SALEM — Marisa DeFranco is a proud liberal Democrat who believes in a single-payer health care system, deficit spending, diplomacy, gay rights and equal pay for equal work — and she's not afraid to say it.
"I am not a centrist, and I will not capitulate when it comes to the issues. I will work hard and fight for what I believe in," said DeFranco, an immigration lawyer from Middleton, who is one of three Democrats running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Scott Brown.
If you haven't heard of DeFranco, it's not surprising. Her candidacy has been hard to see against the blinding glow of fellow Democrat Elizabeth Warren, who flew into the race in September to the fanfare of the national Democratic establishment. Since then, other Democratic candidates have fled the race, bowing down to the Warren campaign's sense of invincibility. Not DeFranco.
"I am a thorn in their side," DeFranco admitted yesterday, speaking of the Democratic machine during an interview after an appearance in front of political science students at Salem State University. "Democrats suffer from a superhero syndrome. Like someone will fly into the state that we can anoint to save us from Scott Brown. That is a really dumb strategy."
The most clear example of this came in May of last year when Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Patty Murray said she expected her party to soon find "a great candidate" to challenge Republican Sen. Scott Brown. DeFranco's had announced her campaign two months before.
"When I go in Democratic circles, I hear 'So and so is going to be the next mayor of Boston, because he's next in line,'" she said. "That's a part of the political system that I totally disagree with. Nobody is entitled to a seat. Somebody has to break the mold."
DeFranco, 41, said she's running for Senate because of her convictions and her desire to make people's lives better. She's disappointed with Democrats bowing to Republican demands, negotiating from the middle and ending up on the far right. As a federal immigration lawyer, she said she understands how government works, how negotiation works, and she has the energy to move the needle farther toward the progressive end. You might call her platform the anti-Tea Party platform.
"My basic view is I do believe in the power of the federal government to do good things and make people's lives better," she said.
Her platform revolves around job creation, renewable energy and comprehensive, single-payer health care reform. She wants to eliminate health insurance companies and their 30 percent overhead costs, and let the government pay for care by dealing directly with private doctors and hospitals. The move would bring down costs, make people healthier and create jobs, she said.
"If you're a business and you don't have to worry about health care costs, you can hire more employees. But you don't because of the sticker price of $5,000 to $10,000 to cover someone," she said.
Instead of scheming on ways to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, the government should be working on ways "to change the equation to get back to equal opportunity for all," she said. "You shouldn't have to work 80 to 90 hours a week and have two or three jobs just to sustain yourself. You should be able to have a 40-hour workweek and not be poor."
Her proposal is to start spending more money and put people back to work. Republicans have railed against this thinking, citing the rising deficit. If a family has to watch its spending during a time of fiscal distress, so should the government, it is argued. DeFranco disagrees.
"Government is not a household; that is a stupid analogy. Anybody with a mortgage is deficit spending. Anybody with student loans is deficit spending. It's not deficit spending, it's investment spending in the future in order to grow," she said.
Money is needed to get Americans back to work; money for education, renewable energy, high speed rail, roads and other infrastructure.
She proposes spending $100 billion over two years and said it would create 2 million new jobs — half of that money would come from closing corporate loopholes, she said. Much of that investment should go toward fostering a thriving renewable energy sector.
"When will we get serious about renewable energy? When we're 30 or 40 years behind China? We're America, we have the people, we have the technology, what are we lacking? Clearly it's the political will," she said, noting the large subsidies the government gives to oil companies. The reason is those oil companies "fund the U.S. Congress. But unless we get serious about renewable energy, we will not be competitive in the world."
DeFranco remains optimistic about her candidacy, despite the mainstream opinion that Warren's nomination is inevitable. She urged the students and voters to take a look at her ideas, not the political pundits.
"The closed party system is what turns people off, and quite frankly it turns me off," she said. "Instead of trying to find a solution, they hold onto their talking points. This is not a solution business; it is a winning business. But what comes after winning? What's your solution?"
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