[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle.And Shelley.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker.And this is the Medford Bites podcast.Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford.And as always, tell us where you like to eat.All right, thanks so much for being here with me today.If you don't mind just introducing yourself by saying your name, pronouns, and just a bit about who you are.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, thank you for inviting me.My name is Andrea James.I am the independent candidate for governor.My pronouns are she, her.And what else can I say about me?Well, I'm a native of Massachusetts.I'm very proud of that.I have beenMy family has been here for seven generations, and we've lived in, I was raised in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and we've lived in the same old house for five of those generations.And so really, really proud of that.We have deep roots here, and that's who I am.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks, Andrea.So we're going to get much more into that and hopefully a little bit about your story.But I think the primary reason for having you on is what you just mentioned, is to hear a little bit more about your campaign for governor.So could you tell us a little bit about how you arrived at this point in your life where you decided to run as the independent candidate?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, so I have been working in the area of criminal law reform for 15 plus, more than that, actually, way more than that, because I was a practicing criminal defense attorney.Prior to that, all of my adult jobs have been centered within the criminal law system.I've been a community organizer from the time I was in high school.I am a formerly incarcerated woman, and we have been working for the past six years here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to stop the new women's prison.And so even prior to becoming a criminal defense attorney and then becoming an incarcerated woman and organizing in the women's prison that I was in to reallyamplify and elevate the reasons why we should not have this blunt instrument of incarceration and separation of particularly mothers from their children.I've been doing social justice work for my entire life.And so I've been going up to that state house specifically for 15 plus years and really coming away with little to nothing, asking for very reasonable change.Um, and I just got tired of it, you know?I just felt that, you know, we're a blue-blue state.I think that we're supposed to... We're su... You know, people think that Massachusetts is one of the most progressive states in the country, yet around real issues that are directly affecting people, that we should stop treating as siloed issues, um, and look at the totality of how they are affecting the lives of people.I think that we should, you know, figure out how are we going to address these issues in the totality.And so the legislature has been, you know, unfortunately extraordinarily unproductive in the Commonwealth.Um, we have a governor who, you know, is also a Democrat.Uh, we have a Democratic stronghold in the legislature, a Democratic governor.But the issues, um, that are really affecting everyday people, beyond what I've been an expert in for 15-plus years, traveled the world doing this work.I've, uh, uh, spoken to parliaments and, and, and, and, uh,uh, justice committees and whatever they want to call themselves in different countries all over the world.I've worked with the Obama administration, the Biden administration, and provided my area of expertise in both of those administrations, and so I am an expert on the issue that I focused on in the incarceration of women and girls.However, we have to do more.And it just became very, very frustrating over the years that we don't have very basic things that are human rights that would also immediately provide a massive correction to our criminal law system.So when you look at the life of a woman on a prison bunk, for instance, all of the issues that are on my platform, that it's a grassroots people-led campaign, which means we actually, I know what I thought were priorities, but we took a whole year before I announced that we were running to go across the state, from the Western part of the state where people feel woefully ignored and under-resourced, all the way back down to the Cape and the islands, talking to people and everybody in between.So our platform are those issues of housing, universal health care, equitably funded education, and child care.Those are just the priority issues.Of course, all of the climate and data centers and all that, we are concerned about.But if we, in the immediacy,when we get these issues, these bedrock human rights, fundamental human rights issues across the line, it is only a boost to our entire economy.It's a boost to the dignity of people for their sense of well-being, which is something that right now in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, we really desperately need.People are feeling defeated and left out and struggling.
