 and welcome everyone. I'm James Milan from ACMI or Arlington Community Media and welcome to tonight's debate, which is a special collaboration, Election 2020, between ourselves and our sister stations in Belmont and Cambridge. And I have two co-hosts from those two communities who I'd love to have introduce themselves right now. Hello, everyone. My name is Gil Christine Boira. I am a summer intern at Belmont Media Center. I am also a co-founder at Equal Prep, a nonprofit organization that provides college counseling for low income and first-generation minority students. Good evening. I am Levette Curry, resident of Cambridge. I am a national and local education advocate with two children in the Cambridge Public School System. This evening, I have the pleasure of introducing the two distinguished candidates running for the 24th Middlesex District House of Representatives seat. We are grateful they both agreed to participate in the debate this evening to share more about their platform with our audience. Welcome to Dave Rogers and Jennifer Freese. Now back to James, who will explain the first part of the debate. Yeah, we are going to do the debate in four different sections, familiar to those who've seen our debates before. We're gonna start with one minute opening statements from each of the candidates and then go into two separate rounds of questions, which will be introduced and described by my co-hosts at the beginning of those sections. Then we'll finish with closing statements of one minute, again, from each of the candidates. So to start with opening statements, we are taking them in the order on which the candidates appear on the ballot. And so we'll start with Dave Rogers and go then to John Freese. Dave, you are up first, one minute for your opening statement. Great, thank you. Well, thanks to ATMI, Belmont Media Center and CCTV. And thanks for everyone for tuning in. I'm Dave Rogers, the state representative for the 24th Middlesex District. And first off, I know firsthand from my work as your representative, this has been an incredibly challenging time for many families and individuals in my community. So above all else, I hope you are safe and healthy at this time. Eight years ago, the people of Arlington, Belmont and Cambridge gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. And every day since, I've sought to make the most of that opportunity. Passing a lot of progressive legislation on criminal justice reform and police reform, environmental protection, addressing climate change, women's rights and the rights of working people. But as much as we've accomplished together, we're living through a time that has exposed deep systemic inequalities in our society, inequality that's been building for 30 or 40 years. So going forward, we need to rebuild stronger and address the inequalities this time has exposed. Thank you. Thank you. And Jen, one minute. Okay. Hi, my name is Jen Fries and I'm a candidate for state representative from our district. I have lived in the district for 20 years. I'm a nonprofit executive. I've run domestic violence shelters, tutoring and mentoring programs for young people. And I was second in command at a quasi state agency that funds legal services for low income people in our state. I'm running because I wanna fix the T, address climate change as a top priority. And I wanna reinvest in our UMass system and our public schools. And I wanna do that work with an eye on racial equity and environmental justice. None of these issues are abstract to me. I am a public school parent. I'm an MBTA commuter and I have decades of experience, professional and personal experience helping people in our district lead better lives. I'm really excited to be here tonight and thank you to the three cable stations that put this together. And thank you to the voters who tuned in and are doing the work of democracy. Thank you very much. I'm going to hand the next section over to Gilchrist. Thank you, James. For this round, we have prepared 10 questions sent in by each community. The questions will be answered in alternating fashion and each candidate will have two minutes to answer. Question number one, in regards to the tragic death of George Floyd, what policies do you propose to better deal with the issue of criminal justice reform in our communities? Jen? Okay. Well, I am someone that has been following this issue for a long time. I did march with the CRLS students that came to our in-journal in school, high school students after Michael Brown was killed in 2014. And, you know, I, of course, remember Sandra Bland. I remember Philando Castile. I remember Breonna Taylor and remember George Floyd and so many other people who have been killed by people who are supposed to protect them. When we have that kind of situation, one bad police officer spoils and poisons a culture in a whole department. And we need to be sure that people like that are not given guns, are not given power over people in our community. And this is not something that just happens in other parts of the country. We have an officer here in Arlington who wrote some incendiary racist and anti-immigrant sentiments in a police union newspaper and newsletter. And he went through a restorative justice process that people who are there representing those communities said was imperfect and that they did not feel made whole by it. So policies that are important include qualified immunity, include taking a look at what funding we put toward policing rather than toward housing, education, essential services. If someone has a mental health crisis, does it make sense to call in the police who might shoot them or does it make sense to call in a therapist? I think we need to take a hard look at these things and also make sure that bad officers can be removed from their departments. Thank you for that, Jen. Dave? Thanks, Gil, for the question. Well, we just went through a major police reform debate on Beacon Hill, where I collaborated with the Black and Latino caucus to move a major bill forward. In fact, Carlos Gonzalez, Representative Gonzalez, the chair of the Black and Latino caucus has endorsed me because I've been a strong ally, not just now, but in my whole time serving on Beacon Hill, I've been one of the strongest proponents of criminal justice reform right from the get-go. And in the previous session, we eliminated many mandatory minimums. We raised the felony larceny threshold. We changed the rules for solitary confinement. Systemic racism is endemic in our criminal justice system. This year, the Black and Latino caucus had four core principles that they wanted the House to pass. And I proudly partnered with them to get it done. One is independent review and certification of police officers, which we pass. It'll be an entirely civilian board, none of whom can have a background in law enforcement. Truly independent certification. They also wanted to us to address the use of force, for instance, banning choke holds, making sure that other officers have a duty to intervene, a legal duty to intervene, if they see another officer engaging in wrongdoing or state sanctioned violence. We all were horrified as we watched the George Floyd video and four officers were standing around. And so we passed that. We also passed civil service commission reform and set up three different commissions to keep working on structural racism throughout our community. So we're doing a lot. We need to do more. The truth is that one thing that no one's talking about is Governor Baker. We did not have a veto proof majority. 