While Elizabeth Warren shines, other Democratic Senate contenders also glimmer
Jim Davis/Globe Staff
Newton software engineer Herb Robinson shows how he could rip his suit if he were his favorite superhero, “The Incredible Hulk,” while Democratic Senate rivals Bob Massie (left) and Elizabeth Warren (right) laugh during a debate last night.
LOWELL - Elizabeth Warren proved she was a champion debater in high school.
She reiterated it last night, when she clearly was the most adept in the first debate among the six candidates vying for the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s 2012 US Senate nomination.
But that’s not to say it’s time for a general election matchup against Republican Scott Brown, either.
Four of the five other candidates on stage passionately articulated views across the liberal end of the political spectrum, highlighting their different backgrounds and showing reason to hear them another day.
The fifth, Newton engineer Herb Robinson, proved astute at one-liners, but beyond providing comic relief, offered little reason to command his presence on stage again.
His idea for controlling Wall Street? “You mess up the economy, your taxes go up,” Robinson said, succinctly detailing his one-point plan.
Over the course of 90-plus minutes, though, the packed house at the University of Massachusetts Lowell - and numerous others nationwide watching live via an Internet stream - saw the candidates introduce themselves to their largest audience yet; unify in their opposition to the incumbent, Brown; and make a rational or passionate argument - in some cases both - about why they should be their own party’s nominee next September.
Warren set the pace throughout the evening.
She took the opening question, which asked, bluntly, why each candidate thought they could win next November, and delivered a clearly rehearsed line not against her primary rivals but her potential general election opponent.
“Forbes Magazine named Scott Brown ‘Wall Street’s favorite senator,’ and I was thinking that’s probably not an award I’m going to get,” she said to audience laughter.
The founder of the federal government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau then launched into a similarly practiced stanza about how she wants to be a middle-class advocate.
The second question again gave Warren a chance to show the debating skills and confidence honed not only in high school, but the college classes, law school courses, and scholarly parrying with Harvard students that have marked the years since.
Brown paid for law school, in part, by posing nude for Cosmopolitan magazine, the candidates were told. How did they?
“I kept my clothes on,” Warren said, again to laughter, before outlining her true blend of loans and work-study.
Later, the Cambridge resident highlighted her principal goal of the evening: introducing herself to an electorate that had heard much about her but, in most cases, had never heard her speak.
Asked her opinion about a continued US troop presence in Afghanistan, the “militant liberal,” as state Republicans have branded her, revealed she is a military liberal whose three brothers all served in the armed forces - one flying 288 combat missions in Vietnam.
Yielding no quarter to Brown, a potential general election opponent who has served for over 30 years in the Army National Guard, Warren also offered perhaps the evening’s most stark contrast when the candidates were asked how they would react if their son or daughter declared they wanted to join the military.
“That is a really hard question for me,” said Khazei, a Brookline resident who went on to reflect about his nine-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. “Obviously, I’d honor it if they chose to do it, but I’m just in pain for any Mom or Dad who sees their son or daughter going off to war right now, especially when these are wars we really should end, so, that’s a tough one, honestly.”
Warren replied: “This is not a hard question for me. All three of my brothers served in the military and I, in fact, have urged my children, or one of my children, to consider it. He chose not to. But I believe that military service is a real alternative, and it’s an alternative for a career for some, and it’s an important opportunity to be part of America for others, so my answer is, yes, absolutely.”
Khazei, the co-founder of the City Year youth enrichment program, later took a veiled swipe at Warren when he attacked the Democrats who have anointed the first-time candidate as the most capable of challenging Brown.
“If you think Washington PACS should call the shots, then the Washington establishment will get their way, and this election will be over before it starts,” Khazei said in his closing statement.
While Khazei seemed subdued throughout the rest of the debate, most of the remaining candidates were nothing of the sort.
Marisa DeFranco of Middleton, an immigration attorney in Salem, argued that she has the North Shore base to compete with Brown.
“Why am I in this race?” she asked at one point. “To fight for the people against the powerful.”
After an evening in which she ardently defended abortion rights, women in combat, and in-state tuition rates for the children of illegal immigrants, DeFranco added: “Scott Brown, ready or not, here I come.”
Bob Massie, a Somerville political activist and 1994 candidate for lieutenant governor, tried to avoid reiterating the same answers his rivals had given to questions by offering his quick response and then pivoting to some other aspect of his platform.
At one point, for example, he railed against political action committee money accepted by Warren. At another, he proudly cast himself as a “social justice advocate” who favors a sustainable form of capitalism.
Prosperity must be for everyone, Massie proclaimed.
And in what seemed to be the evening’s only reference to the last Democrat elected to the Senate seat, the late Edward M. Kennedy, Massie said Massachusetts needs a liberal-progressive leader in his mold, “not a caboose like Scott Brown.”
The sixth candidate, state Representative Thomas P. Conroy of Wayland, underscored the similarity between the work he would do in Congress and his duties and focus in the State House.
But on some of the specific questions, he was evasive, saying he would neither encourage nor discourage his children from serving in the military, and not stating a clear opinion when the others answered about whether they favored in-state tuition for illegal aliens.
Conroy exuded sobriety and professionalism, but he lacked Warren’s debating skill and did little to stand out from his other rivals.
Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.
About Political Intelligence
Glen Johnson is Politics Editor at boston.com and lead blogger for "Political Intelligence." He moved to Massachusetts in the fourth grade, and has covered local, state, and national politics for over 25 years. E-mail him at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen. |
