The University of Massachusetts Democrats kicked off their weekend-long Progressive Public Policy Conference with a keynote address by Congressman Barney Frank and speeches by the Democratic candidates for governor.
Many Massachusetts Democrats, both students and community members, convened in the Student Union Ballroom Saturday morning to listen to the leaders of the Democratic party talk about what it takes to strengthen the Democratic party and win the gubernatorial election in November 2006.
Attorney General Tom Reilly and Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick were the two candidates whose speeches followed Frank's. When they took the stage, both focused on the need of the government to increase aid to education, especially higher public education.
Attorney General Reilly said he believes that the public education system is the hope for the middle class. He pledged that, if he is elected, the state of Massachusetts "will have a governor who will stand up for UMass."
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General Deval Patrick also noted the need for spending in higher public education and expressed concerns about the high cost of tuition and fees. He said he believes that the solution is for state research bonds, like the one for stem-cell research, to go to public universities and then to use the proceeds from that research to be reinvested in that school.
During the question and answer period after both speeches, the candidates were faced with some hard and critical questions from the crowd on the Iraq War.
In response to the ballot initiative that campus petitioners have been campaigning for recently, which calls for the withdrawal of the Massachusetts Guard from Iraq, Patrick said that he would use the "power of public leadership to advocate for a prompt end to the war."
However, he said that he did not support the ballot initiative because he respects the right of the federal government to deploy the National Guard and to decide when to bring them home.
Reilly also did not support the initiative, saying that it was not as easy as it may sound to pull troops out of a foreign country.
"The fact of the matter is we are there," he said, "We have to stand together as Americans and support our troops."
The end of Patrick's address was interrupted when about 30 protesters who had marched from Northampton to Amherst entered the Student Union Ballroom, carrying anti-war signs and expressing their frustration with the war in Iraq and the Democratic Party. Patrick responded to them by agreeing to meet with them after the speech to answer their questions.
The candidates also addressed the social issue of abortion. Reilly said that he is pro-choice and supports parental notification laws while Patrick, who is also pro-choice, does not. Both candidates also talked about the need to pull the Democratic Party together for the 2006 elections so that, for the first time in 20 years, a Democratic Governor would be elected in the Bay State.
Congressman Frank began the convention with a humorous and optimistic prediction for the future of the Democratic Party based on the results of last week's elections in which Democratic candidates won across the nation with bigger victories than predicted, he said.
"I think things are beginning to turn for the better," he said.
Frank said the Democratic Party is now ahead on three major policy issues: social, economic, and foreign.
Since the Terry Schiavo "right to die" case, Frank said he believes that the right-wing control of the Republican Party is beginning to backfire because people want the government to "mind its own business" when it comes to personal decisions.
"The difference between us and the Republicans," he said, "is they want to take personal moral choices and impose them on others."
Frank also criticized the current administration for allowing the inequalities in our capitalist economy get so out of hand and for its constant defense of the Iraq War.
"Bush defended a major policy decision (the war) not by saying he was right, but that other people were wrong too!"
According to the Director of Programs Kendra Salvador, the UMass Democrats held the convention with the hopes of providing the attendees with the knowledge for grassroots organization and to ultimately strengthen the Democratic Party and win the governorship in 2006.
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