Tim Cahill, Independent Candidate for Governor of Massachusetts

I am starting my research, a bit late but still in time, into the candidacy of Tim Cahill for governor of Massachusetts. I started this research by typing "Tim Cahill" into the Google search bar. Of course, his forgovernor website was at the top of the list.

So this is how Mr. Cahill would like to be seen. His website is easy to navigate, I find. His position as an independent is not one of the little guy, but as the only one who understands the little guy. In addition to his terms as Massachusetts State Treasurer, he has been a small business owner and maintains a middle class life. In a climate of tax increase and unemployment, he promises to focus on small businesses, the taxpayers, and government fiscal responsibility. He aims to accomplish these goals by navigating his agenda above party politics.

To spur small business growth, he will lower the cost of doing business in the Commonwealth. My investigation into the how of his plan is forthcoming, but he promises to cut taxes and eliminate fees and otherwise water and give good light to the Commonwealth's small business base.

Being of the middle class, I'd like to see taxes cut. But also for what government spending remains, I'd like to know that programs were being developed to protect jobs in the Commonwealth. That when the government spends, the expenditure spreads throughout the ground level. Small business growth, I think, better helps circulate wealth throughout a locality than big business growth. For 100 jobs created by small business is 100 jobs but also is local money that remains local money, and so small business growth keeps a local flavor in the air. With this flavor a greater sense of community and pride in community is achieved.  The community flourishes, the flourishing is palpable and so the community's happiness factor then rises, optimism rises alongside, and with these positive energies in the air anything is then truly possible.  Local small businesses, more so than big business centered out of town, are willing to participate in community events and planning.  The good times are then shared by all. 

Indeed, Mr. Cahill promises he has and will continue to make communities a priority.  I encourage anyone reading this, from Massachusetts or elsewhere, to read Mr. Cahill's statements, or at least the excerpt I provide below. I am intrigued in this hour by the role an Independent can play in the shaping of a fiscally responsible, community driven government.  For surely such a government is needed in these times of economic recession. And if you give eye and ear to Mr. Cahill's words, you may also become intrigued by the role only an Independent can play. 

For the troubles we are facing now, on local, state and national levels, we can surely point the figure to both Democrats and Republicans. Their fighting for power has gotten in the way of their doing a good job. And while the voices they embody and represent do constitute a part of our electorate, these individual voices are not the collective whole, their individual plans do not treat the whole problem. And the whole is not well at the moment.  An Independent candidate, the very meaning of what it means to be an Independent candidate in this political atmosphere, can surely be the only candidate qualified for a leadership position in this economic climate, where that leader's job is to make well the whole, and not merely represent one of its parts.

What follows is an except from Mr. Cahill's website, under the section "Why I'm Running."  I think you may find, as have I, that his well-crafted message points to the type of candidacy that is much needed for gubernatorial leadership, not just in Massachusetts, but throughout this country.

There has been much speculation since I announced my candidacy on what it means to run as an independent. Last year, when Deval Patrick chose to raise taxes during a struggling economy, I knew that I could no longer remain a member of the Democratic Party.

This election requires an honest discussion on the issues and problems that face the commonwealth, not the typical back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats. That is why I am running as an independent.

I believe that leadership should always transcend party. The issues facing our commonwealth do not discriminate on the basis of political party, and the solutions to building a more secure future will not be achieved without a bipartisan effort.

Time and time again, Democrats and Republicans turn to their worn-out party agendas to feign change and reform. Republicans oppose ideas from Democrats and Democrats oppose ideas from Republicans — this has led to nothing more than gridlock.

Whether you're talking about the Democrats or Republicans on Capitol Hill or Beacon Hill, their shortcomings are one and the same. The Democrats' idea of "good government" is fairness, transparency and accountability, and the Republicans always talk a good game about "fiscal conservatism" — preaching small government, affordability and individual responsibility. Yet, both parties financed earmarks, big-business bailouts, and the Big Dig; neither side has dealt with our state nor our country's mounting debt and deficits.

There are ideological issues on which the parties fundamentally differ, but the overall success of our future should not depend on adherence or disagreement with those beliefs depending on who wins an election. When the election is over, we must work toward a consensus on the challenges that divide us, while remaining committed to those that unite us. This is not something either party has had the willingness or ability to do.

I am running for governor because the middle class is getting overlooked and there is no longer anyone representing our interests. Look at your choices this year: a Democrat who raised taxes and sent much of our state's decision-making power to Washington, and a Republican who saddled taxpayers with billions of dollars in debt by concocting the financing scheme for the Big Dig. We have to do better than that.

I understand the struggles of the middle class because I share those same struggles in my own life — unlike the other two candidates in this race. As a former small-business owner, I am the only candidate who can truly appreciate the value of every dollar. I am the only candidate who has a proven record of responsibility and results in government, and I am the only candidate who will look out for the citizens whom special interests and party agendas have left behind.

In the past 50 years of campaigns, we have been told that only a Republican can cut taxes and only a Democrat can fight for the middle class. But the two parties have strayed from those ideals. Democrats focus on big government and Republicans focus on big business — and that must change.

I am running for governor to improve our state's business climate by shifting the focus back to small business growth, to make government function in a more fiscally responsible way — just as I have over the past seven years as your state treasurer — and to restore the voice of the middle class in government. It is time to stop worrying about moving Massachusetts to the left or to the right; it is time to move the commonwealth forward.