really, really struggling to make ends meet.So that's our concern.That's what we're doing.I've been working on housing and health care and child care and equitably funded education for a long time within our umbrella work of social justice work and stopping a $360 million new women's prison and so forth, because those are issues that directly impactthat directly impact, um, you know, the most vulnerable women and children among us.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah.I think that's like a thing that our state in particular, I think has struggled with for a long time in a place like you said, like we assume, um, that Massachusetts is very progressive, but that we still look at people who commit crimes as like some kind of having some kind of moral flaw.Right.But we know people will commit crime becauseThey don't have a lot of other options, right?And a lot of times it's like a survival thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we don't address that.We just want to criminalize people in perpetuity.We don't want to look at the underlying reasons of why people cause harm.How do we eradicate that to the best of our ability?We are all human beings, so I don't think we can ever completely eradicateyou know, harm, but we can significantly reduce it if we stopped relying on public safety just going through that very narrow lane of police and prisons.And so we've got to do better, you know, and we have.We've done research for thisfor over a decade.And we know things that we can do better.Certainly, building a $360 million women's prison for one of the lowest incarceration populations of women in the country, which we have here in Massachusetts, is just fiscally irresponsible.And it's when the women that are incarcerated here whoyou know, they come from the same communities over and over and over again.The poorest, the brownest, you know, communities across the commonwealth, and so black and brown communities, and soWhy aren't we looking at taking investment like that and putting it into the communities that are, from childhood to adult, seem to fill our state prisons, our children's prisons and jails and so forth?And so this is what we're talking about.We're just refusing to look at investment because it's almost as if we're happy with the fact that we've created a caste system in the Commonwealth that consists ofum not just majority black and brown people because african-americans i'm an african-american woman we make up seven percent of the population we make up 51 of the prison and jail population in the commonwealth which is just crazy um but also i mean we won't we don't want to address the issue of raceAnd until we do address the underlying reasons, poverty, you know, I am a prison abolitionist and I think I've earned the right to be that because I've actually lived in a prison.We have no policy makers in the current state who actually understand what it is to live in a prison and how absolutely ineffective it will be to just build another one.And so, you know, these are things that we have to work on, but it requires this incredible reversal of priorities.And that comes into play where we have very wealthy donor agenda right now, you know, a corporate agenda right now.And when you combine those two things, you know, our current governor, Mara Healy, is now saying Massachusetts is a great place to live if you can afford it.Well, what is that saying to families like mine and families who are here and have been here and are working families?My adult children could never afford to buy the home that we've lived in for five generations.It's not going on the market, we're never giving it up, but it's provided with the safety.and the ability for us to all get a college education, to all of us who wanted to go to graduate school.If somebody falls on hard times in the family, there's a roof over our head that we can count on.And so what are we saying to everyday families?What are we saying to our labor, to our working class, to folks who are working three jobs just to make ends meet, when we say it's a great place to live if you can afford to?
[Danielle Balocca]: That's pretty condescending.And I think like, um, what you're proposing are like very common sense, like sort of changes that will uplift a lot of people.And I think when people here get, we don't want to, we don't support like the prison system where we want to get rid of prisons.Like that is like, I think that a lot of, you know, some things come to mind for people that I think are like, uh, kind of like a knee jerk reaction that is scary, but I think that's like,probably to how like, you know, I've interviewed a few people that ran that are ran in the last primary and they Talked about how like you said the legislator is like the least competitive in the country that everybody kind of like agrees with each other so like not a lot of change happens and not transparent we just want a black hole award andOh my God.Wow.Um, and so, yeah, so like, it makes me think that there's a thing that is being told to everybody and there's a thing that's being told to the people that are in those rooms, right?That like, that we maybe aren't privy to all of like the motivations of how these decisions are made and why they're made.Um, but we're told kind of what we need to know in order to make those things to, to like make those things able to persist.Um, and I guess I wonder like for you, who you see as other stakeholders or other allies like that,Would if you know if elected would already sort of be plugged in to help you like kind of mobilize this agenda
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think, you know, mostly, so I'm a student of movement ecology.I've been trained in movement ecology.It's how we train the folks that we work with.I believe in people's assembly processes.I think that people closest to the issues, mostly, most directly affected by the issues should be around that table as well as the really, you know, other really smart people.I think that that's been lacking.We saw it years ago when we were pushing forward with theuh, uh, 2018, um, uh, criminal, uh, criminal, uh, justice reform work, um, and, and the state employed, uh, council of state governments.We weren't even allowed to be at the table.There were police, prosecutors, the prison system, the DOC, there was one prisoners legal services that represented everybody else, and DAs, and, and nobody else was invited to that table.none no directly affected people it was a fishbowl of a process and so in the protest we sat in the audience and just lifted up pieces of paper because they told us we couldn't speak but they didn't say we couldn't write no messages on paper but when we don'treally take into consideration the expertise of people with direct experience.And I'm not just talking about experience of incarceration, just the experience of what it's like to be a tenant these days, you know, what it's what it's like to try and buy a home these days, what it's like to be sick, what it's like to be without adequate health care.or struggling to pay your premiums.What are these issues like?What is it like for parents, who I just met with recently, with students with special needs?What is that like when they are firing, laying off the crucial teams for teachers, the paras, teachers themselves, they're ushering in AI to continue totry and fill the gap to teach students.So what are we talking about?None of these people are actually at the table or a platform and infrastructure has been built so that when we are making policy, we actually have expertise from around the table weighing in on that and we're actually listening to it.And so I think that we don't have that infrastructure in the state in place.There's no way because if we did,We wouldn't be building a new women's prison.We would not have 287G agreements with ICE.We would be vocally against ICE and not funding companies that are creating tools like robotic dogs and thingsfor ICE.Like, we're giving millions of dollars to companies under the veil of creating jobs.But, first of all, my question is, there ain't a whole lot of people I know that are skilled in that very niche area of robotics that are going to – it's not going to solve the jobs crisis.
