Democrat Thomas Conroy unveils US Senate plan to jumpstart economy

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

US Senate candidate Thomas Conroy is little known now, but says he wants to offer voters a real choice. (Stephanie Ebbert/Globe Staff)

US Senate contender Thomas P. Conroy unveiled a five-point jobs plan outside the State House this morning, calling for a $300 billion nationwide investment in roads, bridges, and rail over five years and for shifting oil company subsidies to clean energy firms to jumpstart the economy.

Conroy, a state representative from Wayland who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge US Senator Scott Brown next fall, proposed $100 billion in tax credits for consumers who show proof of purchase for goods and gifts made in the United States. He also called for $50 billion in new tax incentives and financing over five years to promote collaboration between the high-tech and manufacturing industries.

He said he would even allow government to take an equity stake in infrastructure and clean energy companies -- as it is in a provision he authored in the state’s 2008 life sciences law.

Conroy said he would not shrink from government investments in clean energy firms -- despite high-profile investments in two solar companies that have gone bankrupt, Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts and Solyndra in California -- saying those are only two companies and the nation can find good investments in others.

“I don’t believe we really have much choice,” said Conroy. “We can give up as a nation and surrender the whole solar energy arena to the Chinese and the Germans. I don’t think that’s the kind of America I want to live in, quite frankly. If the American public doesn’t have faith that we can do that as a partnership of government and business, then that, to me, is a sign of surrender. And I’m not really willing to give up,” he said.

Conroy is vying for the Democratic nomination against North Shore attorney Marisa DeFranco; Newton software engineer Herb Robinson; Dover lawyer James C. King, and Harvard bankruptcy professor and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, who has seized much of the limelight.

Asked to distinguished his job proposals from Warren’s, Conroy said: “I’ve rolled out a plan. Where’s hers? What has she demonstrated in terms of policy initiatives? What’s her understanding of the economy and the way it works? I’ve laid out a plan that demonstrates all three of those things and I’d ask her to respond.”