[My union, the Massachusetts Society of Professors, has invited all six MA-Gov candidates to talk to us.  I reported on Christy Mihos' appearance on 30 May, and on 27 June we hosted Grace Ross, the candidate of the Green-Rainbow Party.  She spoke to about twelve people in the Campus Center at UMass Amherst.  We have had contacts with two of the three Democratic candidates but have arranged on visits yet.  Disclosure: I'm a member of the MSP board and a Patrick supporter.  I missed the first half-hour of her appearance but am gratefully making use of notes from Ferd Wulkan.]

Grace Ross has absolutely no chance of becoming governor of Massachusetts in 2006.  She is running, it seems clear to me, to develop her party and her movement, and to provide a model of a different kind of politics and a different kind of politician.  The Green-Rainbow movement is based on resistance to corporate power, environmentalism, and racial justice ("If white folks don't figure out how to move from dominance to partnership, we are in trouble.").  She went out of her way to answer a question no one specifically asked:  "Can I win?  At some point we have to decide [to confront the problems I have identified].  If we wait four years, they will all be worse."

I think that as ambassador for her party and movement, she succeeded.  Her critiques of current policies and her proposals for solutions were grounded in reality -- both factual and political reality, since there is a significant bloc of "progressives" in the legislature already.  I was particularly impressed with her command of technical issues, and was surprised when she told me afterward that she has no technical background other than a career in union and political organizing.  I would have believed that she had been a doctor or engineer, for example.

After the jump are some specific points from the dialogue -- statements from Ross not in quotes are my paraphrase: