Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZY, Boston's new radio.
Speaker 2: All right, nine o'clock, just about to start here on
Speaker 2: night Side. You've arrived just in time. My name is
Speaker 2: Dan Ray, and we are going to talk a little
Speaker 2: politics with a favorite guest of ours, Massachusetts State Senator
Speaker 2: Peter Durant. Peter, Welcome to Nightside. How are you, sir.
Speaker 3: I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on, Dan Well.
Speaker 2: I followed the news, of course, like everyone else does,
Speaker 2: and you've been in the news a little bit the
Speaker 2: last few days, and it looks like you're at least
Speaker 2: thinking about the possibility of running for governor a year
Speaker 2: and a half or so from now, in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: I don't expect you to make an announcement here on Nightside,
Speaker 2: but I love to know what goes through the mind
Speaker 2: of a politician like yourself who's been very successful. I mean,
Speaker 2: you're elected as a member of the Republican Party in
Speaker 2: a state that's a Democratic state, overwhelmingly as a state representative,
Speaker 2: and then you stepped up a little bit challenged for
Speaker 2: a Senate seat, which is a more exclusive group the Senate,
Speaker 2: for those who don't know, in Massachusetts, only has forty
Speaker 2: members in the House has one hundred and sixty members.
Speaker 2: So now you're in, you know, kind of a obviously
Speaker 2: an equivocal branch of the legislation of the legislature, but
Speaker 2: it's senators a little bit more little.
Speaker 4: You represent more communities, all of that.
Speaker 2: And now, I don't know what it appears to me
Speaker 2: that you're thinking about maybe.
Speaker 4: A statewide run. How do you process that you and
Speaker 4: for your family?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a really good question. Sometimes I ask myself
Speaker 3: that same thing, you know, Dan, Yeah, we're thinking about it.
Speaker 3: But as you point out, it's it's a process. And
Speaker 3: I mean I think, first of all, of course, it
Speaker 3: starts with, you know, asking yourself, do you do you like?
Speaker 3: Do you like what you see?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 3: And obviously the answer to that is no, And not
Speaker 3: just because I'm a Republican and the governor's a Democrat,
Speaker 3: but you know, I don't think we see a lot
Speaker 3: of leadership in the corner office at this time, and
Speaker 3: I don't think we have for a couple of years now.
Speaker 3: So you know, you start to ask yourself questions, you say,
Speaker 3: do you think you can do a better job? Right?
Speaker 3: You know, my wife once said to me that you know,
Speaker 3: you can't complain and not do anything about it. And
Speaker 3: so you know, you kind of start having those conversations
Speaker 3: with your wife and with your with your supporters, with
Speaker 3: your with your team, and you start to you start
Speaker 3: to think about if it's possible or not. And it's
Speaker 3: not an easy it's not an easy question to answer,
Speaker 3: you know. It's it's a big undertaking. It involves every
Speaker 3: waking hour of your time if we decide to do it,
Speaker 3: and it involves a ton of money. And so it's
Speaker 3: there's a lot of different factors that go into it.
Speaker 3: It's it's, uh, it's got so many different moving parts,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: But I always do say people always asking me, they
Speaker 3: ask me the same thing all the time, and you say, oh,
Speaker 3: what's next for you? You know? And at one point
Speaker 3: we saw that it was the Senate. You know this,
Speaker 3: this looks like a good thing to do, and it
Speaker 3: looks like we can go there, so we'll give it
Speaker 3: a shot. And but I always used to say to
Speaker 3: people is when they ask that question, what's next for you?
Speaker 3: I always used to say, I don't know, but we'll
Speaker 3: know it when we see it. And so we're kind
Speaker 3: of wondering if we see it right now, and you know,
Speaker 3: in some days, you know, some days you think, oh, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 3: and then other days you're like, oh yeah, are you nuts?
Speaker 3: You can't do this?
Speaker 5: So with Bill Hammer and a lot of those things.
Speaker 2: Though, let me put this in some perspective for our listeners,
Speaker 2: because this is I think fascinating to talk to someone
Speaker 2: who is contemplating something like this. When you're a state representative,
Speaker 2: you represented? How how many communities there are three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty one cities and towns in Massachusetts. How much
Speaker 2: did you represent when you were a state representative.
Speaker 3: As state rep I represented four districts, four towns.
Speaker 2: Did that district ever change during the time you were
Speaker 2: a member of the House of Representatives or did it
Speaker 2: say stable it?
Speaker 3: Surprisingly, it only changed because I came in in a
Speaker 3: special election in twenty eleven. We were going through a
Speaker 3: redistricting year, so I literally spent six months in that
Speaker 3: district and then it changed. But that was it. It
Speaker 3: hadn't changed in the next reistrict, so I pretty much
Speaker 3: did the same for the next twelve years.
Speaker 4: So what were the communities that you represented as a
Speaker 4: member of the House.
Speaker 3: As a member of the House. I represented Spencer, Charlton, Dudley,
Speaker 3: and Salthbridge.
