LONGMEADOW – The Greenwood Center accommodated an evening of discussion, questions, answers and laughs on Jan. 10 when the Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee hosted the Commonwealth’s two Democratic candidates for Lieutenant Governor: lawyer, poverty and inequality advocate, Obama administration member and father Quentin Palfrey who is campaigning against UMass Dartmouth and John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard graduate, opioid and rehabilitation advocate, well-known comedian, occasional actor and father Jimmy Tingle.

Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Candy Glazer moderated the panel discussion and started the evening off with her own sentiment, urging residents to participate in local government.

“Now, in 2018, we have a golden opportunity here, it’s an election year.  We’re going to make the change; we’re going to make the difference.  Suddenly, if Alabama can elect a Democratic Senator and New Jersey has a Democratic Governor, there is no reason Massachusetts can’t take back the corner office. The best thing you can do locally, certainly in Longmeadow, there’s several openings that you can be appointed to, you don’t even have to run,” Glazer shared.

Vice Chair of the Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee Michele Marantz told the room of roughly 30 to 40 attendee’s that this year there would be openings in both appointed committees and elected committee’s in town.  As for the elected committees, Marantz explained the Town Moderator position would be opening up for a three-year term, one vacancy on the School Committee, two positions on the Select Board for two three-year terms, a Planning Board position for a five-year term and a Housing Committee position for one five-year term.  She later noted that these terms were expiring; this does not mean that the individuals who currently sit in the positions will not run again.

Prior to the start of the panel discussion, State Sen. Eric Lesser offered his thanks to both candidates.

“Thank you both for coming to Longmeadow.  What a breath of fresh air we’re going to get,” Lesser said.

Both Palfrey and Tingle were afforded 15 minutes for an introduction, three minutes to answer each question posed and three minutes for a closing statement.

Palfrey used his introduction time to share his background growing up in Southborough with his parents who were both Pediatricians, as well as his past positions in government.

“I grew up watching them serve some of the poorest populations and neediest populations in Roxbury and Dorchester in Boston,” he explained.

Watching the work his parents took part in began Palfrey’s desire to help those in need.  He founded a literacy program that taught adults basic education and English as a second language in public housing facilities and in homeless shelters in Boston.  Once he graduated from college, Palfrey traveled to the Philippines to run a program that focused on helping children that were experiencing child abuse.  Most recently, he was the director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  There, he helped use evidence-based policy to “focus on what works” and to ensure that governments and philanthropies spend money on effective programming.

“Poverty and inequality has really been the focus of my life and of my career,” Palfrey said.

Palfrey shared that he’s been heavily involved in the fight against voter suppression, which led to his involvement in President Barack Obama’s campaign and eventually landed him a place in the White House.

“People of color, younger people, people who move around a lot often face obstacles to registering in voting that aren’t faced by more affluent people. I got to know the president when he started campaigning in New Hampshire.  I saw in him some of the things that we all came to see, a truly transformational leader,” Palfrey said.”

He continued, “By the time the election rolled around, I was asked to be the voter protection director in Ohio.  I was proud to be part of the effort that led to the election of this extraordinary president. I was proud too of what came next; I had the opportunity, the honor, of joining that administration as a political appointee, first in the commerce department.  Then I worked my way into the White House where I was senior advisor for Jobs and Competitiveness.”

Palfrey noted that this was a “magical time” for both himself and his family as well, as his three children were able to grow up in the White House.  He noted times of his kids trick-or-treating in the White House halls, having tours of the Oval Office and being able to personally meet the president and First Lady Michelle Obama.

“For me personally, it was a true honor to serve under the president,” Palfrey said.

With a tinge of sadness, Palfrey explained that he worked hard to help to elect a president that would carry on Obama’s legacy and that he’s been “devastated” by what’s come since.

“There’s just a certain cruelty to this administration that seeks to tear families apart and put walls between us and our neighbors, knock tens of millions of people off health insurance,” he said. “The problem is, even if they take Trump out in handcuffs, it’s not going to help.  This Republican Party has been hijacked by a set of extremists who are going to dismantle the federal government and take away the service that they’ve provided to ordinary people.”

Palfrey told attendee’s there are three main reasons why he’s running for lieutenant governor’s office.  He stated that lieutenant governor is known for being the bridge between the governor’s office and cities and towns.

“All too often people think that the problems in Western Mass. and the challenges in Western Mass. are cookie-cutter of what are the challenges that people face inside [route] 128, and we all know that’s not true.  The lieutenant governor is someone that can work closely with cities and towns on the issues that really matter to them,” Palfrey said.

Additionally, he noted he’s excited to navigate a “really dysfunctional federal government environment.” Stating that it’s “truly broken right now” but the Democratic Party has “tons of equities” in that relationship.

The lt. governor serves as the chair of the Governor’s Council, and Palfrey stated that this position would be a “wonderful platform” for talking about and working on moving forward criminal justice reform.

“We imprison too many people, for too long, for doing too little, and race has way too much to do with who ends up in the criminal justice system.  I want to use the platform of the Lt. Governor’s Office to be a real leader in reforming that system and getting better services for mental health and for substance use disorders.”

As his introduction winded down, he shared that he wanted his kids and his grandkids to be able to see that when his “values were so obviously under attack” he would be able to tell them that he “stood up, fought back, and pounded his fists on the table and screamed until he was hoarse that this is not the kind of America we want to live in.”

Lt. Governor candidate Jimmy Tingle took the microphone and offered his background in Massachusetts, education and why he’s choosing to run for Lt. Governor this year.

Tingle grew up in Cambridge and attended Longfellow Public Grammar School, Cambridge High School and UMass Dartmouth when it was formally known as Southeastern Massachusetts University.  Six years ago, Tingle decided to go back to school to earn his masters degree from the Kennedy School of Government.

