Candidacy offers voters 'real choice'
Date: 6/1/2010
June 2, 2010.By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
State Treasurer Tim Cahill said his candidacy as an independent for governor gives the voters of Massachusetts a "real choice" for the highest office in the state.
Although more people may have heard the attack ads aimed at him by the Republican Governor's Association than understand his positions, Cahill said he is moving his campaign forward.
He said he knew his positions of fiscal conservatism would "bump up" against the traditional Republican message, although he added, "I haven't seen a whole lot of fiscal conservatism from actual Republicans; they just talk about it.
"We've never given people a choice, a real choice," he stated.
Cahill visited Reminder Publications on May 25 for an interview.
Cahill believes there is a fear he will upset the status quo between Republicans and Democrats.
He believes that voters have lost faith in the system and that he has "spent the last seven years trying to rebuild that trust." That effort is what has made him a target.
Although his poll numbers have suffered by the effort from Republicans to stop his campaign, he said, "I take great pride in the fact that I'm being targeted with $1.5 million in national Republican money because I pose a threat.
"I don't think it's a threat to the message. What's the difference to them if you believe in smaller government and lower taxes if I get in or Charlie Baker gets in? What I really propose is a threat to power," he continued. "If I'm in that race, Republicans don't control a state and if Republicans don't control a state they don't control the means to power. And that's what I'm finding in this race -- that it's all about the power structure of the two parties."
The Scott Brown victory shows that people are looking for "something different." He intends to be that "something different."
He said if elected his immediate priorities would be to stabilize state spending -- "we have to live within our means" -- and to develop plans to make the state more competitive.
For Cahill that means lowering taxes so businesses can invest in their companies, creating more jobs, which, he added, would increase state revenues.
In order to have his programs enacted, Cahill said he would develop a relationship with the Legislature in the same way he has as state treasurer.
"You have to go into the Legislature and convince them your ideas will work. At the end of the day even folks in the Legislature will prefer a system that works over a system that doesn't. They would prefer not to raise taxes if you can show them an alternative," he explained.
Although he has been criticized in attack ads for not supporting a ballot initiative that would lower the sales tax to 3 percent, Cahill noted Republican candidate Charles Baker doesn't support that much of a decrease either. He and Baker both support a decrease to 5 percent.
He said a 3 percent sales tax would inhibit his ability to cut taxes in other areas.
He added that if the people of the Commonwealth approve the ballot question and if he is elected, he will not block the reduction of the sales tax, although he believes it is too much.
He noted the state had $2.5 billion less in revenue with the current recession, due in part to the unemployment in the state and a decrease in taxes.
He said that tax relief has traditionally gone to "the big guys."
"It's about government picking and choosing who the winners are," he added.
Cahill believes the jobs must be created "at all levels." From his own life, he has learned "a job is a job."
He noted that at Springfield's new Roger Putman Technical and Vocational High School, at which ground was recently broken, there will be programs and equipment to train a new generation of students for jobs in the precision manufacturing and health fields.
Massachusetts is the most indebted state in the nation per capita, Cahill said. He added he would be willing to place a moratorium on capital projects in order to evaluate which ones are "absolutely necessary."
"What I've learned in the last seven years [as treasurer] is to focus on what people need, rather than what they want," he said.
Cahill cited his success in dealing with the state funding of school construction with the creation of the Massachusetts School Building Authority as proof of his ability to handle a politically thorny issue.
"No one wanted to tackle that problem," he said. "We tackled it."
Cahill questioned the need to custom build schools and said the success of applying standard designs to high schools will be applied to elementary and middle schools.
Addressing some of the positions attributed to him at
www.thecahillreport.com, a Web site operated by the Republican Governor's Association, Cahill said he does not support a gas tax increase of nine to 10 cents per gallon. He denied spending $1.3 million on "an art deco lottery office makeover."
"Incorrect," he said. "We re-negotiated a lease in our Braintree headquarters and the landlord spent the money to upgrade and retrofit the building, which included some money spent on the lobby."
Cahill confirmed the accusation that he hired his brother-in-law for a $57,000 a year job in the Abandoned Property Division of the Treasury is true.
Cahill said his brother-in-law was hired in 2003 and is a graduate of Bentley College with a specialty in abandoned property. Cahill agreed that a person in his position hiring his brother-in-law could be questionable.
In a recent Boston Globe story about turmoil in the state probation system, Cahill said, "Patronage is part of politics, but politics played no role" in his hiring of two people now in question.
"The real issue becomes qualifications and that's what's missing in some of the hiring, not my hiring decisions, at least how I see them," he said.
He noted there are people recommended to him to fill positions by a variety of people. He saw all applicants "go through a process."
"They are all vetted. They all fill a need. They all have fulfilled a need. We've never in my terms created a job just to create a job," he said.
To learn more about Cahill's campaign, go to
www.timforgovernor.com.