Speaker 2: Did you pick all of those towns up when you
Speaker 2: became a state senator?
Speaker 4: Were they all member? Were they all part of your
Speaker 4: new Senate district?
Speaker 3: No, only my hometown of Spencer was, so I have Yeah,
Speaker 3: twenty to the Senate district is twenty two towns. Only
Speaker 3: Spencer was part of that. So yeah, so twenty two cities.
Speaker 3: Two cities in the twenty towns all brand new to me.
Speaker 4: So which of the cities?
Speaker 3: So it's Worcester, just a little piece of Worcester and
Speaker 3: then Gardner.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you now, if you add in the towns
Speaker 2: that you represented as a state representative with the other
Speaker 2: towns you now have represented in the legislature over the
Speaker 2: course of your career, twenty five of the three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty one cities and towns in Massachusetts.
Speaker 5: Ye.
Speaker 2: So, I mean that's almost really ten percent of the state.
Speaker 2: I mean, so you've represented a pretty good swath of Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: So that's interesting.
Speaker 2: Republicans do better in central Massachusetts than they do out
Speaker 2: in the Berkshafts or Republican Okay, you do better on
Speaker 2: the Cape.
Speaker 4: I learned.
Speaker 2: Actually, I was watching an interview that Jake Congressman Jake
Speaker 2: Auchincloss had done with The New York Times, And I
Speaker 2: don't know if you're aware of this, but did you
Speaker 2: know that the city of Fall River, which is an
Speaker 2: overwhelmingly Democratic city, actually voted for Donald Trump last fall
Speaker 2: the first time, the first time that the city of
Speaker 2: Fall River had voted for a Republican presidential candidate in
Speaker 2: over one hundred years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's pretty amazing. But in you're absolutely right, Dan,
Speaker 3: and those kind of things factor in when you talk about, well,
Speaker 3: when you talk about how in this presidential election, how
Speaker 3: this state did shift a little. Yeah, I think it
Speaker 3: was the second most of any state in the country.
Speaker 4: So I didn't realize yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which is obviously he's still you know, President Trump
Speaker 3: still lost the state by a wide margin. I think
Speaker 3: you got forty two thirty eight percent. So he still
Speaker 3: lost by March, but he had he had moved it
Speaker 3: by about eight points. And so you know, when you
Speaker 3: when as you kind of go through this process, you
Speaker 3: think about that. And that's one of those things that
Speaker 3: you have to pay attention to, is that you're not
Speaker 3: living in a bubble, and Central Mass is a fairly
Speaker 3: red area, except for, of course, the city of Worcester,
Speaker 3: but central Mass, Wincester County is pretty red. And you
Speaker 3: have to realize, as you just said, you know, everybody's
Speaker 3: lives in Wister County, they live in Suffolk County, they
Speaker 3: live in Middlesex, and those are much bluer. You get
Speaker 3: some red areas, as you say, down in the Cape,
Speaker 3: in the south Shore, and then there's a there's a
Speaker 3: good pocket up on the north Shore as well. But
Speaker 3: you have to focus that in and one of the
Speaker 3: important things is is that you don't just you sit
Speaker 3: in this bubble. You know, I had a back when
Speaker 3: I started in politics. I had a political advisor that
Speaker 3: gave me the best advice, and they said, don't listen
Speaker 3: to your friend, because your friends are going to tell
Speaker 3: you got this in the bag. Don't worry about it,
Speaker 3: and it will cause you not to work. They said, Yo,
Speaker 3: listen to your friends. You just work and and win
Speaker 3: your race. And so you kind of have to be
Speaker 3: careful of that. It's it's something that you have to
Speaker 3: think about. And you know, remember too, Dan that my
Speaker 3: wife she ran for Lieutenant governor a couple of years ago,
Speaker 3: so you know what that process is all about as well,
Speaker 3: and it's it's consuming.
Speaker 4: Oh I.
Speaker 2: I always go back to the great story that Tip
Speaker 2: O'Neil told many years ago that when he was a
Speaker 2: student at Boston College, his first bid for elective office
Speaker 2: I believe was for the school committee in the city
Speaker 2: of Cambridge. Uh, and he lost by a single vote.
Speaker 2: And I've heard this. I've never gone back and checked
Speaker 2: the records, and I hope that Tip wasn't wasn't telling it.
Speaker 2: As you know, I think it's a true story. So
Speaker 2: he thanked the people on his street, went around the
Speaker 2: day after the election and thanked them all for voting
Speaker 2: for him, including his next door neighbor who he thanked.
Speaker 2: And his next door neighbor looked at then Tom O'Neill,
Speaker 2: who was probably twenty one years old sometime in the
Speaker 2: nineteen thirties, and said, well, why do you think I
Speaker 2: voted for you? And he said, well, I've known you
Speaker 2: my entire life, babysitter, I assumed you voted for me.
Speaker 4: She said, you never asked me to vote for you.
