Senate President Thomas Birmingham kicked off his campaign for governor Saturday at his grammar school in Chelsea, pledging to work on education, health care and economic growth.
“Those Republicans came to office promising to lead by steering, not rowing,” Birmingham said in his speech. “But they haven’t steered, they rowed. They have waited for their first chance to jump ship.”
Birmingham (D-Middlesex) promised Massachusetts would have the best public school system in the country by the end of his first term. He pledged to cut class sizes, hire new teachers and retain experienced ones.
He also said he plans to initiate a 50 percent increase in the cigarette tax to help fund health care spending.
“He will be running off his record,” said campaign spokesman Paul Wingle. “No candidate has done more for education, more for health care and more for a better working wage than Tom Birmingham.”
Wingle said Birmingham plans to retain and improve the current education and health care systems.
“He will be trying to make sure people have a bigger share of the economy,” Wingle said.
According to Wingle, many people have lost their faith in the government, and Birmingham will work to restore that faith.
“I think job number one is restoring confidence in big governments,” Wingle continued.
Wingle said the late deadline for last year’s budget was not normal, and Birmingham will change the way the budget is negotiated to prevent that from happening again. Many criticized Birmingham after the Legislature failed to produce a working budget well after its original deadline.
“We could guarantee an early budget last year if we’d done less for housing, less for medical care and less for education,” Wingle said.
Saturday’s event was the first in a series of events throughout the week to promote Birmingham’s candidacy.
Birmingham joins two other Democratic candidates to announce their bid for the position: former Clinton administration Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, former national Party Chairman Steve Grossman and Warren Tolman. Secretary of State William Galvin and Treasurer Shannon O’Brien are also said to be considering joining the race.
Of all the candidates, Birmingham has raised the most money to date, having already raised just under $3 million.
Reich, who announced his candidacy Wednesday, has pledged to improve the economy. Reich said he saw enormous growth in the economy while working in the Clinton administration, and said he plans to expand the economy as governor.
Acting Gov. Jane Swift is the only Republican candidate. Swift has not yet set up a campaign office.
Swift took over as governor earlier this year after Paul Cellucci left to become the U.S. Ambassador to Canada.
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