When the national elections are held just two weeks from today, it’s a safe bet that network coverage will spend a fair amount of time looking at the Massachusetts race for the U.S. Senate. The passing of Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy in 2009 and subsequent election of Republican Scott Brown in his stead was seen as a critical shift in congressional power, as it ostensibly preserved the GOP’s ability to filibuster legislation it deemed too partisan.
Brown’s Democratic party opponent in the current campaign cycle, Elizabeth Warren, is considered a strong challenger due to her role establishing the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among other public policies in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The two politicians have waged a heated campaign resulting in historical amounts of funding from supporters both within the Massachusetts’ Commonwealth and national political action committees. (See this October 15 U.S. News and World Report article by Seth Cline for more details.)
But neither candidate has done much by way of making direct appeals to people with disabilities and advocate groups. The first instance we’ve seen of any such attempt was this short note in Shira Schoenberg’s campaign trail summary on MassLive.com last week that said Warren was scheduled to join a roundtable discussion with the Disability Consortium in Boston; however that meeting has thus far not merited a mention in the DPC’s blog, much less any media coverage.
We do know that disability right’s advocates within the state have reached out to Warren regarding a statement she made on the radio in support of Ballot Question 2, which would legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts. This press release by the No On Question 2 coalition details the organizations involved in the campaign to have it voted down and some of their concerns for the disability community. But there has been no indication in the press that any meeting between Warren and the No On Question 2 leadership has taken place.
Scott Brown is officially undecided on Question 2, according to Boston Magazine blogger Eric Randall’s September 25 post, but his voting record as both a representative and a senator in state government shows he most definitely adheres to his platform of fiscal restraint with regards to programs that aid people with disabilities. This page on OnTheIssues.org catalogs votes he made in 2003 and 2004 that either cut or denied funding to three programs, including approving a $200,000 reduction in funding for a program that provided employment opportunities to people who are visually impaired, and another vote that denied $900,000 in combined funds for Special Olympics Massachusetts, Work Inc., and Best Buddies Massachusetts, the latter two being programs that provide job training to people with disabilities.
Both candidates have distinct positions on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as made clear in Associated Press reporter Steve LeBlanc’s article, “Medicare a top issue in Mass. US Senate Contest,” published in last Thursday’s Boston Globe. Warren is in favor of the law, which also has the endorsement of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) among other advocacy organizations. Brown, meanwhile, voted against the law upon defeating Martha Coakley in the 2010 special election to replace Senator Kennedy, despite having voted in favor of the 2006 Massachusetts health care law that LeBlanc called “a blueprint for the federal law.”
Share your opinions about who you think will better represent people with disabilities in the comments section, including any relevant links we might have missed.
Image by DonkeyHotey.