Mac D’Alessandro was all about small businesses during his recent visit to Dedham – grabbing lunch at the High Street Café, visiting Dedham House of Pizza and the Blue Bunny bookstore, and briefly stopping at Paradise Cafe.
“It’s very important to see the drive of small business owners in communities like this, to keep their heads above water. We’ve got to find a way to help them,” the Democratic candidate for Congress said. “I love vibrant town centers with small, independent businesses.”
Farmers markets – like the one D’Alessandro went to here later that afternoon – accentuate that theme.
“This money and these products stay in the area. And it has environmental benefits, economic benefits,” he said last Wednesday, in between talking with shoppers at the Dedham Farmers Market off Providence Highway.
D’Alessandro, 40, of Milton is challenging incumbent Stephen Lynch, 55, from South Boston in September’s Democratic primary in the 9th Congressional District. It includes 21 cities and towns, stretching from Boston to Bridgewater and as far west as Medfield.
D’Alessandro came to Dedham in the midst of his “21 in 21 for the 9th District” tour, which he began July 11 in East Bridgewater and is due to wrap up this Saturday in various Boston neighborhoods. He said the campaign swing helps “demonstrate the kind of congressman I would be, how I’d like to serve, by being a consistent presence, hearing people’s concerns, and having a conversation with the communities I’d represent.”
The upbeat candidate was effusive about his lunch, which was a turkey Reuben.
“Trying to get the fried, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing – bad for me – with the turkey – good for me. And then I also cheated and I had some fries. And I had a raspberry lime rickey,” he said. “If folks have not had the raspberry lime rickey at the High Street Café, I urge them to get over there and have one. First of all, it’s a gallon. And they put fresh limes in. It’s delicious. It’s refreshing as all get out on a hot day like today.”
In an interview at the market, he gave his stance on many issues, including unemployment insurance, which he said needs to be extended “so that people can keep their heads above water until this economy improves.”
D’Alessandro said that during his tour he heard shared concerns about “the state of the economy, and the loss of jobs, and the fact that those jobs are not coming back quickly enough.”
“And there’s frustration. There’s frustration that Washington seems to be really responsive when huge multinational corporations need a hand, but much less so when our families and our communities need a hand. And that’s what we’re hearing a lot of, and I certainly do understand that,” said D’Alessandro, who is on leave from his job as New England political director of the Service Employees International Union. “My family, my wife and I, we sit at the table and we go over the bills and the monthly budget, and we wonder how the hell it is we’re both working so hard, and just barely seem to be scraping by. And then we realize we’re lucky, right? There’s families in this district that are struggling mightily in this economy. Those are the families I want to fight for.”
D’Alessandro said continued economic stimulus is needed, and that big banks that received billions in bailouts could be prodded “to start extending credit again to small businesses and to families.”
He added that until small businesses get those loans and are able to hire and expand, “we’re stuck in this economic quicksand, which makes the government’s role in helping to lift us out of the quicksand that much more important.”
D’Alessandro said he got into the race in April, after another would-be candidate decided not to run – and in less than two weeks, 150 volunteers collected 4,000 certified voter signatures, twice the number needed. He called that “a very early and very clear sign and evidence of the energy and enthusiasm for my candidacy, and for the idea that we need a change.”
Asked what prompted him to run, he said that “Steve Lynch did, with his no vote on health care, with his yes vote to Iraq and his vote to continue to fund that war, even while our economy here has collapsed. His vote for the Stupak amendment, which was an assault on a woman’s right to choose. And his vote for the Patriot Act. Warrantless wiretapping of law-abiding citizens? No. These are not my beliefs, and I believe that this is not the beliefs of the majority of the people in this district.”
Scott Ferson, a Lynch campaign spokesman, responded that “D’Alessandro is the classic special interest candidate.”
“He is running because his employer was upset at the congressman’s vote on health care. I call that special interest,” Ferson said.
Lynch supported the initial House health care bill last November, but voted against the Senate bill during its close, make-or-break vote in the House in March, saying its reforms didn’t go far enough. Minutes later, Lynch then voted for the “reconciliation bill” because he said it made needed improvements, given that the first, landmark bill was already on its way to becoming law.
“He was skeptical at the time and voted against it,” Ferson said of the Lynch vote that got the most attention. But now that the health care plan has passed, Lynch is focused on its implementation, Ferson said. “He’s going to work to make sure that particularly the savings will be in there as we move forward.”
Ferson said Lynch stands by his votes against the bank bailout and for the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq. “We’re at a better position in Iraq now than we were before the vote,” he said.
D’Alessandro wants to end the Iraq war and withdraw American troops as soon and safely as possible.
He said a stable economy and stable government are needed to ensure success in Afghanistan, and that “we’ve got to ramp up our humanitarian and economic and diplomatic efforts to achieve those two things.”
Walking around the farmers market, D’Alessandro spotted a sign for Foxboro Cheese Co., then remarked to a field organizer, “Keep me away from the cheese. Because I’m a cheese addict.”
He also tried his hand – and foot – at spinning yarn on a pedal wheel.
He was confident about his chances overcoming Lynch, who has been in office since 2001.
“There’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm among voters,” D’Alessandro said, and a lot of frustration with Washington. “I think people are eager to give new folks and new ideas a chance.”
Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
Find more political news at Wicked Local Politics
