie said he didn’t obtain his doctorate from Harvard Business School to earn more money.

It was to be “a more powerful advocate” for “economic, racial and social justice,” said Massie, who “formed coalitions” for change including global energy improvements.

“What we have here is economic power subverting democratic government,” Massie said.

The renowned environmentalist and businessman said whether change requires inspiring people, pushing them or law changes, “I know how to do that.”

He also brought the most compelling background of overcoming personal hurdles.

“Are any of you nurses?” Massie asked when an audience question focused on the candidates’ support for the “Safe Patient Limits” ballot initiative in November. (All three favor passage.)

Born with genetic disorders that included bleeding from his joints, Massie said, “I couldn’t walk by age 4.” He was in a wheelchair and later required a liver transplant.”

Eight years later they moved to France, and he received extraordinary medical care.

While he uses a cane, he proudly said, “everything’s been cured.

“I know a lot of nurses,” he said on key ballot point of setting “safe patient limits” for medical treatment. “We need to make sure this passes.”

Massie said he’d be “a voracious advocate” for people with disabilities and “an inclusive governor.”

Gonzalez said he was the only candidate in the race with who’d worked in health care in the private and public sectors. “I know the industry.”

“The most important way we measure ourselves is how we treat the most vulnerable,” Gonzalez said of children, the elderly and those who are disabled.

Warren concentrated comments on the opiate crisis and state deficiencies in transportation and public education.

On the issue of supporting the Legislature’s recently released criminal justice reform bill, Warren told why, unlike the other two candidates, he’d oppose and veto it as governor.

He cited new mandates in the bill for “nonviolent drug offenders.”

He said mandatory minimum sentences included in this bill “are discriminatory” and they “don’t reduce crime.”

“Do I believe we should put in place new discriminatory practices? No,” Warren said.

Massie said he’d sign it as a step toward combating “institutional racism and fundamental inequality.”

Gonzalez said he opposes all mandatory minimum sentences except for murder. He called criminal justice reform “the single biggest rights issue of our time.”

While this bill “is not perfect,” he’d sign it.

The CSJ supports the bill.

Prior to this forum, the candidates filled out lengthy questionnaires on a dozen issues that included revenue, jobs/workers’ rights, immigration, the environment and transportation.

The audience received their written responses and could ask questions from them. The CSJ moderator and president, Dan Gilbarg, asked the trio to pose a question to each other and also pay each other a compliment.

Massie received a few chuckles when telling Gonzalez his tenacity makes him “keep upping my game,” and complimented Warren’s sense of humor.

All three gave similar responses to whether they supported Baker’s revised two-part plan for South Coast Rail to include an initial stage through Middleboro and the completed route through Stoughton nearly a decade later.

“I don’t believe in the Middleboro plan,” Warren said. He advocated greater efforts toward a regional transportation system.

“I believe Phase II will never happen under his plan,” Gonzalez said. “The Stoughton route is the right way to go.”

“I also support the Stoughton route,” Massie said. “The governor has not laid out a full plan.”

After the speaking program, Gilbarg asked the candidates to leave the room while he conducted an informal straw poll of whom they thought responded best. By a show of hands, Massie received the most votes with 22, followed by Gonzalez with 13 and Warren with 10.

A few people in the audience answered a reporter’s question on whom they supported afterward.

Carl Rodrigues, a retired production supervisor from Fall River, said he backed Massie because he found him the “most progressive.”

“I was disappointed,” Margaret Amaral, a small businesswoman from New Bedford said of the vote. “Setti Warren has impressed me from the beginning. He’s got my vote.”

Ana Bracero of New Bedford said she liked Warren because “he talked a lot more about solving issues.”

The Rev. James Hornsby of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Fall River said, “I thought Jay Gonzalez gave terrific answers.”

Hornsby, like many in the audience, is a member of the CSJ, formed in 1994.

Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com or call him at 508-676-2573.