Speaker 2: And Tip used to always tell that story, and again
Speaker 2: it was an allegory or whether it was actually the
Speaker 2: specific proof. So I think you ask people to vote
Speaker 2: for you, and if you can't meet all six million
Speaker 2: people in the Commonwealth, but you can, you get out there.
Speaker 4: So lit'st do this.
Speaker 2: I want to talk We'll put the conversation about a
Speaker 2: potential campaign aside and I want to take a break.
Speaker 2: And what I want to do is talk about the
Speaker 2: stay of the Republican Party. And I want to talk
Speaker 2: about more Healey. Governor Healey. There are more and more
Speaker 2: stories every day that she's thinking about running for president
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty eight. That adds another element to this formula,
Speaker 2: this equation, which yeah, so I want to talk about that.
Speaker 2: And I also want to talk about how the legislature
Speaker 2: is doing. And I want to talk about I'm assuming
Speaker 2: that you are not only in the minority as a Republican,
Speaker 2: but you're in the minority as a legislator. You're in
Speaker 2: favor I assume of what the Democratic State Auditor Diana
Speaker 2: Desauglio wants to do, which is to audit the books
Speaker 2: of both the House and the Senate. I assume, so
Speaker 2: I am I'm going to talk about some of that. Okay,
Speaker 2: my guest is State Senator Peter Durant, if you like
Speaker 2: to talk to one of the forty members of the
Speaker 2: Massachusetts State Senator Senate, I should say, and there are
Speaker 2: now four Republicans now that cal has five five, Oh
Speaker 2: my goodness.
Speaker 3: Unbelievable to twenty percent boosts.
Speaker 4: It's enough for a caucus. I mean, five of five
Speaker 4: of forty. That's okay. It's a it's a hearty band,
Speaker 4: that is for sure. Uh.
Speaker 2: And if you'd like to talk politics, you can do
Speaker 2: that as well. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
Speaker 2: thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty Back
Speaker 2: with Massachusetts State Senator Peter Durant, a Republican from Central
Speaker 2: MASSACHUSETTSS district kind of between Gardner and Worcester, if you
Speaker 2: know the geography of the state. And we'll be back
Speaker 2: on Nightside with more conversation with Peter Durrant. And I
Speaker 2: hope some phone calls from some of you back on
Speaker 2: nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World.
Speaker 4: Night Side Studios on.
Speaker 2: W b Z the news radio, My guess state Senator
Speaker 2: Massachusetts State Senator Peter Durrant, Republican who is at least
Speaker 2: thinking about running for governor. I assume that there are
Speaker 2: probably others. How important is it, Peter for the Republicans
Speaker 2: to have a legitimate contender in twenty twenty six to
Speaker 2: run against Governor Healey, who I'm sure wants to win
Speaker 2: reelection and maybe maybe use that as a launch a
Speaker 2: launch pad for a presidential campaign.
Speaker 3: Sure, I mean, you know, look, that's what we're really
Speaker 3: focused on, is making sure that we put the best
Speaker 3: person forward. You know, one of the things I've said
Speaker 3: is is that, you know, Dan, I don't have to
Speaker 3: be the leader. I don't have to be the governor.
Speaker 3: Let's find who out who the best person can be.
Speaker 5: It.
Speaker 3: If it ends up being me, okay, then we're going
Speaker 3: to go in. We're going to be one hundred percent
Speaker 3: behind this. But you know, Massachusetts has had a history
Speaker 3: of electing Republican governors. They actually the people of Massachusetts
Speaker 3: have historically said we like a little bit of divided
Speaker 3: government where we have a fiscally conservative governor and then
Speaker 3: the legislature itself is a balance of more liberal priorities.
Speaker 3: And it has worked. It's worked. Look, we've only had
Speaker 3: two demo credit governors in the past thirty years, and
Speaker 3: so that's something that Massachusetts does. Like, our job as
Speaker 3: a party is to make sure that we put the
Speaker 3: best person forward. We find out who that is there are,
Speaker 3: you know, and I've talked to the other candidates as well,
Speaker 3: or at least the other people who have expressed interest,
Speaker 3: and you know, there's gonna be a primary and we'll
Speaker 3: all figure out how it works. But but yeah, it's
Speaker 3: this is the number one thing. We have an opportunity
Speaker 3: here to take back the corner office and more. Heally,
Speaker 3: you're right, it certainly appears that she's trying to elevate
Speaker 3: her national profile. She I mean, you know, it only
Speaker 3: makes sense that that means she wants to run for president.
Speaker 3: But I don't know how that works because if you're
Speaker 3: going around touting some kind of Massachusetts miracle as the
Speaker 3: governor right now, I would say that makes it kind
Speaker 3: of tone death if you don't see what's actually going
Speaker 3: on around you, and you're going to go out to
Speaker 3: America and say, hey, let's make America like Massachusetts said,
Speaker 3: I think he's going to have a problem.