34 Democrats voted against the police reform bill. It was the hardest fought vote I've ever been a part of and I was proud to be a leader in this issue. Thank you for that, Dave. Question number two. Do you support the repeal of the current two-thirds vote required to enact town zoning bylaws in favor of a majority vote? Please explain your reasoning. Dave? Yes, thank you. Well, we have an affordable housing crisis in Massachusetts that is profound. And matter of fact, we become one of the most expensive cities, Greater Boston and the whole state, in the entire country. So part of that is because our area has experienced rapid economic growth since the trough of the Great Recession in 2008, 2009. Our state has had more rapid job growth, particularly in Greater Boston than any other metropolitan region, I think except Dallas, Fort Worth. That's a good news story with biotech and high tech and jobs in higher education, jobs in hospitals. What it's done is created enormous pressure on our housing markets that it's hard for young people to buy a home. It's hard for people who've lived in generations in a neighborhood to stay. I introduced a rent control bill, the first legislator to ever introduce a rent control bill since rent control was repealed. I've supported the mass rental voucher program and the RAF program. I'm the leading sponsor in the house of homelessness funding. As to your question on the repeal of the law that was just passed in the economic development bill, the house did. The governor really pressed that point. He has generally been favorably reviewed on how he has handled the coronavirus pandemic and he's used that political capital to really press the housing choice bill. And I did vote for the economic development bill which has the housing choice bill in it. And it would mean majority rule. It means that in any given city or town, a majority of voters at town meeting can specify that zoning changes, which will allow for accessory dwelling units, which will allow for two family homes, which will allow for a greater housing because we have a huge housing crunch. So we need to keep pushing ahead on all these areas because it harms our state economically. And if you look at the trajectory, unless we really address affordable housing, we're gonna start to lag other states. Thank you for that Dave, Jen. Yes, I do support changing our zoning laws so that a majority of members of the town meeting or city council can make changes. And here's my reason. Zoning has become or has been for a long time, I should say, an instrument of systemic racism in our society. So zoning has been set up specifically to exclude certain kinds of people from moving into a neighborhood and to exclude certain kinds of units from being built to try and shut people out. And if you look around my neighborhood, I live in a part of North Cambridge where everything on my street would be illegal under current zoning. And that is the case if you look around it, a lot of the small apartment buildings and triple-deckers, none of them are legal under current zoning. So every time you wanna build affordable housing, you have to get a variance because basic housing is not legal. And so I do think that it is important. In Cambridge, we had a proposal called the affordable housing overlay and I did support it for that reason. I know a lot of the nonprofit developers who have done important work and I know that they develop beautiful, affordable housing that allows people to have permanence in the neighborhood. Some of the best people I know are raising their families or older people are living in their retirement in affordable housing and we need to make it easier to build affordable housing, especially near transit as part of our effort to help in the climate crisis. So when we have a subway station, we should have apartments there, it makes sense. And I definitely support that. And I recognize that we have to do a lot on many fronts on the affordable housing crisis right now. Thank you for that, Jen. Question number three, both of you promised to fix the MBTA. How are you planning to go about this and what will this look like for a community like Belmont? Jen? So the MBTA is a personal issue for me. I am an MBTA commuter and when I worked at the Mass Legal Assistance Corporation on Beacon Hill, I wrote the red line every day. It was reliable, safe, great way to get to work. Then later on, I took a job that was near South Station and I was returning to a commute like that after a time off and I thought it would be great. I was a single parent at the time and my child was in public school so she would go to after school. And what I found is I could not get on the red line reliably and know what time I would get there to be able to get her at after school. There would be signaling issues. We'd be stuck underground. Sometimes everyone would have to evacuate the train at a station and they tell us to get in the one behind it. So I've seen firsthand that time we had delays and now we've had fires and derailments since then. And what we keep seeing on Beacon Hill is a culture of just slapping a bandaid on something. So there's been decisions to put a bandaid on it and just keep going when the T is in crisis. So when we go back to work, if we don't want to reenter what was the worst traffic in the country, the Greater Boston area had the worst traffic in the country. When we go back to work, we need the T to work for us and we need people to know that it is safe, reliable, affordable and hygienic. And that means we're gonna have to come up with some revenue and I am willing to fight for what it takes to be able to fund the T. I believe our corporations would and should put in more because they need their