But you can't say you're not in support of ICE, which she has.She just flippedto flip that around because of public pressure.And now she's storming around saying, I'm against ICE, but you're not.Because you continue to find the backdoor ways, clandestinely, to fundICE, whether it's through the tools that they're using, you know, the 287G agreements that allow ICE to still operate in Massachusetts.We're the only blue state that has 287G agreements.
[Danielle Balocca]: what that is, 287G?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that just allows, so they kept it, they made the PROTECT Act, which we already had those protections.It kills me how they come up with something, the legislature and the governor, when they haven't done anything of substance, of significance about these issues, and then they make up something that actually already exists in the Commonwealth.We have a right to due process.We have a right to no warrantless arrests.We have these protections, and in some cities like Boston,Marty Walsh years ago wrote into law the Trust Act.I mean, we've got all these things that already exist.If we had a robust denouncement of ICE and ICE being in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, if we did proudly stand up and say we are a sanctuary state and we should be,which we don't have a governor that does that.There's been a stark difference between Mara Healy and other blue state governors around the country who have just unequivocally used their voices to say, get out, get out of our state.And so these are the things that I thinkDirect experience really matters.We just can't hold signs.We cannot continue to just go to no kings.Yes, we have to protest.Yes, we have to continue to go to things like no kings.But at the same time, we have to move beyond empathy and just holding signs.We have to actually develop and put into office leadership that is of the times that we're grappling with.If we had a robust jobs market, if everybody could afford their rent, if we had universal health, like to get there, we actually have to have leadership that has had a direct experience and has the urgency and understands the need for our priority issues, housing, universal health care, education, and childcare.You know why?Because the issue of the day is affordability.But I mean, I know I've been evicted.I was a teen mom.Back then, I couldn't afford my rent.I know what it's like to have my lights shut off.I know what it's like to not have a working telephone.I know what it's like to struggle to pay for child care.I got a child care vulture at one point, which changed my life, because it allowed me to bring my kid to school with me, this little baby that I was already lugging back and forth to campus at UMass Boston.But now she could go to the daycare on campus, which freed me up to get a work-study job, to do my homework, to really study in the library.And she was fed.I struggled to put food on the table as a young, single mom.So I understand these issues.
personally, and I think right now we don't have enough people who are making decisions about policy that really give a damn because their lives are okay, their constituents' lives are okay.You know, we've got a lot of progressive organizations that wouldn't even speak to our campaign who are reportedly Democrats, but they weren't even interested.Like, we asked for endorsements, you know,We are like, we've been standing side by side with you fighting for these issues for years, and now you're not even going to acknowledge that we're running.And I think that's sad.And their reason was, they were all afraid of the Democratic Party coming for them, and also, and many of them serve as certain positions onboard committee, you know, town committees for the Dems or something.It reminded us a little, we coined the phrase like, we didn't coin it, we heard somebody say it and we've been using it ever since, Blue Maga.Like so many people who are leading these so-called progressive organizations are afraid to even say, yeah, you know what, her platform really does make sense.We need to get some support behind this becauseThey've literally been afraid.We had a woman in a town that I won't mention, but who put in her establishment, the front of her establishment, one of our campaign signs.And, literally, a person from the Democratic town committee in that town came by her establishment and told her, wouldn't it be a shame if nobody shopped here anymore?Right.And so that, that is, that's, that's bad.That's not democracy.You know, and so we've, we've got a, we've got a lot of work in the Commonwealth to do.But my focus right now, I believe in term limits, get in, do what you say you're going to do and get out.You know and be constantly nurturing and mentoring other people to come in to fight on behalf of regular everyday regular people Okay, and so but you couldn't you shouldn't make a career out of being a politician Yeah, because I mean why first of all, why would you trust me?After running this race, I'm just like, ew, who does this all the time?It's so mean.It's so mean.And it's so unhealthy.But unfortunately, it shouldn't be that way.But at the same time, people have just been in office term after term after term after term.
[Danielle Balocca]: And that's it.It's like this tension betweencreating some kind of like change that helps people and like maintaining the status quo like keeping the same people keeping their power and it feels like That's really holding us back and it's like it's also like feeding us this narrative that's like not true of like like you're saying likeMaura Healey just came out saying she doesn't support ICE.I think if people understood that, it would be pretty disappointing to them.It's hard to defend that, right?
Was this true that you weren't allowed at a recent debate?
[SPEAKER_02]: Two of them.So Maura Healey agreed to do two debates.and everything hinged on what she wanted.You know, there's three candidates.Mainstream media is corporate power and control.They are trying to hold on to the Democratic corporate power and control in Massachusetts.So even the mainstream media outlets, Channel 5, WCVB, WBZ, would not even mention a third candidate.And then I did a very brief interview with John Keller of WBZ, and I noticed that he did that interview the week before with Mike Mignogue, the Republican.But at the end of Mike's interview, he said, well, Mike, looks like we're going to have a robust debate.Well, he didn't say that to me at the end of my interview a week later, and I asked him.After the interview, I said, you know, I noticed you didn't mention that we're going to have a robust debate.He says, oh, you're not invited to the debate.I said, what are you talking about?This is mainstream WBZ.I'm like, I.I'm on the ballot.We needed 10,000 signatures.We worked for months in the heat, in the pouring rain, you name it.I didn't pay anybody to get our signatures.We literally — I was out there every day, sleeves rolled up, day and night, getting signatures across the Commonwealth, standing in front of supermarkets.We earned the right — 13,311 signatures we got to get on that ballot.
And even people who were not supporting my campaign said, I'm actually going to let you know that I'm not going to vote for you, maybe, but I do support democracy.And it's absolutely important.If you have a right to try and get on the ballot, if you get on, you should be heard.Well, that's not what mainstream media.And so John Keller said to me, the reason why you're not getting invited is because the people have told me, me, him,they only wanna hear from the mainstream parties, from the establishment parties, meaning Democrats and Republicans.I said to him, well, I think that's interesting because are you aware that 67% of current enrolled voters in Massachusetts are independents?
So who are the people that you're talking about?So yeah, we did not.I mean, I think it's a violation of my First Amendment rights.I think it's just foul that you make the ballot.And because for whatever reasons, they only want to hear from Republicans and Democrats in a state where 67% of us are unenrolled.And also the issue of money was a factor.We were told that we were not viable, our campaign, because we didn't raise money.Well, guess what?who are millions of people that have not voted for years.Many don't know they can vote.Some don't know how to vote.I mean, it's just part of this caste system that we've created that has excluded a few million people in the Commonwealth.That's our base that we're calling back in, who are coming back in to vote for the first time, some of them, but they don't have any money.And one of the things that we wanted to try and dispel was this fear-mongering and telling people who want to run on behalf of everyday working folks, underemployed folks, people in a state of struggle, vulnerable populations that, oh,Don't even think about running because you don't have millions of dollars.Well, Mara Healy is still asking for money.She's sitting on, you know, $7 million war chest.I mean, how much money does she need?And she's still sending out emails asking her supporters to give her more money.I think that's bad.And then also, Mike Minogue, of course, has just self-funded his campaign.He's a multi-multi-millionaire, if not a billionaire, I don't know.He's got a $31 million mansion in Montana.And he's bankrolled his campaign like he did with Trump.He has bankrolled his own campaign now, you know, for a lot of money.So I'm more proud of the five, seven, $10 donations that we managed to bring in every month.But we didn't even get anywhere near a million dollars.You know, we-we...we were trying to just break up this very egalitarian, very elitist, very, you know, we're the kings and queens and you guys, it's a club and we ain't in it, you know, because the people who are currently representing usIf they are trying hard to do something on our behalf, we can't feel it.We're not aware of it.We have a governor that acts like she's not comfortable around everyday people.