“I have to say, I highly recommend it.  The great thing about going back to school in your 50’s is that you get the student ID and a senior discount, it is excellent,” the comedian-turned politican joked.

Tingle began his career as a comedian in the 1980’s doing stand-up comedy and has continued that through out the last 30 years.

“As I evolved as a stand-up comic, I tried to use my comedy to discuss things that I was passionate about, and I evolved into a social and political humorist. I’m trying to maintain that, because that’s what I care about, that’s what I pay attention to and that’s why I’m in this race,” he said.

Tingle participated in fundraising events over the last 20 years.  Most recently in October 2016 Tingle teamed up with former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank to raise money in greater Boston in support of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency.

“We’d be in a room with 100 or 200 people in these nice homes in Newton and Brookline with high-end donors and people who are on the same page.  Barney would get up there and do 10 or 15 minutes of serious ‘why we have to keep the White House in Democratic hands’ and I’d do 10 or 15 minutes of social and political humor and the audience loved it and I loved it because I was connecting with Democrats. It was very, very inspiring.  I said to Barney at the last one, ‘Do you think it’s too late to get into politics?  Do you think it’s too late to run for political office?’  He said no, not at all,” Tingle explained.

“I don’t want to be the governor.  I would love to be on the team that helps push the Democratic agenda statewide,” he said.

Tingle said it took him three or four months to “pull papers,” and now Frank has agreed to be the honorary chairperson of Tingle’s campaign.

“The reason Barney would help me out, the reason Steve Grossman has come on board as a supporter, the reason Tommy O’Neill the former Lt. Governor of Massachusetts and Tip O’Neill’s son has come on board is because they know me, they know my values, they know where I’ve been coming from, they know what I’ve done for the party, both professionally and under the radar, but also they know that I know that government matters. Government can change peoples lives,” he said.

Revealing his passion for aiding the opioid crisis as well as drug and alcohol issues, Tingle shared a personal story. He explained that in 1987 he lost three of his friends to alcohol and drugs.

“Personally, because of alcohol and drugs, I felt like I was going downhill in a bad way as well.  It was not a pretty picture. I started calling places to get help, I called rehabs, I called detoxes, I called hospitals, and very often I would get the same response.  There’s no beds, there’s no rooms, there’s long lines, you don’t have the right insurance, call back next week.  Some of them, you’ve got to be under the influence to go in,” Tingle said.  “I called the Cambridge City Hospital in December 1987, and I said to the gentlemen who picked up to the phone, “I need help.” His response changed my life.  He said, “You’ve called the right place.””

After seven days in the hospital Tingle left and moved to New York City with a new mindset.  He said after leaving he prayed a lot, focused on his stand-up and recovery.

“I believe in miracles, I believe in God and I believe in the power of government to change peoples lives.  Everything I have in my life, my wife, my son, my education, my career, my relationships with people like yourselves, everything is a result of that mans answer that day when I reached out for help,” he said.

Tingle continued, “I’m running for lieutenant governor at this time of this height of this opioid crisis, at this height of this substance abuse crisis both locally, statewide and nationally in large part to ensure that when anyone in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts picks up the phone and reaches out for help the answer on the other end always will be, you called the right place.”

On a lighter note, Tingle joked that one could sum up his political philosophy that he’s a Catholic, a Democrat, arguing that his views most likely align with most others in the room.

“House the homeless, feed the hungry, heal the sick, visit those in prison, welcome the stranger, and I would add, fix the T,” he joked. “I think that was Jesus himself who once said extend the Red Line to Springfield via Longmeadow.”

In closing Tingle shared that over the years he’s learned to debate, to talk and to disagree respectfully with others.

“We need to communicate a clear message to the people in Massachusetts what we stand for. We want to create a state here in Massachusetts where regardless of the issue, when a person picks up a phone and they make a call and they need help with healthcare, with housing, with Veteran’s issues, with Immigration issues, with education issues, whatever the issue is, the answer on the other end always is ‘you’ve called the right place,’” Tingle said.

The floor was then opened for questions, including what the candidates felt the two top issues for Western Massachusetts are, how the candidates felt recreational marijuana in regard to traffic violations should be handled and what their thoughts on public education as well as college education in regard to costs were.

Tingle listed five problems that he felt affect Western Massachusetts strongly, including public transportation, affordable housing, education, healthcare and the opioid crisis.  Palfrey stated economic development and jobs are a main issue, as well as a lack of transportation and the millionaire’s tax.

In regard to their thoughts on recreational marijuana and how it should be treated in a traffic violation scenario, Tingle stated he had “mixed feelings” about the yes vote to legalize recreational marijuana and that there should be some form of regulations because it is considered an intoxication.  Palfrey noted that he has three children and is concerned about substances.  He stated educating children and keeping roads safe are his main concern.

Tingle said that using property taxes to fund the public education kindergarten through 12th grade system “seems unfair” and he believes both sides of the aisle would agree on that.  He also noted that he believes in a free college education, and that it all comes down to “loving our own citizens and treating them the way we treat our own.”  Palfrey reminded the audience that Massachusetts is ranked as having the best public education system in the country, but the disparity is the worst in the nation.  He believes in investing more in pre-k education and investing in schools, as well as making it easier for people to afford a college education.

At the close of the evening, Glazer asked the men if they would support, yes or no, the East to West rail bill.  Palfrey answered yes and that it was an embarrassment to not have this form of transportation.  Tingle joked exasperatedly, “Yes, it took me two and a half hours to get here!”

The state of Massachusetts will hold elections for governor and lieutenant governor on Nov. 6, 2018.  Currently, the sitting Lieutenant Governor is Republican Karyn Polito, who announced on Nov. 28, 2017 that she would seek re-election.