people to get to work. So I believe that we could raise the corporate taxes. I also think that we could do the millionaire's tax and that we might need to raise the gas tax more than they did, which was only five cents. And what was needed was about 25 cents a gallon in order to address the T and also the crisis on our roads and potholes and poor repair. Thank you for that, Jen. Dave. Yes, thank you. So we just voted in the house to raise $600 million of revenue in part by increasing corporate taxes, the corporate minimum tax. I've been a leader on transportation funding since first getting elected. As a matter of fact, some may recall Governor Patrick when he was governor introduced a $1.9 billion tax package, I was one of only seven progressive Democrats to vote for that. As a matter of fact, of all Patrick came to Belmont to patoo the Thai restaurant right there in the center of town to do an event for me. He was so grateful. He was texting me, thanking me for being one of only seven progressive Democrats to vote for that bill for $1.9 billion. I've been a key cosponsor of the fair share amendment, which will raise taxes on those with annual incomes of over a million by 4%. We needed to advance that through what's called constitutional convention twice to get it on the ballot. Unfortunately, it was successfully challenged through litigation to keep it off the ballot, but we've advanced it again in this time in a way that is impervious to a legal challenge. So in 2022, voters here will have a chance to raise the millionaire's tax, which will generate about $2 billion. And again, on transportation, I've been a leader not just on the T, but on biking. I'm the lead sponsor of the key bike legislation. In the house, I've gotten bike money for the Belmont community path for biking. I've sponsored key amendments to get money to maintain the minimum bike path. So the red line will be virtually new by 2022, 2023. New switches, new relays, new cars. So we've taken the money from that tax vote and we are going to have a virtually new red line. I use public transportation myself. It's also a systemic equality issue. It's also a public health issue. And it's a huge economic issue. So I'll keep fighting for it as I have done all along. Thank you for that, Dave. And now LaVette will take over. Thank you, candidates, for your response. And understanding the issues with affordable housing that you all have spoken to, what are some other tools in the legislative toolkit that you will use to keep middle-class families able to stay in towns like Cambridge, Belmont and Arlington? Dave, first response to you, two minutes. Sure, thank you. Well, as I mentioned, I'm the first legislator in Massachusetts to introduce a rent control bill in 25 years. People will recall that barely passed. There were only three cities and towns in the Commonwealth that had rent control. We have 351 cities and towns here, but only three had rent control. And so real estate developers and others were clever. They said, we'll never eliminate it at the local level. Let's put it on a statewide ballot to eliminate it. And in 1994, they did just that and it barely cleared. All the time later, with a massive affordable housing crisis, again, I was the first legislator in either the house or the Senate to introduce a rent control bill. I've also, as I said, been a supporter of the Mass Rental Voucher Program, which provides needed assistance, the RAF program. I've been a key supporter of homelessness funding. And as I said, I just voted for changes in the economic development bill that will allow for greater affordable housing to be built. So on a variety of fronts, I've led the way on this issue. I will continue to do that. It is a matter of being more inclusive. It is a matter of having a tapestry of all kinds of folks who live in our communities, live in our neighborhoods. So it's a justice issue. It's also, as I said, an economic development issue. And the studies show, if we don't address our affordable housing crisis, we are one of the strongest regional economies, not just in America, but in the world. But all the studies indicate we are going to begin to lose that place if we don't address this problem. So it's a justice issue. It's an inclusiveness issue. And it's also an economic issue. Thank you so much. Jennifer? Yes, I do want to just mention that Davis talked about a number of great policies and talked about how they passed. And I just want to make clear that many of them haven't, that they've only passed the house and that they have to go to conference committee and that the whole system is broken down on Beacon Hill so that there's this mad scramble to do things at the end of the session, which we're in right now. And it's important that people know that just introducing a bill or sponsoring it without actually getting something passed is not the same thing. We know that right now, 315,000 Massachusetts tenants are worried about how they're gonna pay their August rent or say that they're unable to pay it based on a Census Bureau study. Many of those people are immigrants who are essential workers. And I've also talked to thousands of voters on the phone and I've talked to a lot of homeowners who are really worried to, particularly people who are on fixed incomes. They're worried about property taxes. I think that we need to get creative. There's a lot of good economic data that says during a downturn like this, if you cut spending, it actually counter-intuitively can really hobble your economy. And if you spend some money on programs that are needed to help people, that it helps you get out of an economic downturn more quickly, I think we should look at beefing up the earned income tax credit for low income workers so that there's more money in their pocket to pay their rent. I think we should look at circuit breaker laws to help folks who are on a fixed income pay their mortgage or their taxes. I think that there's a lot that we can do to support people who need our support, including low income students. Oh, sorry, I'll talk about that later. Thank you. Thank you. As you know, various publications are warning that this pandemic could force a generation of mothers out of the workforce. What would you commit to do as our next state rep to address this issue? Jen, your response first. I, in those thousands of calls to voters, I also have talked to a lot of people who are teachers in childcare centers or directors of childcare centers or preschools and they're really worried. Are childcare centers need a major bailout in order to make it through this crash? During the shutdown, do you know that that emergency