Voters in central Mass will have two fine choices to replace outgoing State Senator Anne Gobi (D-Spencer) who was chosen by the Healey administration to be Director of Rural Affairs. I had the honor of serving with both Peter Durant (R-Spencer) and Jon Zlotnik (D-Gardner) for ten years in the Massachusetts House and these two will be facing off in the general election after winning their respective primaries.
I had three timely and pertinent questions for the candidates that I’m sure voters are interested in:
Do you support the Safe Communities Act which would make Massachusetts a sanctuary state?
Do support changing our Right To Shelter law to address the huge number of migrants coming to Massachusetts?
Do you support the efforts of our Auditor, Diana DiZoglio, in her efforts to audit the legislature?
Durant answered the phone call himself, which says something about the way he approaches his job, and was pretty clear and direct. He does not support the SCA and has been outspoken on his opposition to the RTS law as our shelters are filling up. He supports an audit of the legislature.
Repeated calls and emails to Zlotnik have gone unanswered, and in fact phone calls to his State House phone were answered by a recording saying his mailbox is full and cannot take any incoming messages. This says something about the way he approaches his job.
A look at their State House biographies shows that Durant earned a BS in Political Science from Northeastern University, and served on the Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen for the town of Spencer before getting elected State Rep. Zlotnik's shows that he graduate from UMass Lowell with a BA in History before getting elected. But a deeper dive reveals that Durant has many years of private sector experience as a small business person (climate control specialist), experience that is sorely lacking on Beacon Hill.
Zlotnik, on the other hand, appears to have never had any private sector experience. He’s boasted about running for State Rep as a college student and winning that race, so he’s been on a public payroll his entire career. Not necessarily a bad thing, but Beacon Hill is full of people like that.
But if there’s ever a single motivating factor for voters in this election it’s this:
There are 40 State Senators in Massachusetts and just three Republicans in it, making it one of the most lopsided chambers in the country. This leads to a lot of logistical and practical issues, like how to properly fill the dozens of legislative committees that require members of both parties on them to hear bills. Right now each Senator in the GOP would have to be on over a dozen, which would make attending most hearings impossible.
This means bills get heard without any real bipartisan review.
Worse yet, history shows that too many years of such one party rule always leads to an undeniable level of corruption and a concentration of power into the hands of just a few as majority party members trade their votes in exchange for bogus titles that come with huge raises.
Voting records reveal this; while Durant has consistently voted for rules and laws that would improve openness and transparency, Zlotnik has consistently caved to the House Speaker in voting against them. There’s little doubt he would continue to cave as a Senator.
At a time when Massachusetts has the embarrassing ranking of one of the least transparent states in the country (and a reputation for corruption) voters have an obvious choice and would be wise to select Peter Durant for their next Senator.