Democrat Shannon O’Brien says she can reinvigorate the Mass economy
Published on March 27th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA – This week Shannon O’Brien, the Massachusetts State Treasurer and a Democratic candidate for Governor, introduces herself. So far we’ve met Libertarian Carla Howell, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Democrats Warren Tolman, Steven Grossman and Robert Reich. Next week State Senate President Thomas Birming-ham will round out the Democratic Party candidates.
This eight-part series will conclude with Mitt Romney (the Elections Desk is setting up a meeting). When Acting Governor Jane Swift dropped out of the race on March 19, citing personal reasons, Romney became the only Republican candidate for Governor. By March 18 Romney had made it obvious that he was going to enter the race, but his formal announcement came several hours after Swift said she was out.
Each article in this series begins with a brief summary of a candidate’s background followed by an interview in question and answer format.
SHANNON O’BRIEN (Democrat)
Shannon O’Brien is already a big name in Massachusetts politics, but the 42-year-old State Treasurer says her ideas will best serve the State coming from the Governor’s office.
O’Brien grew up in East-hampton, a small town in Western Massachusetts. Today she lives in Whitman, Mass. with her husband R. Emmet Hayes. She is mother to 2-year-old Regan and stepmother to Hayes’ 18-year-old daughter, Jill. In 1977 O’Brien graduated from the Williston Northampton School, a private, seventh through 12th grade boarding and day school in Easthampton. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1981 and a law degree from Boston University Law School in 1985.
O’Brien has been around politics for years. Her father, Edward O’Brien, is a member of the Governor’s Council, and her husband has served in the State Legislature and worked as a lobbyist. While in college O’Brien worked on the campaign of Democratic U.S. Congressman from Springfield, Edward Boland. In 1986 at age 27, after practicing law in Boston for a year, O’Brien ran for State Representative from Easthampton and won. She served three terms, ran for State Senate in 1994, and won.
In 1994 she ran for State Treasurer and lost to Republican Joe Malone, but after three years of work in healthcare administration, O’Brien took a second shot at the Treasurer’s post. In 1998 Malone left the seat open in what would be an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for Governor. O’Brien earned the Democratic nomination, and the voters elected her State Treasurer. O’Brien says she has proven herself worthy of the task and hopes the people will give her a chance to show what she can do as Governor.
As an Ivy League-educated, smalltown kid who has climbed the political ladder one rung at a time, O’Brien says she knows what Massachusetts needs and how to get it. But her critics say that along the way she may have picked up as much political baggage as experience. Read on, and see what you think...
Question: Your husband, Mr. Hayes, has worked as a lobbyist, and he has done work for Enron. What exactly did he do for Enron, and did you as State Treasurer have anything to do with the State Pension Fund’s investment in Enron stock, which resulted in a substantial loss?
O’Brien: My husband was a subcontractor working for another lobbying firm that did work for Enron when the State Legislature was deregulating the power industry. He never had anything to do with the pension fund. Massachusetts has made some investments in Enron, but at that time my husband was not a lobbyist for Enron. The first thing we (O’Brien and Hayes) did after I got elected State Treasurer was to sit down with a lawyer from the Ethics Commission to get clear guidelines. The Ethics Commission, in fact, ruled on this issue that there were no ethical conflicts.
Question: How much money and manpower does your campaign have?
O’Brien: We have nine full-time people and $1.5 million in the bank.
Editor’s note: O’Brien says she supports the Clean Elections Law, the bill approved by Massachusetts voters on the 1998 ballot that calls for public financing for candidates who agree to fund-raising and spending restrictions. O’Brien originally filed to run as a Clean Elections candidate, but turned to "traditional methods," she said, when the Legislature’s unwillingness to fund the law "left her in limbo." These traditional methods include receiving funds from businesses, banks and law firms who work with, want to work with, or are regulated by the Treasury.
Question: What is the most important issue facing Massachusetts, and what will you do about it as Governor?
O’Brien: The most important thing is to reenergize the state economy and make sure people have the opportunity to get good jobs to support their families. One of the best ways to do this is to get a great education system, not just k-12 but adult education, so people can receive the training they need to get good jobs.
Also, we need to do a better job of economic development. We have transportation problems, education problems, environmental problems. We should be seeking out businesses to come and expand in Massachusetts. As Governor I plan to reinstate the cabinet level position of Massachusetts Secretary of Economic Development. We have to be more coordinated and become a business friendly climate.
Question: Massachusetts faces a $2 billion budget shortfall in fiscal 2003. What needs to be done to balance the State budget: a) Increasing or halting the voter approved reduction in the state income tax? b) Cutting spending or jobs? c) Drawing on rainy day money? d) Deferring payments toward the unfunded pension liability? e) Other ideas?