childcare that they talked about, only 4,000 children were in that emergency childcare? Every other child in the state was home with their working parent trying to work while the child was there. And it's impossible and people are panicked and really nervous about what's gonna happen because maybe their employers were cutting them a break for a few months, but now everyone is expecting people to get back to work and to be working full-time, even if remotely, and then what is gonna happen with their children? And so I think that the state, I was hoping the federal government would step in and there is some possibility that that could still happen, but I think that the state is going to need to make an investment to a large investment in our childcare centers. The Mass Budget and Policy Center is recommending that we look at a huge infusion to our childcare centers to make sure that they are there for our parents when they want to go back to work and need to go back to work. Thank you, so, yeah. Dave? Yes, thank you. Obviously, this is an incredibly trying time and we need to do everything we can so that it's not disruptive to those in the workforce, particularly women, who bear a disproportionate burden of child rearing. I have a significant track record of achieving goals on behalf of women. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act that I filed passed. I got over 100 co-sponsors. We got it through. I heard a heartbreaking story of Alejandro Duarte, who was on the job. She asked for a reasonable accommodation given her pregnancy. It was denied and there was a miscarriage and there were her countless stories like this. So I filed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act bill. It is the creation of a major new civil right for women in the Commonwealth. I also supported strongly the Women's Pay Equity Act. We know the systemic problems with the pay structure for women. So what the Pay Equity Act does is it says you cannot ask about past salary because if you've been trapped where you're earning 78 cents or 82 cents to the dollar but repeatedly asked in job interviews about salary history, that reinforces the problem. So it does that. And the other key thing it does is it makes employers do a top to bottom assessment of their pay scale so that they can, and if they take remedial measures, they can't just study it. They then need to take remedial measures, then they can avoid liability under the pay act. So there's a real lever in there to make it happen. We do need to invest more in childcare for sure. And I was just on a call with Secretary Sudders who reported 7,000 of our providers are now either up and running or will be up and running soon. So great progress is being made on the daycare front and we need to continue to press forward. Thank you. Question six, would you support reparations as a way of addressing historic racism and discrimination? What other means of doing so would you report? Dave, your response please. Thank you. Well, I think it's important for us all to be mindful at this time, particularly those of us who are white to listen more than we talk. And that's why I was so proud to partner with the black and Latino caucus and support their efforts on police reform and all my previous work on criminal justice reform. I think we also need to understand in America that racism permeates every corner of our society. Many Americans know the history of certainly slavery and Jim Crow and the modern way our criminal justice system discriminates where felons are disenfranchised. They lose their right to vote. It's the new Jim Crow, particularly in Southern states. So we see endemic racism but there's probably a fair number of folks who aren't aware of other really serious problems like the Homestead Act. Under the Homestead Act signed during the Civil War and that went for 60 years, about 10% of American land was given away. The land mass of California and Texas combined. And even though it was signed in the Civil War, it extended through the 1930s through Franklin D. Roosevelt. So 10% of America was given away, 160 acres at a time if you're willing to work the land for five years. Virtually no African-Americans got any land when 10% of it was given away. This permeates our society at all levels. That's why I support paid family and medical leave. That's why I support criminal justice reform. That's why I support big investments in education, the Student Opportunity Act which will eliminate the discrimination we see in the way schools are funded. As to reparations, I am open to that conversation. And I, again, would consult with my colleagues in the Black and Latino caucus to listen to them and let them lead and then support them. Thank you, Jen, your response? Yes, I do support reparations. We have a history in our country where African-Americans were shut out of the college system, financing for housing, the GI Bill, having their wealth be able to grow because of redlining and the way that their homes were treated. And this is all, it's old history, it started in 1619, but it's also recent history too. My daughter's grandmother, my daughter is multi-racial, she remembers visiting relatives down south and not being able to use certain entrances or water fountains. And so we are not that far removed from Jim Crow. I think a lot of people think it's ancient history and it actually is right here with us today and continues to really harm our efforts to make sure that we have a just and equal society. So the average wealth of black families in our area is much, much lower. I'm sorry, I don't have the statistic on my hand, but then that of white families. And it's because of this whole history where families who did use the GI Bill, who were able to get that housing financing, who were able to build wealth, were able to hand it down and families, African-American families who couldn't warrant. And so reparations would just be helping make people whole so that they can go on with their lives and maybe their family can then recover from what happened in the past. And until you do that kind of thing, I think it's very hard for people to recover. Thank you. And now I'll turn it over to James for some additional questions. Thanks, LeVette. So next question, question number seven will be coming back to you, Jen. And it is, as you both have alluded to already in the debate, our current transportation system beyond the MBTA is broken. So do you have any new initiatives with the emphasis on new to bring to the table? Jen. Well, what I would like to talk about a little bit here is how the culture on Beacon Hill is broken. There's a culture of secrecy that we