Sustainable Economy, Energy Top Issues For David Moriarty

Longtime residents of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket District are wondering how State Representative Eric T. Turkington’s (D - Falmouth) departure after nine terms will affect their standing on Beacon Hill.
Democrat David Moriarty said there’s no cause for concern, “because the people of the Cape and Islands aren’t losing Eric Turkington, they’re gaining Dave Moriarty.”
Mr. Moriarty is one of four Democrats tossing their hats in the ring in the primary, though Mr. Moriarty painted himself as the only true Democrat in the pack. “I’ve been an active Democrat for over 30 years,” he said, referring to his efforts as an adolescent campaigning on behalf of Jimmy Carter in the 1970s and, more locally, the late Jeremiah F. Cahir, the district’s state rep from 1977 to 1984.
Notably, Mr. Turkington’s first run for the seat was against, and thwarted by, Mr. Cahir.
“The only reason I’m running is because Eric Turkington is retiring” from the Legislature to run for the Barnstable County Register of Probate, Mr. Moriarty said, though he indicated that if he won the election, Mr. Turkington would not be far from his former job. “His cellphone will be ringing a lot in the first year…I will not hesitate to call if I need advice.”
Mr. Moriarty has a standing relationship with Mr. Turkington, having worked under the veteran lawmaker during his college years as an intern while attending Emerson College. According to the candidate, it was during this internship that he helped to pass the Land Bank bill, a landmark piece of legislation that aided Cape towns in their efforts to preserve open space.
“I handled communication and publicity for the Land Bank bill efforts,” he explained, adding, “it wasn’t just Eric, it wasn’t just me, a lot of people worked to make it happen.”
Mr. Moriarty recalled one tactic used to garner support for the bill on Beacon Hill: giving lawmakers one-inch parcels of land on Cape Cod.
Robert J. Whitcher Jr. of North Falmouth, operating as the “Big Inch Land Company,” subdivided a parcel of land he owned into 347,400 one-inch lots and sold the deeded rights to those squares of property, Mr. Moriarty explained, and donated the money to conservation efforts.
“The deeded rights were used to lobby the Legislature and [then-Governor William] Weld to get the word out about this bill. It was a great tool, and it worked fantastically” as evidenced by the bill’s passage in 1998, he said.
Such creative approaches would be standard for Mr. Moriarty in his efforts to bring more attention and more money to the Cape. “The people of the Cape and Islands need stronger representation from their legislators,” he said. “I don’t have any lofty goals, I just want to keep our elderly warm in the winter, keep families fed, and provide our children with decent schools.”
Making It On Cape Cod
Mr. Moriarty said he wants to focus his efforts on growing a sustainable economy on the Cape and Islands, one that simultaneously benefits from and protects its natural resources while providing solid opportunities for the local workforce.
“What I bring to the table is my own personal experience growing up poor on Cape Cod. I’ve experienced that firsthand. It’s not a theory for me, it’s reality,” he said. “It’s still tough to make it on the Cape and Islands, especially for young, struggling families…a lot of my friends have moved away because it’s too expensive to live here.”
Mr. Moriarty believes the key to a sustainable economic future for the Cape and Islands lies with the growing renewable energy industry, “and I believe we have all the components necessary to become a leader in the field…now we need to create excitement.”
He specifically praised Cape Cod Community College’s renewable technology program as a perfect example of how to lay the groundwork for a booming renewable energy industry on Cape Cod, which, in turn, could address regional workforce retention issues, particularly among younger residents.
“We need to create an inside track for young people in this industry,” he said. “This industry could provide them with a livable wage so they can stay on Cape Cod…I want young people to know there are people looking out for their future.”
Mr. Moriarty—who said he favors small, local renewable energy projects—stopped short of endorsing the Cape Wind proposal for Nantucket Sound, taking the position that it was a sound concept in a bad location. “Nantucket Sound is the National Bank for the Cape and Islands,” he said. “Our economy depends on it, and it should be protected for and by citizens.”
He believed that, had Cape Wind Associates found a more widely acceptable site for the project, “the community would have gotten behind it…I’m all for green energy, I’m all for renewables, but it needs to be in the right place. We don’t need to be steamrolled by the ‘green wagon.’ ”
If Cape Wind comes to pass and creates negative impacts for the region and its economy, Mr. Moriarty said he would fight “to see that the region is compensated for those losses,” but he was holding out hope that the US Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service would “come to their senses and see that its draft (environmental impact report) is flawed.”
The MMS is the lead permitting agency for the Cape Wind project, and is tentatively scheduled to release its draft EIS this winter.
In addition to benefiting the economy and the workforce, Mr. Moriarty promoted small renewable energy systems as a boon to homeowners, particularly in the face of rising heating costs. “You could put a solar panel on your house today and get power tomorrow,” he said.
Education: Quality Over Quantity
At a June debate among the primary candidates, Mr. Moriarty voiced his opposition to Governor Deval L. Patrick’s “Readiness Project,” a comprehensive plan to update public education in Massachusetts.
“The ideas are fine, but we need those resources to go toward hiring teachers and reducing class size,” he said. “I mean, longer school days? Come on.”
The issue, according to Mr. Moriarty, was not the quantity of time students spend in school but the quality. He indicated that his teachers were very hands-on educators, whereas modern teachers are forced to spend too much time simply monitoring students rather than teaching them, and are discouraged from making waves.
“Now it’s, ‘Shut up, be quiet, don’t make any trouble, and if you can’t control your class, we’ll find someone who can,’ ” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of resources when I was kid going to school in Falmouth, but we had dedicated teachers, and their time was spent teaching, not policing students.”
To improve education, Mr. Moriarty said the key was to increase teachers’ salaries and provide schools with the financial resources they need, and he was not shy about identifying a source of revenue for this effort: “If we have to raise taxes, so be it. We should all pay our fair share to live in a decent society, and I’m not afraid to say we might have to raise taxes to do it.”
Mr. Moriarty preferred higher taxes to expanded casino gaming, though he said if the state were to decide to experiment with casinos, he would support no more than one state-backed establishment and the casino sought by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
“I feel voters should vote for people who best represent their interests,” Mr. Moriarty said. “My future constituents’ concerns are my concerns. What happens to them happens to me…every fiber of my being is connected to the land I stand on and the water that surrounds me.”
Visit Mr. Moriarty’s official website at votemoriarty.com/index.html.