O’Brien: a) We must freeze the reduction in the state income tax until the economic climate can better support a tax cut.
b) We should implement a preferred pricing mechanism that allows us to use the purchasing power of the Commonwealth to get cheaper prescription drugs. We could save $70 million. And in the lottery we made changes that cut our administrative costs. I think we could cut 3.5 percent in administrative costs right across the board in state government and save close to $100 million. There would be very little job loss; we’d just have to work harder.
c) No more than $750 million, probably less, of the stabilization account should be spent.
d) The Legislature should not defer making pension payments because this would end up costing us more later.
e) We should try a tax amnesty program to get money from people who aren’t paying their taxes because they won’t be able to afford the penalty. This brought in $80 million in the late 1980s. We should look at new ways to finance state debt. And I think taking money out of the state lottery is a mistake. Reducing awards would lead to a reduction in revenue.
Question: What are your positions on the death penalty and abortion?
O’Brien: I’m pro-choice; I support Roe v. Wade. And I oppose the death penalty.
Question: What would you do to improve healthcare in Massachusetts?
O’Brien: Besides using the State’s purchasing power to keep drug costs down (mentioned above) I would increase the cigarette tax to help raise $225 million to expand affordable access to health insurance. I don’t support a single-payer system because we can’t do this in one big gulp, but I do think we should sure up our free care pool.
Question: What would you do about the Big Dig? What should past Governors have done?
O’Brien: A report from the U.S. Inspector General said former Governors Bill Weld and possibly Paul Cellucci knew about the overruns. They should have used better judgment. We need sound, tough, honest people in charge. We can’t solve the problem until we know the extent of the problem. At best they weren’t keeping a close eye on the project.
Question: What do you think about the idea of cutting the payout ratio of the Massachusetts State Lottery?
O’Brien: No one has said how this would work, and the options don’t make sense. We could either remove all the current scratch tickets from the shelves and replace them with new ones, which would be time consuming and undercut consumer confidence. Or we could just start adding lower payout tickets to the shelves, but who’s going to buy these with the higher paying tickets right next to them?
Question: Ms. O’Brien, you took over the State Treasurer’s office after it had been rocked by a major embezzlement scandal. What have you done to prevent theft and wrongdoing in your department?
O’Brien: We have internal control policies and independent audits going to me and to my first deputy. The reason people were able to steal from the unpaid check fund under my predecessor (Malone) was that there were too few people who had to approve checks. Now we have more people with segregated duties so no one person has too much power.
We also started reconciling the State’s accounts and hired an accounting firm to do a management study. And we are going to have a forensic audit, meaning a detailed look back at how problems occurred, so we’ll see where any new problems might be before they happen.
Question: Does patronage play a necessary role in the political process?
O’Brien: In all my top positions, the most sensitive positions, I looked to find the best skilled people regardless of whether they had supported my campaign. Anyone who comes to work for me must be qualified.
Question: What has been your biggest accomplishment as State Treasurer?
O’Brien: Restoring public confidence that the State Treasury and the lottery are run well. And I blew the whistle on the cost overruns at the Big Dig.
Question: Why did you select Chris Gabrieli as your preferred candidate for Lieutenant Governor? Do you plan to tap his personal wealth to finance your joint campaign activities during the Democratic primary?
O’Brien: Chris has shown creativity and new ideas in business in the private sector that he can bring to the State. He drafted part of the economic development plan for the Democratic Party. He has worked to establish private / public partnerships for afterschool programs.
The Office of Campaign and Political Finance ruled that candidates have to split joint campaign expenses 50/50. If an advertisement shows me for 90 percent of the time, then we must split it 90/10, but we can share money for rental space or bumper stickers.
Question: Do you have the required 15 percent of delegates to get on the Democratic primary ballot in September? Do you expect to win the Convention endorsement in June? And would you consider any deals to share delegates to allow other Democrats to get on the ballot?
O’Brien: I have 1,100 delegates – enough to get on the ballot. I don’t expect the endorsement, but I will work hard to get it. And at this point I have no plans to help any particular candidate but myself.
Editor’s note: 750 delegates will be enough to get on the Democratic primary ballot. Tolman, Grossman and Reich aren’t there yet.
Question: Why are you a Democrat, and why should the voters elect you Governor?
O’Brien: I think being involved in public service is about helping people. I’ve done it, and I want to do it as Governor. I am the best candidate because I have strong fiscal management skills and a record of getting things accomplished that make a difference to people.
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