have on Beacon Hill. If you've ever tried to really track a bill, like, oh, what's going on with the transportation financing, what's happening? It can be very hard to follow what is going on even if you're knowledgeable. And it's by design. Things, votes are taken in secret in committee. Votes are taken on the floor without them being reported. They're called voice votes. And a lot can happen and it's very hard to follow. And people who can afford lobbyists know exactly what is going on on Beacon Hill and their voices are heard. And so in something like this on transit, there has been, the voices that have been heard are people who don't want to pay taxes in order to provide services that work for everybody. And I think even some of those people honestly are having second thoughts, like, hey, how are my employees gonna get to work? This is really not working out. However, I think that, the other thing that's broken on Beacon Hill is this is the third year in a row that they don't have a budget out on time. And that's like their main work that they do. It's not just because of COVID, there's prior history here where there's just dysfunction. And so I'm part of a movement of candidates who have taken a transparency pledge. And I have said that I will make my votes public and I will make sure that the voter knows that I work for you. Transit is one of my transportation and transit are one of my top issues, top three issues. And I have a track record of assembling coalitions and making change in the past on access to justice for legal aid for low income people. And in the future, I hope on transit, on climate and on public education, the UMass system and our public schools. Thank you very much, Dave. Yes, well, we have a huge backlog in what's called the state of good repair. And that is just to bring our system up to what transportation planners call a state of good repair is probably 10 billion or more dollars. So your question was, what should we do that's new? And the key is first, we need to bring our current system up to a state of good repair. And that's why I've worked so hard to lobby for new revenue. That's why I took twice now two tough votes to raise revenue. Again, we just raised 600 million. We'll have a brand new red line for folks who live in my district by about 2022. Again, that's new switches, new relays, the parts that you don't see new electrical grid and of course, the red line cars. It's a key part of what you said that part of the pressure is that Boston again is one of the strongest regional economies in the world. And as a result, our urban core is under enormous pressure. And one of the things we need to do is we look forward is help other parts of the state, the so-called gateway cities grow through South Coast Rail through improving commuter rail transportation to other areas so that someone who lives in Cambridge, Arlington or Belmont might have a job in Worcester, might have a job in other parts of the state that are great jobs in high tech or biotech or whatever. So that's key that we also begin to think about the regional transit authorities. How do we invest in the regional transit authorities to make sure this urban core that's under such enormous pressure on affordable housing, on transportation and congestion that we take steps to invest in other parts of the state and to build a coalition of the state house when we're debating transportation and other issues. I work with legislators from other parts of the state. And so I build cooperative strong relationships and coalitions with them so that we can invest throughout all the state and help everyone succeed. Thank you, Dave. This is coming right back to you. Question eight is, as schools, as school districts, excuse me, wrestle with the question of reopening, how would you balance the competing interests that are at play, excuse me? And also, what lessons from the current situation should be applied moving forward? Great, so as I imagine you know, although Governor Baker with the stroke of the pen shut schools down, the reopening is going in a different way with the authority delegated to local school districts to come up with three plans, either all in person, all remote or hybrid version of that. And obviously we saw incredibly challenging time in the last school year with remote learning. That's particularly hard on those who don't have a good internet connection, particularly hard on often low income students. And so we need to look at equity issues so that what we're doing does not discriminate. Now, above all else, we must be guided by public health metrics. We've done a good job here in Massachusetts and we see explosions of cases all around the country. And compared to the world, we're struggling. And so, but here in Massachusetts, we have substantially lowered our case load, taken the pressure off our hospitals and saved countless lives. Although this is frustrating time, a challenging time, a difficult time, we cannot allow the virus to start spreading again exponentially. If public health experts who are school and all the details of how the virus works, the various ratios and the various percentages to look at believe it's okay to go in person, then we can do that. But I talked to my local school committee in my towns and there are challenges with the physical plant and getting the appropriate distancing. So again, obviously it's been an incredibly challenging time for students, for parents trying to manage their work at home while also helping educate their children for teachers. And we also have to remember it's not just students going back to school, it's teachers, it's other staff and who may be more vulnerable to this virus. So again, an incredibly challenging period, but we need to keep the lid on this virus so we can move to being fully open again, which will come, the biopharmaceutical companies all over the world are working furiously on both many viruses and medicine. I'm afraid we're out of time, thank you. Thank you. Okay, so I am a public school parent, my daughter's at the high school in Cambridge, the Cambridge-Range and Latin school. And so we experienced firsthand what it was like a freshman year that we interrupted in the middle. And I know what parents are going through, I know it's worse for parents who have younger children. And I am concerned about how the state has handled school reopening because the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, DESI, issued regulations that just didn't add up. They were recommending three feet, ideally six feet of distance, but three feet minimum. And it just didn't work out. There's no way to fit the students back