And many people don't know who she is.Many, many people across the Commonwealth could not tell you her name.And that's sad.We're the Commonwealth, meaning of the people.That's how this state was created.And we need to bring that back, those resources, that giving folks hope.really creating immediacy by, when we create affordable housing and put a roof over people's heads that they can afford, when we get over across the line single-payer health care so people aren't, no longer are they struggling to pay for their health care, no longer are they afraid to go to the doctor, no longer are they, you know, justcan't afford the premiums.When we get equitably funded education across the board, some of our public schools are in dire, dire straits.And unfortunately, they're in black, brown, and poor communities, you know, where we should be pouring an investment into our children.And everybody graduating should have a pathway to success.Everybody ain't going to college.We need to have more trade schools, more trade school opportunities.And we need to get childcare for those who need it.It is only going to pour into our economy and make our economy even stronger when people can get an education and go to work and know that their children are safe in quality and affordable childcare.So those are my priority issues because when we get these things,it automatically puts cash back in the pockets.And as... That's the struggle that people are having.Those four issues are what is draining people's paychecks every month.I spoke to a single mom who was in tears the other day, who said, forget... You know, I can't afford my rent, but I have to pay two... Single mom, I pay $2,000 a month for child care.Now, you know,I don't know who we think that's helping, but it's impoverishing this single mom and her family and her household.And these are our priorities for that reason, because I'm not going to become a career politician.I have outlined these things because in the immediate moment, we need people with direct experience who know what it's like to struggle with all of these issues and also have a plan to get us across the line.And, you know, I'll get out of this way.I will get out of the way, knowing that I have fought, done everything I can to turn this around, where working families, underemployed folks actually have an opportunity to live in Massachusetts and not justbe stressed out every day, which causes significant health problems to be poor.Poverty just creates significant health problems.And not just be the governor who says Massachusetts is a great place to live if you can afford it.
[Danielle Balocca]: yeah well yeah that's a very compelling and i i wonder like if what your thoughts are like so first day on the job what would be kind of your first course of action i don't roll a banner off the front of the state house it says welcome to the people's house i mean have you been there it's a it's like a morgue yeah
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a difficult building to navigate.It's totally unwelcoming.We need to breathe some life into that building and make sure that the public knows that that building, that governor's seat, those legislators don't own anything.That's not how this is supposed to work.That's the people's house.And so I want to begin to create the people's assembly processes, the infrastructure.A lot of what I want to do, the infrastructure doesn't currently exist to get these things done.We know how to do that because we've done it in the area that I am, in the ecosystem where I am an expert in terms of building, not just fighting, stopping prisons and closing prisons, but actually we have to create.I just want to just quickly say this.prison abolition requires more accountability than our current system.But it's focused on healing.It's focusing actually on holding people accountable, absolutely.If you cause harm in an abolitionist system, you are going to be held accountable.But throwing you into this 250 year project that this country has had called prisons, that have been completely failed.If these were corporations, we would have scrapped them a long time ago, for instance.Because they're violent spaces, they're unhealthy spaces.We have people with mental illness, with dementia.We have large elderly population, one of the largest in the country here in Massachusetts.We have people who have been in prisons for just decades who are not the same people they were 20, 30 years ago when they were sent to prison.um they deserve a second chance the governor has a pile of clemency clemency is there for to correct you know over sentencing injustices and to give people a second chance that's work that i've done you know for almost two decades now and soYou know, on the federal level, we work with President Obama.We helped push more than 50 women out of the federal system who were unjustly over-incarcerated for drug cases.Women who were sentenced to triple life sentences plus 20 years.Oh my God, who ever heard of that?But we have a lot of those, we have a lot of those situations in Massachusetts that if we just focus on decarceration first,of people who could reasonably come home now without causing further harm and creating systems and investments in what different looks like in how to support people who have been incarcerated or also you know are looking at a carceral sentence what else is possible because when you take a mom who's made a bad choiceout of no choice, and that bad choice is now entangled her in the criminal law system, and she's facing incarceration.We passed the primary caretaker bill in Massachusetts as