Bob Massie in 2018 MA Governor's race

On Corporations: Ceres Reporting Initiative: socially rate pension funds

So that's what we did. I became the director of Ceres, a coalition of labor and environmental activists working with the biggest pension funds in the country. We used the huge influence of our coalition to demand that multinational corporations measure and disclose about the effect of their actions on the climate, on working conditions, and on race and social justice.

We launched an international non-profit called the Global Reporting Initiative that set a new international standard for measuring whether corporations were making progress or going backwards. This has had great success. Today 12,000 companies have adopted the new standards.

On Government Reform: Organized people can beat organized money

The grassroots power of 10,000 Our Revolution Massachusetts members and friends will be critical to successful caucuses, as well as building momentum toward the primary and general elections. We will work to employ their creativity and energy in a genuine people-powered campaign.

On Immigration: Support Safe Communities over Trump's abhorrent ICE policies

I was pleased by a recent Superior Court ruling that Massachusetts officers [cannot] arrest an individual solely on the basis of a Federal civil immigration detainer. But we need to do more.

My mother is a first-generation Swiss immigrant. I have not forgotten my immigrant roots. We are all immigrants here. It's time we started treating all immigrants with respect and giving them our support. Unlike Governor Baker, who jumped on the anti-Muslim bandwagon and blocked Syrian women and children entry to Massachusetts, my values regarding immigrants echo those emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty.

On Drugs: End mandatory minimums for low level drug offenses

Highlights from Criminal Justice Reform bill:
• Ending Mandatory Minimums: Eliminates statutory sentences for many low-level, non-violent drug offenses.
• Expungement: Courts will now be able to expunge juvenile and young adult (18-21) records, and cases where an offense is no longer a crime.
• Diversion: to address the opioid epidemic, district attorneys must create pre-arraignment diversion programs for individuals with addiction or mental health issues [currently only available to defendants aged 22 and under).

On Jobs: Supports $15 per hour minimum wage ballot question

Massie noted his past experiences as a minister and at Harvard Business School, and work for economic and racial justice. He also spoke of his personal health challenges. Born with hemophilia, he was on braces as a child. "The national health program in France got me out of those crutches," he said. "These issues are burned into me because of my experiences."

On Energy & Oil: Ran Sustainable Solutions Lab at UMass Boston

On Environment: Climate injustice is another form of social injustice

A: [Climate] is often seen as a white, middle-class issue, and not directly connected to social-justice questions. That is a mistake. First of all, the people who are being harmed, and will be harmed, by climate change are overwhelmingly poor people and people of color, around the world and in the United States. All of the problems that poor communities are already facing are going to become dramatically worse. And yet, it will be the relatively privileged groups that will go to the legislature and say, bail us out first. So this tension is between people who say, rescue us from climate, and those who are under the severe impact of disenfranchisement and low income, who say, this is a social-justice issue that is just going to get worse, unless we address it now.

On Environment: Integrate thinking: environment, transportation, & housing

A: One is, you can invest in local neighborhoods and make them more energy efficient, and plant more trees, and make them more resistant to flood damage-- and that also increases their social resilience because you're making safer communities, you're making more beautiful communities. The 21st century must entirely be about integrated thinking, the relationship between all of these pieces--employment, education, job creation, wages, environment, climate change, transportation, housing, all of these pieces, they all fit together--and as long as you keep them in different boxes and pursue policies that are unaware of each other, you are going to lose the thread and start doing things that are even counterproductive.

On Government Reform: Rigged political system addressed by democratic engagement

A: I think the founders would be horrified by the level of power exerted by the wealthy and by corporations. And if the founders had been able to anticipate them, they would certainly have denied corporations the idea that they were somehow a person with constitutional rights.

Q: What can be done?

A: I don't understand why people ignore politics. The one thing that can overcome the [corporate] forces is democratic engagement. But [corporate forces] understand that, so they do everything they can to dishearten us, to disenfranchise us, to suppress voters, to change the rules. In fact, I believe that the Republican Party has realized that the only way it can stay in power is by continuing to cheat--cheating in voter suppression, cheating in Citizens United, in redistricting, cheating in just about every way they can, to make sure that only the people who are likely to vote for them get to vote.

On Tax Reform: Supports "millionaire's tax" with 4% surcharge

Gonzalez said only 19,000 families would be affected by the millionaire's tax, and he argues they would pay a little bit more so the state as a whole would have enough revenue to make badly needed investments in its future.

Massie calls the millionaire's tax a "logical, reasonable first step" to deal with the state's revenue crunch, suggesting more tax increases may be needed later on, particularly if Trump scales back federal support for states.

Massie said Baker's popularity stems in part from his constant hedging. "It's really easy to be popular when you don't do anything, when you don't take a stand," he said. "He has this high approval rating. Why isn't he using it as governor?"

On Drugs: Supports legal marijuana from local businesses

On Education: Charter schools should be limited

A: I believe that charter schools suck too much money out of the public school system. They started as a means of experimentation and innovation, [and] they now are starting to have a negative effect on some of the communities where they're being brought in, and so it's a question of balance.

On Energy & Oil: Transform the state completely by pursuing renewable energy

Among Massie's top priorities is bringing more sustainable energy options to the state, which he said will create new jobs and boost a new sector of the economy. He said, "We have an opportunity to transform the state completely by pursuing renewable energy at a much faster rate, like what's going on across the world."

"I think it's about vision and leadership," he said. "Can you lay out a future for the state , drawing from the millions of wonderful ideas that people have , and have Massachusetts become again a leading force in the United States, pushing us towards a new economy that creates new jobs and is much more fair."

On Government Reform: Supports same-day voter registration

• Warren supports extending Newton's newly passed "welcoming ordinance" across the entire state but stopped short of supporting a full-on sanctuary state designation.
• Massie is for same-day voter registration and is "not for expanding charter schools at a huge rate," and didn't support Question 2.
• Wolf supports becoming a sanctuary state and pursuing additional taxes beyond the millionaire's tax.
• Gonzalez supports same-day voter registration, and believes single-payer health care "needs to be on the table."

On Foreign Policy: Fought apartheid in South Africa

A: Desmond Tutu. I got to meet him several times. He was actually quite joyful--even when threatened with assassination, nothing crushed his spirit. Once I sat down with him in his office--he was the Archbishop of Cape Town. He put his hands on my head and said a long blessing in Xhosa. When he finished, he sat back down and said, `I know you didn't understand what I said but let me assure you it was a beautiful blessing, and besides, it's the language they speak in heaven.'

On Principles & Values: Overcame childhood hemophilia, hepatitis, and HIV

"My original title was `Surviving Hemophilia, HIV and Hepatitis.' It was so boring. I decided to take a totally different approach and tell five stories instead," says Massie. When asked about the medical timing, Massie notes, "If I had been born earlier, I would not have survived. If I had been born later, I wouldn't have \gotten HIV. The medical care was good enough to keep me going, but flawed.