Charlestown Attorney Dan Hill Declares Candidacy For State Senate

Charlestown attorney Daniel C. Hill declared his candidacy today for the State Senate seat representing Middlesex, Suffolk, and Essex counties, which is currently held by Anthony Galluccio. The text of his speech, delivered this afternoon outside his office in the Charlestown Navy Yard, follows.

Thank you all for being here. I am pleased and very excited to declare that I will be a candidate for the Suffolk, Middlesex and Essex State Senate seat in the 2010 Democratic primary election.

I am running for this office for many reasons, but most importantly, to restore the prestige of this Senate district and those who have represented it as the standard bearers of progressive, liberal ideas in this the most progressive state in the nation.

We face some pretty serious economic and environmental challenges in this district and in our state. Credit markets are still tight, which is stalling our economic recovery, job growth and housing opportunities. At the same time, the threats to the Commonwealth’s natural resources – our rivers and streams, our reservoirs and aquifers, our wetlands and uplands, our forests and wildlife – are at unprecedented levels.

Environmental Policy
To underscore the problem, last month our state’s Department of Environmental Protection proposed to modify the 1986 Water Management Act, which regulates how much water communities can pull from our rivers and lakes for domestic water uses. By redefining the term “safe yield,” DEP had proposed to allow cities and towns to reduce water levels to the equivalent of a drought. Conservation and environmental groups, such as the Charles River Watershed Association, protested, and the Patrick Administration relented, agreeing to suspend the rule change and allow debate on more appropriate yield standards. If we didn’t have such vigilant environment watchdog groups in our state, god knows where we’d be right now.

Our 11,000 miles of rivers not only suffer from low stream flows, but are under constant threat from point source and indirect contamination from untreated stormwater runoff that carries bacteria, pathogens, and other pollutants. The DEP has still not complied with its obligations under the Clean Water Act to adopt regulations to restore the quality of our impaired rivers – it proposed a general stormwater permitting program a year ago, but pulled it back under pressure from special interests in the development community. If DEP won’t adopt these regulations, the legislature should adopt them as statute and be done with it. Last year, the DEP expedited the permitting of development projects under the Wetlands Protection Act, making it harder for conservationists and environmentalists to challenge local and state permitting decisions, thereby reducing the environmental scrutiny on these projects.

As the State Senator from this district, I work hard to ensure that our environmental statutes, including the Water Management Act and the Wetlands Protection Act, are implemented by our state agencies as they were intended to be. I will ask to be appointed to the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee, so that I can play an instrumental role in holding agencies accountable. The Global Warming Solutions Act, the Green Communities Act and the Green Jobs Act, all passed and signed in 2008, are a good start, but more needs to be done. Despite these advances, California is outpacing us in renewable energy innovation and implementation. As Senator, I will evaluate the effectiveness of this recent legislation and propose actions that will push harder on the pedal, or adopt more legislation to ensure that the goals embodied by that legislation are fully implemented.

As Senator I will also work to pass legislation that could have an immediate impact on climate change. I’ll be watching action on Capitol Hill very closely, and I’ll work to find ways to compel taxi and tourist bus companies to convert their fleets from fossil-fuel to renewable energy. Many of the constituents I’ve talked to are as disturbed as I am with these new super-sized tourist buses that chug along our streets, emitting fumes and carbon dioxide into the air. We need a law that says that any new tourist bus or taxi cab must either be a hybrid, or run exclusively on electricity.

The Sustainable Water Resources Act of 2009 is probably the most important conservation bill pending in the legislature. It was presented in the House and Senate, but Senator Galluccio’s name isn’t even on it. It’s time for this district to be represented in the Senate by a true leader on the environment, and I will be that leader. Mr. Galluccio’s predecessors, Jarrett Barrios and Tom Birmingham, were stalwarts on progressive policies in the Commonwealth. Mr. Galluccio has not filled those shoes. I will.

Economy
An aggressive agenda to strengthen the sustainability and conservation of our natural resources and to promote renewable energy is good for the local and state economy. The problem is, the legislature didn’t go far enough last year. As Senator, I will work towards creating new green jobs in our district. Think about it – we’ve got two of the best universities in the world on the Charles River in Cambridge, and we’ve got bio-tech start-ups flourishing all over the place. The state can play a big role in boosting the same kind of technological innovation in alternative energy and natural resource conservation technology, and there’s no reason why we can’t steer that investment towards Charlestown, Everett, and Chelsea. We’ve got dozens of under- utilized parcels and buildings all over our district that could provide incubator space for new economy entrepreneurs. Governor Patrick wants us to take a gamble with casinos, why not take a gamble with smart kids from MIT, and BU and Harvard who want to build the next generation energy facilities? Why isn’t Mr. Galluccio providing leadership on this issue? Let’s make it happen!

Positive Campaigning
I want to say a few words on what I perceive my job to be in this campaign. I’m running against an incumbent, albeit one who has only been in office for 2 years, but still an incumbent. I understand that voters are going to want to know why they should replace an incumbent who they know, with someone who they may not know that well. I’ve got my work cut out for me, and that’s why I’ve chosen to start early. In order to meet this burden, I need to distinguish myself from the incumbent, and offer evidence for why I would make a better Senator. In doing so, I will no doubt be critiquing Mr. Galluccio’s record as Senator. I will not, however, critique Mr. Galluccio’s character, or address his personal issues. I am not naïve to think that Mr. Galluccio’s current legal problems will not be a factor in this race. Voter should appropriately consider that information in making their decisions at the polls. But they don’t need me or anyone else lecturing them about it, and I won’t stoop to that level in this campaign. The focus of my campaign will be on Mr. Galluccio’s legislative record, and as for Mr. Galluccio’s questionable driving history, that will be between Mr. Galluccio and the voters.

Other Issues
I’ve got ten months to make my case to the voters of this district, and I plan to spend the next few months refining my legislative agenda. For example, I’m going to be meeting with community leaders in Chelsea to discuss how we can bring in more private and public investment. That city is in the running to host a new FBI regional headquarters. I think the state senator of this district should be doing everything in his power to make that happen.

We need to do a better job supporting our public school teachers and administrators. Instead of helping them do their job, however, the state has been creating more and more bureaucratic burdens, associated with the MCAS framework and the special education appeal system. Teachers should be doing what they do best, teaching kids how to learn, not teaching kids how to take tests, and not spending time filling out paperwork or sitting in a courtroom for days on end.

The reason I’m running for this position is that I see first-hand in my daily practice inefficiencies and poor decision-making in state government. I’ve sat on the sidelines long enough. I’ve got the fire in the belly to get into that State House and start working on day one, to make our district a better place to live, work and play, and to position our state to be economically and environmentally sustainable for my and your children, and for future generations to come.

#

Biography
Dan Hill is a 1999 graduate of the Northeastern University School of Law and has been practicing law in Boston and Cambridge for the last ten years. Dan concentrates his practice in state and municipal law, with a focus on environmental and land use permitting and regulation. Dan regularly appears in courts and administrative agencies around the state. He was named one of ten “Up and Coming Lawyers” for 2006 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. He opened his own practice in Charlestown in 2008, where he lives with his wife, a middle school science teacher, and his two children (15 months and 5 months). Dan grew up on Cape Cod, the son of public school teachers. He attended college at the University of Vermont, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1995 (political science major). Dan is an active volunteer with Habitat for Humanity on Martha’s Vineyard.