Speaker 2: Well, I will say this. I mean there's been a
Speaker 2: lot of recent in recent years. I mean, the last
Speaker 2: president from Massachusetts we've had you know several, both of
Speaker 2: the Adages and President Kennedy, and there's been one or
Speaker 2: two others along the way. But if you go back
Speaker 2: in the last few years, Governor Ducacus, you know failed.
Speaker 2: You know, he was at a tough time running because
Speaker 2: Ronald Reagan had done a great job in my opinion,
Speaker 2: as President of the United States.
Speaker 4: Argey was for a change.
Speaker 2: He lost to a Brigan's vice president George Bush. But
Speaker 2: then you know, Ted Kennedy has certainly looked at it,
Speaker 2: looked at it. In nineteen eighty he couldn't beat Jimmy
Speaker 2: Carter the Democratic primary. Paul Songus, John Kerry. I think
Speaker 2: Deval Patrick thought about running for it, although I don't
Speaker 2: think he ever. He may have formally announced for it,
Speaker 2: but he didn't stay in it long. But so Massachusetts
Speaker 2: is not a state that has turned out presidents, have
Speaker 2: turned out Democratic presidential candidates. And of course mid Romney
Speaker 2: also from Massachusetts on the other side of the aisle,
Speaker 2: he took a shot at it and that didn't work
Speaker 2: too well, as did Paul Songers, Member Senator Sungus in too.
Speaker 2: So so yeah, it's it's I if I would advise
Speaker 2: it to Governor Heay I would say, be careful what
Speaker 2: you wish for, because you never know. So let's talk
Speaker 2: what sort of a rating would you give her? Is
Speaker 2: there any areas that you feel she's.
Speaker 4: Done well in?
Speaker 3: Well, if you're gonna if we change that around and say,
Speaker 3: are there any areas that she's done well in? I
Speaker 3: think one of the things that we can point to
Speaker 3: is an appointment of filling over at the NBTA. I
Speaker 3: think I think Phil's doing a fairly good job over there.
Speaker 3: It's a it's an enormous task with an agency that's
Speaker 3: just been plagued with problems, as you know, over the years,
Speaker 3: and and so I think Phil's been doing a good job.
Speaker 3: I think he's he's doing the best job that he
Speaker 3: can with the system that he has. So I think
Speaker 3: we could point to something like that, But I just
Speaker 3: see so many other problems than that that go along
Speaker 3: with what more Healy's doing. She she stumbles from crisis
Speaker 3: to crisis and seemingly doesn't see something coming until it's
Speaker 3: upon us. We just, you know, just looked recently at
Speaker 3: the electric rates going through the roof. I mean, we
Speaker 3: knew this was coming. These rates were put in place
Speaker 3: in November, and we all knew they were coming. Yet
Speaker 3: they show up and it's, oh my god, what's going
Speaker 3: what's going on? I demand to know why the raisers
Speaker 3: are really.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing that it was interesting And here's the
Speaker 2: thing was really interesting to me about that when she
Speaker 2: she basically told the commissioners to lower the rates five
Speaker 2: percent for all utility providers, and the utilities get back
Speaker 2: and said, will lower the rates ten percent. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was like I actually felt that she would have
Speaker 2: been smarter and she wouldn't take it. Didn't take my advice,
Speaker 2: but I advised her on the air. I think she
Speaker 2: should have asked for the resignations of those three DPU
Speaker 2: commissioners and said, you know, thank you for your service,
Speaker 2: but based upon this debacle of this winter, I don't
Speaker 2: I don't think that we need your.
Speaker 4: Service next year. And I would I would, I would
Speaker 4: ask them to resign.
Speaker 2: Was that something that you might have considered if you
Speaker 2: had been in the corner office?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's honestly hard to put myself into
Speaker 3: that positions too, but you're right. Here's the thing is
Speaker 3: is those rates were approved, right, it was a thirty
Speaker 3: plus percent increase in rates that were approved by the DPW.
Speaker 3: Now she controls the DPW, so and so she should
Speaker 3: she could have done that. But and look at that
Speaker 3: when she said we're going to do I demand to
Speaker 3: be reduced by five percent. Remember what the next sentence
Speaker 3: was was, but you can get it back in the summer.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, So it's a it's.
Speaker 3: By the way, with interest, So I might as well
Speaker 3: just put I might as well just put my electric
Speaker 3: bill on my credit card because it's the same thing.
Speaker 3: So your your solution to lowering rates was to actually
Speaker 3: make people pay more. So that really made no sense
Speaker 3: to me. But at the end of the day, Dan,
Speaker 3: one of the things, look, you got to go back
Speaker 3: to why are the rates going up so high?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 3: Again, rates are set based on the previous winter and
Speaker 3: things of that nature.
Speaker 5: It was cold.
Speaker 3: I get all of that. But at the root of
Speaker 3: this matter is the fact that more Healy was very
Speaker 3: proud to say two years ago that she stopped to
Speaker 3: natural gas pipelines from coming into the state. The state relies.
Speaker 3: There's the state. It's seventy five percent of its energy
Speaker 3: or it's electricity from natural gas. And so when you
Speaker 3: have a cold winter, gas gets prioritized to go to
Speaker 3: the people get a little wonky, but gas gets prioritized
Speaker 3: for the houses first, for heating, which means the utility companies,
Speaker 3: the generators you have a tougher time getting them, which
Speaker 3: of course makes the price go up. It's not rocket science.
Speaker 3: So we need those natural gas pipelines to come into
Speaker 3: this state so we can actually have reasonable rates.
Speaker 4: But yeah, she played to the NIMBI people, not in
Speaker 4: my backyard. I want my house warm in the winter,
Speaker 4: and I want my house the rates as low as
Speaker 4: they can be, But I don't want a pipeline anywhere
Speaker 4: near me.
Speaker 2: Uh. We're going to take a quick break here for
Speaker 2: the news at the bottom of the hour, and we're
Speaker 2: going to talk a little bit more about that. Have
Speaker 2: you ever looked at the the biographies of these three
Speaker 2: DPU commissioners, by any chances to Peter.
Speaker 4: I have not try it. Try it.
Speaker 2: Only one of them has any potential connection educationally or
Speaker 2: geographically with Massachusetts. It's it's an interesting when you look
Speaker 2: at their bios. They are truly well from out of state.
Speaker 2: And I still think that that when you look at
Speaker 2: the bios, you say to yourself, now, Baker appointed one,
Speaker 2: and I think Heiley has appointed two. But I think
Speaker 2: that you should have done somethings and shown some leadership
Speaker 2: and said, Okay, thank you very much for your service.
Speaker 4: We appreciate it. That's that's what I was thinking.
Speaker 3: And you know, Dan, as a leader, the most important
Speaker 3: thing you can do is surround yourself with people who
Speaker 3: are smart at what they do.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: I always say that my team, you know, I always
Speaker 3: I always say that they're the ones that make me
Speaker 3: look good. They know what they're doing and they make
Speaker 3: me look good. You put people into positions so that
Speaker 3: they're the experts, they're the ones who know do and
Speaker 3: you manage them. And we just don't see that happening here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let me take a quick break. I got a newscast.
Speaker 2: We'll talk more about that, uh, and talk about the
Speaker 2: other problems that you see that need to be addressed,
Speaker 2: what your priorities would be, if indeed you did decide
Speaker 2: that you wanted to take the next big step. We'll
Speaker 2: take a break here. My guest is Massachusettstate Senator Peter Durant.
Speaker 2: If you'd like to call and ask a question, feel
Speaker 2: free encourage him or tell him that that you'll love
Speaker 2: more Healy and that there's no need for change six
Speaker 2: one seven either way anyway six one seven, two thirty
Speaker 2: six one seven, nine, three thirty back on night Side.
Speaker 4: Right after this.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 4: All right, let's keep rolling here.
Speaker 2: I want to get to phone calls, Peter, and we
Speaker 2: can we can work in some of your your criticisms
Speaker 2: of the Healy administration. And I think that that the
Speaker 2: MBTA Communities Act. I assume that's something that you're not
Speaker 2: a big supporter of.
Speaker 3: Am I correct on that, Yeah, you know, the MBTA
Speaker 3: Communities Act. I think what I would have liked to
Speaker 3: have seen is the implementation of this lot. It should
Speaker 3: have been more along the lines of the community compacts
Speaker 3: that the Baker administration have done, which is to say,
Speaker 3: more carrot less stick. Say we understand, you know, we
Speaker 3: need to build more housing. We'd like you to increase
Speaker 3: your stock. If you agree to do so, we'll give
Speaker 3: you will help you out with some grants and things
Speaker 3: of that nature. Instead, it's been do this or else,
Speaker 3: and I just don't think that's the way to go
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: It also takes away from communities. And again, there's no
Speaker 2: question here. I just want to make people understand there's
Speaker 2: no question have some sort of you know, constitutional issue
Speaker 2: where some community is keeping certain people out of the town,
Speaker 2: where there's constitutional issues. Now, these are communities who enjoy
Speaker 2: what their community is. Some some of the more rural,
Speaker 2: some and more suburban, some are more urban or whatever.
Speaker 2: And zoning has always been the precinct of the most
Speaker 2: local leaders. Communities decide on how their community is going
Speaker 2: to be zoned. If they don't want liquor stores, or
Speaker 2: they don't want bowling alleys or drive in theaters, they
Speaker 2: don't the government can't force that down their throat. But
Speaker 2: the government is forcing this down people's throats and it's
Speaker 2: really undercutting I think the most fundamental obligation that a
Speaker 2: local community has to itself to itself.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean to your point, Cities and towns
Speaker 3: get to decide how it is that they want to grow,
Speaker 3: and exactly right through zoning, through their select board or
Speaker 3: city councils. They get to decide, this is what we
Speaker 3: want to do, this is how we want to grow.
Speaker 3: They manage their growth. Instead, what the NBTA communities that
Speaker 3: just did was it just came along and say, you know,
Speaker 3: you have to do this and you know, some of
Speaker 3: those towns and some of my towns are affected by this.
