OPINION: Voters deserve higher standards from their candidates

By Chris Oates

Last week, at a forum in Medford, one of the other candidates said that “for me, number one, we should even abolish ICE. That is the very first bill that I want to lead on.”

Some in the crowd applauded and I was absolutely stunned.

I’d love to abolish ICE. But we’re running for the State House of Representatives. And the state has zero ability to eliminate a federal agency.

What was even more striking, however, was what didn’t happen next. There was no immediate follow-up. No interruption from the moderator. No gaggle of reporters asking the candidate to explain how Beacon Hill can abolish an agency under the jurisdiction of Washington.

As a first-time candidate for the State House, this moment represents what I’ve come to see as the biggest problem in Massachusetts politics.

Candidates for public office face far, far too little scrutiny. And our politics is worse for it.

State government matters. Anyone who drives on roads, breathes the air, has kids in the schools, or ever has to see a doctor is affected by the decisions made by our legislature. We should expect everyone running for office to uphold the highest possible standards in choosing what policies they propose.

Yet I’ve seen laughable promises from candidates in my race. One of my opponents put on his palm card (the flyers that are dropped off at your door) that he would “end backroom deals” and “stop paying legislators who don’t show up to work.” Two things I’d love to see, but neither of which is remotely plausible for a state representative, much less in their first term.

Perhaps the lack of scrutiny is jarring to me because I don’t come from elected politics, where I guess slogans like these are common. I completed a PhD in International Relations at Oxford, where every sentence could be questioned by one of the five professors whose gauntlet I’d have to run to pass. I then got a job as a political risk analyst, where every article and report was checked by bosses and colleagues before being sent to exacting clients like the United Nations and Department of Defense. And when I moved into state policy and worked on the Ranked Choice Voting ballot campaign, I had to assume that any claim I made that wasn’t fully supported could have been used against us.

In most professions where mistakes can have consequences, we create processes to check them before they happen. In the legal process, there are trials. Medicine has residency and oversight protocols.

Government derives accountability from competitive elections and journalism, but Massachusetts has too little of both.

We have the least competitive state legislative elections in the country. About 60% of our representatives and senators are running unopposed. When people don’t face tough races, not only can they cut corners, but they can also develop a culture of “go along to get along,” where politicians rarely challenge each other.

Candidates should face scrutiny from reporters, but the number of journalism jobs in the United States declined by 26% from 2008 to 2020. There simply aren’t enough reporters to be everywhere all the time, so a plan made by a state representative candidate that would only be possible in Congress goes unnoticed.

Scrutiny is the foundation of good governance. It’s what helps us get the details right to ensure that we can actually make housing affordable, childcare universal, and healthcare accessible. So, to bring more of it to Massachusetts, I have plans for reviving local journalism and fostering more competition.

To get more reporters on the beat, I’m supporting a plan to provide a $250 tax credit to subscribe to local news.

To get more competitive elections, I have a ten-point proposal that includes moving the primary away from the political dead zone of September 1 (to mid-June), ensuring November is the election that matters (a top-four primary and ranked-choice voting in the general), that voters get information (a legislative debate commission), and even term limits (12 years in the House and 12 in the Senate).

This has been my first race as a candidate after a career working around government and policy. I knew it wasn’t going to be all high-minded philosophical debates. But the standard of policy discussion has been depressingly low, with too many empty phrases instead of real plans.

Voters deserve more from their government, and creating a more vibrant democracy with a healthy free press is one of the best ways to get it.

Chris Oates is a candidate for state representative in the 34th Middlesex District.