The Promises I Can Keep
One thing I can’t stand is politicians who make promises during campaigns and excuses in government.
It’s one reason my campaign slogan is Progress, Not Promises.
(I briefly considered “Solutions, Not Slogans,” but using “Solutions, Not Slogans” as a slogan seemed a little self-contradictory. An ouroboros of political rhetoric.)
Still, candidates should make promises. That’s part of the purpose of an election. You should know what you’re voting for, and you should be able to hold your representative accountable afterward.
The problem is promising things you can’t actually guarantee.
I have legislation I want to pass and policies I want Massachusetts to adopt. But passing a bill requires convincing at least 80 other representatives, getting through the Senate, and getting the governor’s signature. I can promise to fight for those things. I can’t honestly guarantee the outcome.
So here are some things I can guarantee.
1. Constituent requests will receive a human response within two business days.
Constituent service is one of the most important things a representative’s office does and one of the things a representative can actually control.
My goal here is simple: I want to be the best first-term representative in Massachusetts at constituent service.
That starts with responding. If you contact my office asking for help, you shouldn’t wonder whether your email disappeared into a black hole. A human will respond to you quickly.
2. If my office handles a constituent case for you, I will personally follow up.
Most constituent casework is necessarily handled by legislative staff. But I still want to know what’s happening.
A current representative recommended a practice I love: personally calling constituents after their cases have been handled to make sure everything went okay.
I’m going to do that. At the end of each week, I’ll review our constituent cases and personally follow up with the people we’ve helped.
3. I’ll tell you what I’m doing and how I’m voting.
Every month, I’ll publish a newsletter explaining what’s happening on Beacon Hill, what I’ve been working on, how I’ve voted on important legislation, and why. I want to explain my reasoning so that even when you disagree with me, you understand why I made the decision I did.
You shouldn’t need to be a State House insider to know what your representative is doing.
4. I’ll hold office hours every week.
I’ll rotate office hours around the district and around people’s schedules: mornings, evenings, weekdays and weekends.
Some people work nights. Some commute. Some have children. Some are retired. Your ability to talk to your representative shouldn’t depend upon having the right work schedule.
I’ll also hold larger town halls when constituents want them, including around major moments like the state budget.
5. This will be my full-time job.
I’m running to be your state representative. If elected, that’s what I’ll do.
You won’t have to wonder whether I’m going to take another job halfway through my term or how I’m dividing my attention.
6. I’ll actively look for the people I’m not hearing from.
It’s very easy in politics to talk repeatedly to the people who already know how to make themselves heard. I want to do the opposite.
I’ll track where I’m holding events and where constituent interactions are coming from. I’ll compare that with the district itself.
If there’s a neighborhood I haven’t visited enough, I’ll go there. If there are groups of constituents I’m rarely hearing from, I’ll proactively find ways to reach them. Representation shouldn’t depend upon who has the loudest voice.
7. You can complain to me about your commute.
Our transportation system is fragmented. A pothole might belong to a city. A bus problem belongs to the MBTA. A road might be controlled by the state. Another agency might control the bridge you’re crossing.
I don’t think residents should have to understand the Massachusetts government organizational chart to get something fixed.
So send the complaint to me. Pothole. Bus. Train. Highway. Crosswalk. Whatever.
We’ll figure out who is responsible and get your complaint to the right place.
8. Get good at Spanish
And finally, there’s one thing I’m setting as a goal rather than making a promise: I want to become conversational in Spanish by the end of my first term and then start on Portuguese in my second.
I can’t promise how good I’ll be, but I already have studied French, Latin, Green, and Italian, and have been working on Spanish via Duolingo and El Pais. I want to get from yo entiendo un poquito to yo hablo bien by the end of 2028.
There are much bigger things I want to accomplish in the State House. I’ll work as hard as I can on all of them, but I won’t pretend I can guarantee that 80 other representatives will agree with me.
These promises are different. They depend on nobody else and if you elect me, you can hold me to every one of them.