Speaker 3: But some of those towns said, you know briefly, so
Speaker 3: they said, well, we don't want to do that. And
Speaker 3: if you're not going to give us grants, that's fine.
Speaker 3: We don't want your grants, but we're not going to
Speaker 3: do that. And it turned into again this this punitive
Speaker 3: do this, or will sue you, and it really just
Speaker 3: handled very very poorly.
Speaker 4: I mean, the only next card that they could that
Speaker 4: the administration could play would be threatened jailing to the
Speaker 4: select and the aldermen in these communities, and I don't know.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is all of the Democrats on
Speaker 2: in authority and power, they use that authority and power
Speaker 2: to basically force communities to do what instinctively they don't
Speaker 2: want to do. But they're not willing to use that
Speaker 2: force and power and authority to tell the legislature, hey,
Speaker 2: comply with the law that was passed last fall, which
Speaker 2: will which mandate that the state auditor audits the legislature.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting when they want to use power they do.
Speaker 2: When they choose not to use power, which in effect
Speaker 2: is a use of power, they choose not to. Let's
Speaker 2: get to phone calls, Peter. Let me go to Steve
Speaker 2: and Cambridge. He's not a constituent, but I suspect he's
Speaker 2: going to be a fan.
Speaker 4: Steve.
Speaker 7: You and I live in the state of Massachusetts, so
Speaker 7: I could be a constituent.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, that's that's sure. Peter likes to hear that.
Speaker 2: Gored ahead Row State Senator Peter Durrect Peter.
Speaker 7: I think the consensus is that Kamala Harris lost to
Speaker 7: Trump in part because of the Democrats, let's say, emphasis
Speaker 7: on abortion, DEI, LGBTQ matters, in other words, social issues.
Speaker 7: How would that figure into a possible full campaign on
Speaker 7: your part? Would you take that into account or would
Speaker 7: you simply stay fiscal.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 3: I think we have to, you know, it's I think
Speaker 3: we have to stay grounded in fiscal responsibility here. I
Speaker 3: think that a big part of this your law, the
Speaker 3: loss from the Democrats is exactly that, uh they went in.
Speaker 3: It was a lot of lecturing and telling people why
Speaker 3: they're wrong and that you're a bad person, and that
Speaker 3: you have to do all of these things. I think
Speaker 3: government asking it back to the basics and do what
Speaker 3: it is that you're supposed to do, which is boring things.
Speaker 3: Keep people safe, educate your kids, right, these are these
Speaker 3: are kind of boring thing, but it's just we need
Speaker 3: to we need to do these things. We need to
Speaker 3: be fiscally responsible and handle our checkbook more appropriately.
Speaker 7: Well, Peter, I certainly hope you consider running. And I'm
Speaker 7: not a complete uh. I think more Healy has handled
Speaker 7: yourself reasonably well. But I certainly would like to see
Speaker 7: someone who would concentrate more on fiscal matters and stop
Speaker 7: lecturing the public on what they should be thinking and
Speaker 7: whom they should be associating with, et cetera.
Speaker 3: I agree. You know, one of the things I've always
Speaker 3: said to Steve is, you know, the the American dream
Speaker 3: right is different for everybody, and and people just want
Speaker 3: to live that. They just want to They just want
Speaker 3: to be left alone to go about and make their
Speaker 3: way in life, whatever way works best for them.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, some people like to start businesses, others like
Speaker 3: to just you know, I have a job and start
Speaker 3: a family. And everybody's got these differences. I don't think
Speaker 3: that it's government's responsibility to be telling you how to
Speaker 3: how to be a moral person or what you should
Speaker 3: think in how you should, uh, you know, how you
Speaker 3: should feel about some of these some of these issues.
Speaker 3: So I agree. I think at the next governor needs
Speaker 3: to focus on on physical responsibility and leave the social
Speaker 3: stuff alone.
Speaker 7: Okay, thank you very much, Dan, thank you, Peter.
Speaker 4: Thanks Steve, thank you. Great night.
Speaker 2: All right, we take a quick break here six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty one line there also six one seven,
Speaker 2: nine three one, ten thirty. We try to get everyone in.
Speaker 2: Stay there.
Speaker 4: We have a.
Speaker 2: Constituent coming up Tony and Gardner Paul in Boston, and
Speaker 2: room for you coming back with State Senator Peter Durant.
Speaker 2: He's a Republican from central Massachusetts and has been asked
Speaker 2: by many people about potentially running for governor in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six as a Republican obviously, and has said that
Speaker 2: he would consider it and he would make a decision
Speaker 2: at some point.
Speaker 4: And I just thought I would.
Speaker 2: Give you an opportunity to listen to him tonight, So
Speaker 2: when you read about him or see him on television,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have an opportunity to yourself to say, hey,
Speaker 2: listen to him.
Speaker 4: And maybe even I spoke with him back on night
Speaker 4: Side right after this.