in the classroom with those expectations, even if it was partial half the classroom in most cases. I also know the reality that districts have wildly different abilities to respond to this. I think the districts of Arlington, Belmont and Cambridge are well positioned and have the resources to be able to respond to this crisis well. But I also work in with students from the Boston public schools. And I'm aware that there are buildings where the windows don't open, where the HVAC is quite old. And so the ventilation of the classroom, which is one of the number one things that they recommend is not happening. Teachers and staff are really worried, rightly so, because they are at high risk down South where they opened up sooner than we did. They've started to have teachers and coaches die of COVID, as well as some students. And so I think that we need to be really cognizant of what are our expectations of the state and what do we want the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to be doing to support districts that don't have the financial resources to be- Okay, Jen, I'm sorry, I've got both of you off on this question, really a question worth asking. Moving on to the next one, and Jen, stay tuned. This is coming right back to you. There is heightened scrutiny of the criminal justice system and the policing of black communities in America, including current legislation that's addressing police reform. Where do you stand on the question of quality or on the issue of qualified immunity and accountability for police departments in Massachusetts? Jen. So I think I already addressed that I support removing qualified immunity and why. And I also want to say that the reforms that we're talking about here in the state are a good first step, but they are only a first step. And there is a lot of work to do and addressing systemic racism in a system is not easy. I have had experience, I used to lead the largest nonprofit partner with the Cambridge Public Schools, a group that does tutoring and mentoring before, during and after school. And in that role as an educator and as a public school parent, I participated in a effort that's ongoing around dismantling systemic racism within the schools. And the work is not easy. It takes a lot of trust to be built up and it requires us to examine things that are assumptions about why things are the way they are because often they are the way they are because it's helpful to certain groups and not to others. And if we're honest with ourselves, I think we need to recognize that our policing system has been set up so that people like me can call the police and have no fear. And other people just don't feel like they can call the police. I've worked with victims of domestic violence who didn't wanna call the police even when they're afraid of their partner because they didn't want him to be shot. And people should know that their public safety is there for them and will protect them. And so I think there's a lot of work to be done and eliminating qualified immunity is a first step. And I don't even know if it'll come out of the conference committee, we'll see what happens. Okay, thanks very much. Dave? Yeah, thank you for the question. And not only do I support reforms to qualified immunity, I'm the representative on Beacon Hill who filed an amendment and forced a roll call on the issue. And I thought it was too important to let the debate pass by without having that conversation and that debate and that vote. Again, I'm not new to this fight. Since the very beginning of my time in service, I filed more criminal justice as much or more than almost any other representative or senator on Beacon Hill. And we've had many victories, as I said, in our criminal justice reform that eliminated discriminatory, mandatory minimums that reform solitary confinement that lowered the felony larceny threshold, which was hurting communities of color because it was a felony in our state for only a shoplifting $250. We raise that dramatically because we don't want people with felony convictions. I've also been advocating for the ability to vote in prison. We see states in the South disenfranchising people. Again, very proud to be endorsed by the chair of the Black and Latino Caucus, Carlos Gonzalez for my strong work on police reform. But also as a legislator, I know what it takes to get things done because I've been doing this work and building coalitions closely. Again, 34 Democrats voted against it. Our state is more complicated than its national reputation. So we do not have a veto proof majority. And unlike the presidential level where a president can either sign or veto legislation, here in our state, governors have a third and fourth option, a line item veto or an amendment. Given Governor Baker's popularity and how he handled the coronavirus pandemic, I think we need to be mindful that he may amend this bill and they may try to run out the clock. I'm pushing hard that the conference committee generate. I agree that it's a first step. We can never tire, we can never waver, we can never stop in our fight against systemic racism, not just in the criminal justice system, but in our education system, in our housing. Thank you, Dave. Thank you. It's the end of time. And so for the last question in this round, it is gonna go to you first, Dave Rogers, and it is. Clearly we are still digging our way out or through the current public health crisis. But where do you see jobs being created in the new economic environment that we will face once we get past here? Yes. I don't want for a minute to downplay how serious the situation we are in. We have enormous disruption, economic disruption, people who are getting sick and tragically in my district, Belmont Manor, where we lost over 50 lives. And I worked with the governor's staff to get personal protective equipment to first responders and the staff at Belmont Manor. So I know how serious this time is, I've seen it and I've worked on it. However, as I said, almost every biopharmaceutical company or many around the world are working furiously, both on antiviral medicines and on ultimately a vaccine. And we will get there, it will take time. In the meantime, we must be vigilant about following public health guidelines. We, I applaud the governor for slowing down the reopening and for putting new orders in place. We need to stay vigilant throughout this, but we will get to a better place. And I think, as I said, we have one of the most thriving regional economies, not just in America and the world. We'll still have a very dynamic economy, I think, in all sectors, our public higher education institutions, our healthcare