Rural western Massachusetts versus Beacon Hill: that's the theme in the crowded Democratic primary to replace state Rep. Steve Kulik. The district includes 10 communities in Franklin County, as well as some hill towns to the south.
With seven Democrats in the primary, it's not only tricky for voters to learn about them all, but also for debate moderators: the traffic cops of the political stage.
At a debate a few weeks ago in Deerfield, the moderators held the candidates to strict time limits.
“When you see the stop sign, wrap it up,” warned Becky Shannon of the League of Women Voters.
Greenfield Recorder editor George Forcier began with a tongue-in-cheek question about the region's lack of influence in state government.
"Here we are in little old Podunk, western Mass., and how are you going to go up against those tough, urban guys?" he asked.
The first response went to Francia Wisnewski, who grew up in Colombia, moved to Franklin County 17 years ago and served on the Greenfield School Committee.
"As a person that has an accent, western Mass. is also like that person that always struggled to be heard,” she said. “So I will ensure that we are heard."
Being heard, as a region, will require local lawmakers to form a voting block, said another candidate, Natalie Blais. She's head of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and a former aide to Congressmen John Olver and Jim McGovern.
"And I think that my existing relationships that I have with the legislators in western Massachusetts would allow me to slip into this role seamlessly,” Blais said.
That's especially important going into next year, she said, as the Pioneer Valley is losing a century of seniority in the legislature. That's coming from retirements, a resignation and a death.
"I don't think it's a problem that we're losing 100 years of experience. What we're losing is 100 years of people who have been doing the same thing for the last 30 years." said Nathaniel Waring, a former cable TV technician and a student at Greenfield Community College. "I'm looking forward to getting in there and really mixing up how politics work in the commonwealth, because in a lot of ways they don't."
That dismissal of Beacon Hill extends to the other college student in the race: UMass junior Casey Pease. He went right after his party's leader in the House, Speaker Bob DeLeo, for failing to pass changes to education funding.
"If you cannot support our students, our schools, our teachers, I say, 'Goodbye,' " Pease said.
There was little interaction among the candidates – except when they got the chance to ask the questions.
Pease asked journalist and political filmmaker Kate Albright-Hanna why she feels she could best represent such a rural district “when you recently – very, very, very recently – moved here from New York City?"
After some awkward laughter, Albright-Hanna replied she's lived in a lot of places, but chose here.
“I feel like I've been adopted my town of Huntington,” Albright-Hanna said. “That's why they came to me and asked me to run, because they saw the work I put in to the planning board and my husband joined the school committee, and we're raising our sons in the school system. And I just feel incredibly fortunate to live here now.”
That western Massachusetts versus big-city tension was present throughout the debate.
Attorney and farmer Christine Doktor said that tension includes climate and environmental issues.
"We have to explain to Boston that this is working land,” Doktor said. “We produce food, but our forests are also working. Every single tree is helping to clean the air, to clean our water, to clean our soil."
For Jonathan Edwards, a Whately selectman, he'd get state leadership to notice western Massachusetts by making a new state position: assistant secretary of economic development for western Massachusetts.
"We need someone who wakes up every morning in the administration thinking about nothing but… good, high-paying jobs in this region,” Edwards said. “How do we get rural Massachusetts on the economic train that the rest of the state is realizing?"
All but one of the candidates – Waring – are well funded, as state House campaigns go, though Natalie Blais has raised far and away the most money. She also has the big endorsement from Rep. Kulik.
There are no Republicans running -- so barring an unexpected write-in campaign, this all gets decided on Tuesday, September 4.
Take a look at NEPR's Massachusetts Primary Voter Guide 2018.