Speaker 1: Now, back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on w News Radio.
Speaker 2: My guest is Massachusetts State Senator Peter Durant. He's a
Speaker 2: Republican from central Massachusetts. He's been on the phone on
Speaker 2: the on the show before, and he has been quoted
Speaker 2: in a couple of news articles that I saw in
Speaker 2: the last couple of days that he is at least
Speaker 2: considering the possibility of running for governor in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: six against more Heali, let's go to Tony and Gardner.
Speaker 2: Tony would be a constituent of yours.
Speaker 5: Peter.
Speaker 2: I assume Tony, welcome, you're next time, I side with
Speaker 2: your state Senator Peter Durant.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, right, go.
Speaker 3: Ahead, Tony, Tony, Hi, Dan, Hi, Peter.
Speaker 5: Thank you very much. And I voted Peter.
Speaker 6: He's a he's a great state senator out here.
Speaker 5: Thank Peter.
Speaker 6: I want to you welcome.
Speaker 5: Peter.
Speaker 6: I wanted to ask you have you given any thought
Speaker 6: to maybe extending the Fitchburgh cronkered line for the west
Speaker 6: towards Gardner. I think if we had a commuter line
Speaker 6: out here, it would really help the city.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: We yeah, we we have had some talks about that,
Speaker 3: and I know that that there's been a kind of
Speaker 3: a concern and something that could go out to Gardener
Speaker 3: to help that situation out. You know, one of the
Speaker 3: things that I've said is that we talk a lot
Speaker 3: about the East West Rail, which is of course down
Speaker 3: in the southern part of the state through southern Winster County,
Speaker 3: and one of the things that I have said in
Speaker 3: the past is, you know, we need to kind of
Speaker 3: get our house in order at the MBTA first before
Speaker 3: we can expand out. But what does make sense between
Speaker 3: the Fitchburg and Gardener rail is is that's a corridor,
Speaker 3: a natural corridor for that rail that comes through. And
Speaker 3: so that's something that we actually are talking about in
Speaker 3: the state level and trying to trying to figure that out.
Speaker 3: I think that given the amount of money and it's
Speaker 3: going to cost and things of that nature, I'd be
Speaker 3: hard pressed to say that it's something that's going to
Speaker 3: happen real soon. But I do know that. But we've
Speaker 3: been pushing forward with it with a lot of the
Speaker 3: reps out in that area as well as some of
Speaker 3: the other senators up there. It is a quarter that
Speaker 3: is of interest to us.
Speaker 5: Great well.
Speaker 3: You know, it sounds promising because we have a freight
Speaker 3: train that comes out here, so we could get the
Speaker 3: commuter rail.
Speaker 5: I think it would be great. Thank you, Peter. Thanks Dan.
Speaker 4: All right, Tony, great, claud great question.
Speaker 2: That's what a constituent does ask at paul political leader
Speaker 2: a question and maybe you got the answer you need.
Speaker 4: Thanks Tony, appreciate it. Next up is Paul in Boston.
Speaker 2: Paul, you were next on nice Ioway State Senator Peter
Speaker 2: durank A right, hit Paul, all right again.
Speaker 5: Are you and getting Senative Sena my contunity boss. A
Speaker 5: little bit about your education and work experience in the
Speaker 5: private sector. What had gone downe on the past?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so quick, So I guess I'm going to try
Speaker 3: to go backwards. Prior to becoming a state center, which
Speaker 3: was back in November twenty three, I was a state representative.
Speaker 3: I got elected in twenty eleven. Prior to that, I
Speaker 3: worked in the construction industry. I was a national project
Speaker 3: manager for a temperature controls company out of Atlanta, and
Speaker 3: that was from about two thousand or so to about
Speaker 3: two thousand and eleven. There was a couple of companies
Speaker 3: in there. And prior to that, in the eighties and nineties,
Speaker 3: I had my own temperature controls company in the Wister
Speaker 3: area that I then sold. So I had some business
Speaker 3: a business experience through owning my own contracting company. Education wise,
Speaker 3: I started out of high school. A lot of people
Speaker 3: don't know this, but I started out of high school.
Speaker 3: I went down to Florida a college called Florida Tech,
Speaker 3: where I actually became a commercial diver. I did that
Speaker 3: for a very short period of time, and then came
Speaker 3: back up to Massachusetts where I started my company shortly
Speaker 3: thereafter a couple of years after that, and and I
Speaker 3: earned my bachelor's degree during that time from Northeastern University
Speaker 3: and political science. That's the kind of Nickel tour, the
Speaker 3: quick thirty second Nickel tour of my life.
Speaker 4: So'd you grew up in Massachusetts, Peter? Are you a native?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am. I grew up in I've lived in
Speaker 3: Spencer all my life. In fact, yeah, the house I
Speaker 3: live in is next door to the house I grew
Speaker 3: up in. When my parents at a piece of land
Speaker 3: and they separated them office as us kids got older,
Speaker 3: and we have a little what we call the Durant
Speaker 3: compound out here.
