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While we unfortunately have to wait several years to replace Senator Brown as a US Senator, thankfully there's already an ongoing special election to replace his seat in the State Senate. Today, LeftAhead spoke with Dr. Peter Smulowitz, a progressive running as a Democrat in the primary.
His resume is impressive -- a physician in the ER and deeply involved in forming health care policy across the state, with degrees from Cornell, the University of California and Harvard. His opponents are State Reps Lida Harkins (D) in the primary and Richard Ross (R) in the general, should he make it that far.
On the show, we obviously hit on health care policy, but we also breached many subjects to make sure he's not just a one-issue candidate. He talked about state house transparency, suggesting open meeting laws would cure a lot of problems. When asked about casinos (21:30), he said, "I think that resort casinos are a total false promise of revenue," then hitting on how it would cannibalize small businesses, cultural institutions, the tourism industry, and increase social costs.
He's strongly for a more graduated, progressive income tax, as opposed to relying on sales taxes, and those like it, which disproportionately burden blue collar and middle income workers. We hit on everything from jobs to education, so there's a lot there and I hope you all enjoy it.