industry, our biotech. But also we have to fight for working people. And that's why I've been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, I've been endorsed by SCIU, I've been endorsed by countless labor organizations because of my strong support for labor throughout my time in the state house. So I see jobs, I see us coming back slowly. We just reported good revenue last year, so people are still working from home, we still have economic growth. But when we build back, and I can't stress this enough, what animates me, what drives me? If this pandemic is exposed inequality that's been building for 30 or 40 years and it's come glaringly to the surface, we must build back better. That must be our key objective, that not only do we recover, but that everyone is included as we do recover, and that's what will drive my work as your representative. Thanks a lot. In the last two minutes of this section, go to you, Jen Fritz. Okay. So in my job right now, I'm the head of a nonprofit that encourages high school students to look at careers in architecture, construction, and engineering through project-based learning and mentorship opportunities. So I have been hearing a lot and I think that there are still sectors of our economy that are quite strong and where they are looking to still build their workforce and they expect that they will be hiring and they want to diversify the workforce as much as possible. I think obviously biotech and pharma are going to be a huge part of our, have always been a huge part of our economy, are going to be even more so as we make our way through this pandemic and whatever else is in our future. But the thing I would like to talk about is the Green New Deal, which is a federal policy proposal. But here in this state, we can look to move from spending a lot of money and sending money out of state for gas and oil, and instead keep that money here in our state by investing in green and renewable technologies. The solar and wind for electricity generation, those are good green jobs and we need to make sure there's a just transition so that those jobs can be taken by people who are being pushed out of fossil fuel kind of jobs. And then for heating our homes, geothermal is a great option and it's a renewable source. So when you put those kind of capital investments in, yes, it is costly upfront, but then like I put solar panels on my house, it was a lot of money, but then it's money that we keep in the state. The money went to a local company here that has local workers who have good jobs and that's what the Green New Deal is about. It's about having us be part of the future of the energy transition. Thanks very much. And now over to LaVette Curry who will introduce the next section. Thank you. And thank you candidates for your thoughtful responses. In this section, the candidates will now have an opportunity to ask questions to one another. Each candidate will be given 30 seconds to ask their question. Candidates, please be brief. You will have a time later for a longer statement. After the question, the respondent will have two minutes to answer. And then following the response, the candidate who posed the question will have a one minute rebuttal. Jennifer, please ask the first question. You have 30 seconds for your question. So Dave, you and I both know that there's a lack of transparency on Beacon Hill and a lot of really good and important legislation and policy goes into committee and it dies there on a secret vote. When Representative John Hecht introduced a package of three transparency amendments to try and improve the House rules, you voted against it. And despite the fact that many members, 50 members of the Democratic caucus did vote for it, can you explain why you voted against transparency? Sure. First, let me talk about transparency generally. One of the key things for any representative being transparent is how to communicate with their constituents. So I publish a detailed report on how I voted, why I voted that way. I meet with my constituents all the time to talk about the process. I publish my personal cell phone number and talk in detail with constituents about that. For the first time ever, I'm chair of the cannabis committee because I fought for the legalization of cannabis. And even though I don't proselytize or evangelize for the use of it, it was recognized that I was a leader and I was made the chair. I publish all my committee votes. As for also for transparency, the other key thing is I live in a very and represent a very activist district. I get thousands over my time serving, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of emails. Almost never have been contacted about this issue. Literally, I'm not exaggerating. So what my constituents care about is a strong, bold, progressive agenda. And we've passed women's pay equity, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, Paid Family and Medical Leave, 3,200 megawatts of offshore wind, which I helped lead on and the new climate change bill that I also helped lead on. That's why I'm endorsed by the Environmental League of Massachusetts, by 350 Massachusetts. That's why when Ed Markey came to Massachusetts to unveil the Green New Deal, he first unveiled it with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Washington, came here to Green Town Labs to unveil it where he called me a climate champion. And so I agree we need to create a lot of bold programs in the environmental space where a lot of jobs will be created. So as to that specific vote, the way we've had these enormous successes on criminal justice reform, on women's rights, on the rights of labor, on the rights of the communities of color and on countless other issues is we've built coalitions. We had no coalition built on this issue and it was doomed to fail and I had to spend my political capital carefully and sure enough, I think I did because I've pushed for more reform since then. Okay, thank you so much. Your rebuttal, please, Jen. So I think that it is important to build coalitions and it's important to create trusting relationships if you want to get things done. But I think that, again, people who can hire a lobbyist just have an outsized voice on Beacon Hill and the rest of us voters don't and I wanna work for you, the voter. So if you do care about transparency as an issue, I hope that you will take a look at my candidacy. I have taken a transparency pledge with Act On Mass and I know that it will make a difference in how we can build a true progressive coalition. My opponent has taken more than $13,000 from lobbyists, including $5,000 from folks in the marijuana industry, which he is