part of the omnibus bill in 2018.Very little people still know about it, and the system has really done nothing to help people know about it, including judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys.And so it's been left up to- What does that do to the primary caregivers?Primary care, and we've helped pass it in seven other states, but what it does is it creates the opportunity for consideration for a non-carceral sentence for people who are not only primary caretakers, but also care for elderly parents.I cared for both my parents, who passed away at 90 and 91,And they, you know, it wasn't easy.And if, God forbid, had I had to go away, you know, for making a bad choice, when I really just needed some support or some treatment or something, my parents would be in a horrible situation.Not to mention when I did go to prison,you know, for a transgression, a mistake I made 20 some odd years ago and went to prison in 2010, my son was five months old.So I know what it's like to separate us from our children.I was very lucky and privileged.I had a husband.I also had parents.who cared for, I didn't have to worry about my kids.But that's not the story of the majority of women who are already cash poor, who are already under-resourced, who are already in a state of struggle.When they go to prison, their children's lives go into a state of chaos, and they are deeply affected by what they call ACEs, Adverse Childhood Experiences, when 85% of incarcerated moms were the primary caretakers.So I don't wanna just hop onyou know, in classroom issues, but we can do a lot better in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to address public safety, you know, to address education, to help people put a roof over their head.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah.No, and I think I liked what you said about like making a choice versus no choice or I forget how you phrase it, but that's really powerful.And I think it's, I think that's something that a lot of people that aren't in those situations don't understand is that like,you're making a choice out of like a series of not great choices or not great options.Um, and I'm curious, like, I know that there are some systems that exist right now, like the drug courts in Massachusetts or like, um, uh, parole that are just kind of like, that sometimes feel like, uh, they call them like, uh, jail diversion programs or whatever.But I'm curious what you think about those, the current systems.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they work for people who it works for.There's been a race element attached to drug courts as well.They have serviced better white defendants in different areas of the state.I just really believe, and parole is just a very oppressive,parole, probation, those systems have been part of the reason why we work on the abolition of the criminal law system because they create a lot of obstacles to people being able to succeed.And they're led by people who also don't have direct experience and really just are leaning on people, demanding.that, you know, I remember, you know, I was a trial lawyer when I went to prison, and I, when I came home,You know, I had a hard time stringing a sentence together.I had to really decompress from that very challenging, difficult situation that I was in and forced to live in.And people need that time.People have children.It destroys our families.We have to find ways to get our children back.And as single parents,particularly moms who are 85, 90% of the primary caretakers of their children.Those women can't get their children back until they have adequate housing and a job and condemn us.So now there's a lot of things that have to happen in addition to the mental health and the physical health.Women leave prison, people in general, with all kinds of health issues.And parole and probation really don't, probation meaning that it's supposed to,where it's supposed to be in lieu of incarceration, like you're placed on probation, and parole is for post-incarceration.But we have so many people, Danielle, in this state who are literally serving parole and probation.And so they have a probation officer, then they have to go to a parole officer.They're both putting demands on them.They're trying to get their kids back.They're trying to find housing that nobody can afford.Never mind people.
[Danielle Balocca]: depending on their conviction, they're not eligible for a certain housing or certain job.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.And yeah.And so we need to change that.And we need to create housing that actually addresses each category of the people who are currently unhoused.Because it's not just one broad brushyou know, swoosh of unhoused people, you know, and there's a difference in what types of housing that we need to create to address that.But guess what?We can actually do it here in Massachusetts.There's several different ways, but if we only, the affordable, you know, I'll give Maura Healey credit forthrowing a Hail Mary and just trying to figure something out that she named the Affordable Homes Act.The problem with that, it's a long-term process.It's not going to even begin to show real significant results for some years down the road in terms of housing people.And it relies on development by private investment, by private developers.And anytime that's the case, there's gonna be a trickle of affordable units built because they're building for profit.And so we've got to really ramp up what it looks like to build housing and to do it with immediacy.We've got several different models and plans of how to do that.