Speaker 4: So you wanted to become a diver, a diver, a
Speaker 4: marine diver. Is that what you were looking to be
Speaker 4: in for a while.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, commercial diver. I want to work in a
Speaker 3: short stint out in Louisiana, and but it didn't really
Speaker 3: didn't enjoy it as much as I had had hoped
Speaker 3: and decided that I would come back up to Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: It's a it's a tough life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting background, Paul, those are great questions. I had
Speaker 2: never thought to ask those questions. Thank you.
Speaker 5: Good management experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah sounds great, Paul, appreciate that experience. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: thanks again. Let me get one more call in for
Speaker 2: State Senator Peter Durant. Let me go to Rick, who
Speaker 2: is joining us from North Reading. Rick, you're on night
Speaker 2: side with State Senator Peter Durant, Right.
Speaker 8: Ahead, Rick, Hey, senator called, So if if you actually
Speaker 8: answer this question, I apologize our guess. My question is
Speaker 8: what is the number one priority you want to go
Speaker 8: on do elector? And why that ad?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Easy affordability. We need to make Massachusetts more affordable. We
Speaker 3: have fifty thousand people every year that leave Massachusetts in
Speaker 3: search of greener pastures, and they're middle class families that
Speaker 3: that just can't afford to stay here anymore, their kids
Speaker 3: coming out of college. We've got a great brain trust
Speaker 3: that comes out of college. They can't afford to stay here.
Speaker 3: They can't afford to raise a family and buy houses.
Speaker 3: So we need to make Massachusetts affordable. And there's so
Speaker 3: many different things that we can do to get there.
Speaker 3: We talked earlier about the electricity prices. It's simple things
Speaker 3: like that. I say simple, you know, simple in concept.
Speaker 3: They're a little bit more complicated to get done. But
Speaker 3: we have to bring down the cost of living here,
Speaker 3: otherwise we're just going backwards in this state we have.
Speaker 3: We're coming into a position right now in Massachusetts where
Speaker 3: our middle class is leaving, so we're left with two
Speaker 3: classes of people in a wide income disparity. We need
Speaker 3: to correct that.
Speaker 8: Gosha just just want to ask a little bit of
Speaker 8: an operating question. By you're talking about affordability, are you
Speaker 8: subseifically referring to housing price or overall everything?
Speaker 3: Well, housing is there's a lot of different facets to it. Again,
Speaker 3: we talked about energy. Housing is an enormous thing we
Speaker 3: have to build. I think we're short about two hundred
Speaker 3: thousand units right now. So that's an enormous amount and
Speaker 3: we get there. The MBTA Communities that looks to solve
Speaker 3: that problem, but it doesn't do it efficiently and it
Speaker 3: doesn't do it in a very good way, especially when
Speaker 3: you have so many towns rebelling against it. But we can.
Speaker 3: We did some work with the Housing Bond Bill last
Speaker 3: year where we made accessory dwelling units by right, so
Speaker 3: now you can put up some more units. We need
Speaker 3: to really aggressively go after these commercial buildings that are
Speaker 3: that are sitting empty now because of you know, more
Speaker 3: of a remote work type the atmosphere. A lot of
Speaker 3: those can be converted to housing, as well as old
Speaker 3: mills and things of that nature. So we have a
Speaker 3: lot of building that we need to do, and quite frankly,
Speaker 3: out in western and central Massachusetts there's more land to build.
Speaker 3: So I think housing is an enormous issue here in
Speaker 3: Massachusetts that we have to solve, and we have to
Speaker 3: solve that as quick as possible.
Speaker 2: Those are great question, flat out at time. Thanks Rick,
Speaker 2: Senator Durant, thank you very much. I appreciate your time
Speaker 2: tonight and keep us posted as you go through the
Speaker 2: decision making process. And I happen to think that you
Speaker 2: would be a wonderful candidate to run for governor.
Speaker 4: You've been there for a while, and I think it
Speaker 4: would be a very interesting race. So let's keep in touch, okay,
Speaker 4: Peter Durant.
Speaker 5: I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: If folks want to get in touch with you, what's
Speaker 4: the easiest way.
Speaker 3: The easiest way to go is to reach out to
Speaker 3: me at Senator Durant dot com. We'd love to say
Speaker 3: I love to have you all.
Speaker 2: One word, Senator Durant du r A n T dot
Speaker 2: com sounds great.
Speaker 3: You got it, Peter.
Speaker 4: Thanks, we'll be in touch.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much when we when we get back
Speaker 2: on to talk about a phone call that we don't
Speaker 2: know a whole lot about. But today President's Trump and
Speaker 2: Putin had a conversation about ninety minutes. Love to know
Speaker 2: what you think. If you think there's a possible ability
Speaker 2: that peace might break out in Ukraine, we'll talk about
Speaker 2: that on the other side of the ten o'clock news.
Speaker 2: Here on a Tuesday night, my name's Dan Ray, and
Speaker 2: you're listening to Nightside