Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

I just got back from a meeting and discussion with Rhode Island Secretary of State and U.S. Senate candidate Matt Brown. First off, I really enjoyed going to a political event that, instead of being in far-off states as in my prior experience, was held at a house that I think literally borders mine. (For those of you from around here, it was on Pond Street.) So that was hot stuff. Fortunately the event itself turned out great on its own merits.

Matt Brown has an interesting background for a Senate candidate. He started the City Year program in which kids do community service for a year. Some kids do it for a year before they go to college, and some kids do it who aren't going to school. It's a great program, besides the community service itself, a lot of the kids doing it are underprivileged or talented people whose lives have lost a bit of momentum. A lot of people have really benefited from this program.

Eventually Matt Brown realizes that if City Year can only accept one out of every 17 kids, there are 16 other talented kids out there who aren't being given the chance to succeed. So he decides that he has to find a bigger organization that can help people get a fair shot, and concludes the only organization big enough is the federal government. Matt Brown has experience in government as Secretary of State, and he decided that the real way to effect change on the level he seeks is the federal government. Hence, the run for U.S. Senate. A lot of candidates, even the ones I like, don't have a real reason for running other than some generic "I can fight for you" reasoning. It's neat (and a little off-putting) to see a candidate who really wants to do something with the office.

In terms of issues, I got the impression that Matt Brown wants to focus on the point where the importance of education meets our government's failure to do enough about it. Everyone knows a lot of our public schools aren't good enough to get those students an education that will prepare them for life. A lot of public universities are now pricing themselves out of a lot of kids' budgets, and more and more good students can't go to public universities because of the money. Aren't our public schools designed to service everybody? They shouldn't be this bad, especially since Matt Brown claims that it's pretty well proven that good schools come from small schools, small classes, and good teachers. If that's true, this ain't rocket science, and you sure don't need to have a series of unfair tests on only two (count 'em) subjects and then start dismissing schools as failures, as Team Republican seems to think will fix our educational system.

But more than that, Matt Brown wants government and elected officials to stop acting like compromise is inherently a victory. Compromise can lead to a lot of good things, but it's a means, not an end. The goal, of course, is to solve problems. This is in stark contrast to our current senator; Lincoln Chafee seems to think of his moderate Republicanism as a gimmick he can use to talk about how he compromises all the time. Again, I don't mind it as a means, but Chafee always leaves out the part about what his compromises did for the state of Rhode Island. What a chump. Anyway, it was good to see Matt Brown keeps his eye on the ball.

So I like Matt Brown. I was most relieved, though, to see his political skills in action. Like it or not, to win a statewide campaign, these guys have to have talents that don't necessarily indicate future performance in office. But Matt Brown is a genuinely funny guy, he's an engaging speaker, he knows how to turn a question his way and, most important, he raised more money in the first quarter than any other Senate challenger. So I'm feeling good about his chances, especially against a guy like Chafee with something like a 36 reelect. All in all, I left the meeting with one thought: I really want Matt Brown to win. Very good times.