To answer your question,sorry to be all over the place, but the first thing that I would do other than dropping the banner down to invite people in is to really begin to build the infrastructure of those round tables that don't currently exist for small business owners, for parents and teachers, educators who want to be at the table together,you know, asking for the investment that they need.You know, for tenant rights organizations, why are we allowing landlords to evict families?Because they, private landlords have tripled people's rents in a tiny period of time.We need to expand rental vouchers so that people who are in imminent danger of being foreclosed on can stay in their homes.while we get policy passed that literally says landlords cannot overnight triple somebody's rent, which is what's happening right now.Look at Somerville, for instance.Great example of people who are just being priced out and have lived in these homes.They've rented from these landlords for years, but the landlords are selling, they're getting older, they're not paying attention to who's buying these properties, and a lot of them are buying for cash, so they're bumping out.you know, people who have to go get a mortgage, which is increasingly becoming almost impossible.We need public banking.We need we need infrastructures that don't currently exist.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, there's a guy that I had on the podcast, like way in the beginning.His name is David Harris.He's like a researcher.I think he was like a professor at Harvard, but he talked about this.Yeah, he's a friend.I know David very well, actually.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad that you interviewed him.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute before they shuttered that program at Harvard.But I've known David for years.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, great person he was very generous to come on the podcast and he talked about this idea like of Like we always talk about who can come who's at the table who's coming to the table?but what about what about dismantling the idea of the table right and like what's a different way of reaching people rather than relying on them reaching out to us soI don't know.That really has stuck with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's it.We've learned that.We've done it for years.We've reached out and brought into the equation prior to, for instance, one of our national organizations, the National Council existing.That organization, there was nobody, there were no directly impacted, formerly incarcerated women at the table.Making policy, right?Writing policy, talking to policymakers, running for office.You know, we've changed all that.And it's really, really important because they're going to not advocate.You don't have to ask us.Ask the women who are actually currently incarcerated at Framingham.They, you know, for the first time, got an opportunity to come into one of the hearings, and they came in to talk, say no to $360 million.There's 200 women in that prison.It's crazy.We've derailed, stopped completely a new women's prison for $90 million in Vermont.I mean, we know what we're doing.But in doing this work, we've also had to grapple, like I said, with the issues that are on our platform.And getting those issues across the line, that's what I want to do in this campaign.I'm not here to solve the world's problems.I willget in that seat, fight like hell for these priorities, because that's going to alleviate and create affordability in working families.And then I'm going to move out of the way and go back to being an advocate for what I know needs to happen.But as long as we only continue to put establishment party and think that just upholding the democratic platformis the way to go, we're in trouble.Because it's left out too many people.We've got firemen and nurses raising their children and saying to me, we used to be considered the middle class.We can't afford to get to the end of the month with any money in our pocket.So it's a caste system now.And if we only have those elites and people who have become very comfortable thinking that, we have a saying in the social justice ecosystem that when you think you're so important that you can't get out of the way and that you don't understand that your expertise as an elder or somebody who's been working in the space for a long time is to nurture the young talent that's coming up,When you think you're too important to let somebody else come in with their fresh ideas and enthusiasm, it wears you down to do this work, you know?You become part of the problem.And I think for our legislature, just look at all of how long they've all been in office and none of them are talking about term limits.You know, none of them want to talk about the fact that they're actually paid a full-time salary, very unusual in the state.Many states do not pay their legislators full-time salaries.And if they are willing to always stay in lockstep with the Senate president or the Speaker of the House, they will get to be appointed a stipend for running a committee.You get an extra bonus.And so that is such a conflict.You know, it's such a conflict.And if you don't, if you step out of that, which we know from the teachings of Jonathan Hector was a state representative for years, more than a decade.And he went against Mariano and was banished to the basement, literally lost his chairmanship, you know, committee chairmanship.And so there's,There are problems happening here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that we need to fix, but it starts with leadership who is willing to be unapologetic about the fact that these things are happening, it's wrong, and we do need to fix them.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, this is all very invigorating to hear, and I really appreciate all these perspectives.Is there anything else that I haven't asked you about that you think is important for us to know?