UPDATED, Feb. 10: Two candidates for governor, Sonia Chang-Diaz and Maura Healey, spoke at the Arlington Democratic Town Committee virtual meeting on Monday, Feb. 7.
As many 76 people watched, including state Sen. Cindy Friedman and state Reps. Sean Garballey and Dave Rogers.
Many more candidates will speak briefly at the beginning of the Arlington caucus, set for Saturday, Feb. 12, to elect delegates to the state convention.
For information, go to arlingtondems.org/.
State Sen. Chang-Diaz, a former public school teacher in Lynn and the multiracial child of a single mother who was a social worker, is very conscious of the gap between haves and have-nots and how the latter communities have limited life choices. She is focused on fighting for bold transformational change in areas such as housing, climate change, and student debt.
"Too many people in government focus on hanging on to power rather than using it," she said. "Our accomplishments in criminal justice reform and education reform show that systemic change has happened and can happen: a Green New Deal and debt-free college are achievable."
She supports a housing-first policy to eliminate homelessness, similar to what Pine Street Inn does.
Attorney General Healey, raised by a single mom in a large family, learned early the values of teamwork and sacrifice.
As AG, she has been proud to be the people's lawyer, standing up to the powerful, including Purdue Pharma, Exxon Mobil and predatory lenders. She said she will be there to "listen, learn and lead."
"We have the best schools and companies, but the cost of living is too high; too many can't grow," she said.
A proud progressive, she said she hopes to invest in transit, housing, affordable child care, job training and health care. Equity is her central focus, including equal access to mental and physical health care. She said child-care needs to be affordable so that parents can enter or reenter the work force, but child-care workers need to be paid fairly too. And we have only moments left to deal with climate change.
For more information, visit www.arlingtondems.org or www.facebook.com/adtcma, or call Aimee Coolidge, 781-775-5343, or Stephanie Swanson, 716-435-4153.
This news announcement was published Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, and updated to a news summary Feb. 10 by Kim Haase, secretary of the ADTC.