the head of the committee on cannabis in the house. So I hope you'll take a look at me, thanks. Thank you so much. Dave, please ask your question, 30 seconds for the question. Sure, in the house, we just passed a sweeping climate change bill that will make all sorts of innovations on renewable portfolio standard on environmental justice and on countless other issues, including more offshore wind. And of course, we also passed an amendment that will make sure the municipal light power plants have to comply with the same strenuous regulations of investor-owned utilities. Belmont has a municipal light plant and I'd like to ask Jen how she thinks they're doing and what they should do better. So Belmont's municipal light plant purchases its electricity from end star. So when we are talking about electricity generation and having our utilities switch to green renewables, I think that we are looking at all of our utility companies and how that energy comes into the grid doesn't exactly matter, except that we want it to start coming from renewable sources. So again, I wanna just point out that the package of climate legislation that Dave is talking about, first of all, the really good bills that were filed by Sean Garberley and Rep Decker on moving us to 100% renewable, that did not survive in the house. We have just things get killed in the house. Lori Ehrlich's bill on the Future Act, which would switch us to utility generation that is 100% renewable and allow natural gas companies to switch to geothermal, that Future Act also died. So we were kind of salvaging the scraps of climate change reform. And what I heard from the Sierra Club is that the house proposal doesn't get us to zero emissions until 2090. At that point, there will be parts of the district that will be seven to 10 feet underwater. And by the way, this is an environmental justice issue because a lot of those parts of the district that are low lying are where the affordable housing is in the district. Hundreds of units of affordable housing are threatened by storm surges and flooding. Again, we send $20 billion out of state that we pay in oil and gas to heat our homes and to drive our cars. If we can switch to renewables and electric cars, if we can switch to geothermal heating, we can keep that money in our state. Thank you so much. One minute for your rebuttal, Dave. Yes, well, I'd just like to point out my questions out with Belmont's municipal light plant, which is ranked number one in the state of the 41 municipal light plants on clean and renewable energy. They've been blazing a trail. And it's a great example of the community activism in Belmont. Many folks I collaborate with at Sustainable Belmont have partnered with me and also talked to the light plant to foster greater traction on these issues. And as a result now, we have the leading municipal light plant in Belmont in the entire state. Of course, we need to do more. Again, on climate, that's why I've been endorsed by Environmental League of Massachusetts, by 350 Massachusetts and why Ed Markey called me a climate champion. I also used to work at the Environmental Protection Agency and for a clean energy software company in Kendall Square. The bill we passed just recently builds on what we've already done here in the state. We've now authorized 3,200 megawatts of offshore wind. To put that in perspective, 800,000 megawatts, the Vineyard Wind Project is enough to generate a lot of energy. We have to go and catch you up. Thank you so much, candidates, for your questions and the responses. Now I wanna turn it over to Gilchrist for the final section. Thank you, LaVette. For this section, each candidate will have a minute to give their closing statements. Jen. Thank you, Gilchrist. So tonight we've talked about a lot of important issues that are facing our state. And we agree upon a lot of things, but what we don't agree upon is how to make strategic coalitions and so that we can make progressive change. We have a culture on Beacon Hill of not just secrecy, but there's been a failure to act on crucial issues like housing, transportation. There's been a series of half measures on fixing the climate change crisis and on the tee. Even the Student Opportunity Act, which Dave referred to was passed, but is very unclear whether we fully funded it. They dragged their feet for years and years and years after the Foundation Budget Review Committee before they finally passed something. So I think that things are broken on Beacon Hill, but that they can be better. And I hope that voters will take a look at me and I hope to earn your vote in the Democratic primary. Thank you for that, Jen. Dave. Yes, thank you to Ms. Freeze, the moderators and everyone who tuned in. Obviously we're going through an unprecedented time. And despite the many challenges, I have seen incredible resilience in our communities in countless ways as we pulled together to help one another. But it's not enough to restore the status quo prior to the pandemic. This public health crisis has revealed glaring inequalities that have been building for a long time. We need to address those inequalities in racial, social and economic justice terms so that we can move the ball forward. To get there, we'll take all of us working together. And I certainly pledge to do my part as I have all along. It's why I've been endorsed by countless organizations like NARAL and Planned Parenthood and Labor and environmental groups. With that in mind, I humbly ask for your vote and for your support. It's been an honor to represent you. Thank you, Dave. Now to James. I want to thank both candidates. It's been a highly worthwhile hour. We really appreciate your taking the time and sharing so much of your platforms with us today. I also want to say it's been a real pleasure to work with my co-hosts, Gilchrist and Boywa from Belmont and LeVette Curry from Cambridge. Gilchrist. For more information, you can go to ballotpedia.org and for replays, you can go to acmi.tv, cctvcambridge.org or belmontmedia.org. Thank you. Thank you. And LeVette. Thank you, candidates, for your participation this evening. Thank you to our audience. Thank you to my co-host. Please remember, your engagement doesn't stop tonight. Remember to vote and encourage everyone you know to get out there and vote. You can vote by mail or in person. To vote by mail, please make sure to have the application in no later than August 26th for the State Preparatory. The primary will occur on September 1st, 2020. Your vote is your voice. Your voice is vital. Our state needs to hear from each and every one of you. Vote, vote, vote, and have a good night. Thank you. Thank you.