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm an open book.I've made mistakes in my life.I have a moral compass.I corrected those mistakes myself.I went on to build a multimillion dollar organization that focuses unapologetically on any incarceration of women and girls, but in a way that actually addresseswhy people cause harm, why harm is caused, and creating real public safety, not just for those who are fortunate enough to live in wealthy enclaves in communities around the Commonwealth, where it's just very different.I live in the most incarcerated corridor in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in Roxbury.Where I live is very different than Arlington, where the governor currently lives.I'm still going to live here when I become the governor.You know, I wanna be the governor who rolls up her sleeves over the next four years and actually gets these priorities across the line so that our working families and we can go and actually have the bandwidth to not just be in a state of struggle to just try and survive, because people who are in a state of struggle cannot think of anything else but survival.And we need to be creating opportunities for people in the wealthiest state in the country to thrive, not just corporations.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's right.Well, thank you so much.And everybody should get out and vote November 3rd.Thank you.Anything else for us, Andrea?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, just, you know, again, really, vote.I mean, if you vote for me, great.If nobody's asked you, I'm asking for your vote.But if you've got somebody else to vote for, the most important thing is that we vote.And we have to show up, because the numbers in Massachusetts have been dwindling, going down, down, down, down, down, in terms of, you know,interest in voters, particularly young voters.And so we, that's another priority of mine, become a governor who is literally on the ground, walking the neighborhoods, encouraging people to vote and encouraging our young population to get out and vote.We need it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, you reminded me of one final question, which is, what are the rules for formerly incarcerated people in voting in state elections?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's a huge disappointment because I've talked to crisscross the state for two years now.And I've spoken to so many formerly incarcerated people, predominantly men, ironically.The women seem to know.But too many formerly incarcerated men do not know.They're like, oh, I would love to vote for you.I believe in what you're saying, yes.But I can't vote.And when I ask them why, they say, because I've been incarcerated.That is intentional, as far as I'm concerned, that that many formerly incarcerated men do not think they can vote.And I said, who told you that?They said, well, they told us when we were leaving the prison.And that is wrong.That's misinformation.In Massachusetts, at one point in 2000, even incarcerated people could vote.But when they started to organize themselves, men in Norfolk State Prison, so that they could push back on the very draconian, harshover penalties for drugs, for instance, the legislature said, oh, no, we're not going to deal with this.We're going to strip you of your right to vote.So we do have voter disenfranchisement in Massachusetts because we don't have something that we used to have.But then once you serve your state prison sentence and come home,you automatically have a right to vote.You can vote.If you're registered, you can vote in the next election.If you're not registered, you can just go.You can go online.You can register to vote.Secretary of State, it's easy.You don't have to talk to anybody.You can get a mail-in ballot if you don't know how.You can get help from organizations who want to help people go, because it's intimidating if you've never been.If you're a 40-year-old guy and you've never voted, it's a little intimidating.But in addition to that, what people don't also know is that if you are serving a county jail sentence, that is a misdemeanor sentence, you still have the right to vote.If you're in a county jail because you're being held awaiting trial and you have not been convicted of anything,you have the right to vote.And so different groups around the Commonwealth, Pastor Hobbs, for instance, lots of groups have been working to make sure that incarcerated people in county jails who still, who have not been convicted of a felony, that are doing time for a misdemeanor, which are the people in county jail, or awaiting trial and have not been convicted of anything yet,They must have access to the ballot.And so we have to keep fighting, because not every sheriff believes that.You know, the sheriff of Suffolk County actually did a good job on this issue.Sheriff Steve Tompkins had issues of his own to grapple with, but he actually made sureand make sure, now that he's back in his seat, that there's an access and a right to the ballot in the Suffolk County Jail.Not all the sheriffs across the Commonwealth aggressively do that.And so that's still a problem.But if you're in county jail, you can vote, and you must demand an access, a ballot, so that you can vote.And if you're home, once you walk out of a prison,any prison, anywhere, and come back to Massachusetts, you can vote.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, thank you for dispelling that myth, Rose.Well, thank you so, so much for the time today, and good luck.Thank you, Danielle.
[SPEAKER_02]: Really great.I can't wait to listen to your podcast and just, in general, learn more about method.Method, as we call it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Keshaman.Music is made by Hendrik Idanese.We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast.You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts.Thanks so much for listening.Guys, what's the name of the podcast?Medford Bites.Medford Bites.Good job.