Q&A with Mass gov. candidate Tim Cahill

Tim Cahill, the treasurer of Massachusetts and an independent candidate for governor, may be known as a relatively conservative guy now, but that wasn't always the case. Back when he was a student at Boston University, Cahill marched in protest of former BU President John Silber with professors during the 1979 strike. "That was my first protest march &- I guess I was just going along with the crowd at that point," he said. "But it was interesting to be part of the school during that era, where things weren't as settled as they are today."

We talked to him about the issues college students are protesting in 2010, from gay marriage to immigration, to see just how much this former student of famed leftist (and late BU professor) Howard Zinn has changed today.

<strong>You support gay marriage. Now that Massachusetts is challenging the Defense of Marriage Act in court, do you support this as well?</strong>

I don't, in the sense that I think our state should focus on our state and not try to interfere with how other states deal with this issue, because I think it's a very emotional issue. I'm comfortable with my position, but I know a lot of other people aren't, and I think each state should be left to deal with it as they see. I understand the argument about benefits and how difficult it is with national and federal benefits when you have states that don't recognize it, but I don't believe we should force our beliefs here in Massachusetts on other states.

<strong>You say on your website you want to work toward reducing the high school dropout rate. How do you plan on doing this?</strong>

By continuing to fund schools at the highest level as possible, keeping the student-teacher ratio as close to where it is today is important to keep students connected. I know one of the reasons I did well in high school and stayed in high school and graduated was because of my connection to the teachers. I also believe that it's important to have strong extracurricular programs, both sports and the arts. That's also a way to keep folks who might not be good students or might not be traditionally good students in the system and stay in the system and find their way until they get older. So I'm not in favor of and I don't support when schools cut those systems as the first thing they have to cut. It will be a challenge to make good on those commitments, given that we're still in a recession and have so much higher unemployment and revenues are down, but I think it's more important today that students graduate because trying to get a job with a high school degree is tough enough &amp;- without a high school degree, it's virtually impossible.

<strong>You say that we may need to cut some of the state's money that's going toward transportation. Under a Cahill administration, would we see our subway and bus fare rise?</strong>

That's a possibility anyway. Hopefully not, and it wouldn't be something I would be pushing for. What I would focus on in terms of transportation specifically would be fixing the lines that we have and holding back on expanding the lines until we get our finances in order.

<strong>You've been strongly critical of the health care law in Massachusetts, primarily because you and many economists think it has cost the state too much money. But would your health care plan, with strongly reduced costs, still be able to reach the near-universal coverage that Massachusetts currently has?</strong>

I think it can. I think it probably has to. I think the goal is to get even higher. But the only way that's going to happen is if we bring down the cost of health insurance. I don't believe that's going to happen under the current administration and I can't see it happening under the Republican [former health care CEO and current gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker], who comes from a health insurance background.

<strong>On your website, you say that given the right set of circumstances, you would sign a bill reinstituting the death penalty in Massachusetts. What are those circumstances?</strong>

The specifics I probably can't get into today, but obviously I think we would want to have something &amp;- although nothing can ever be foolproof, it has to be guilty beyond any doubt whatsoever so that innocent people aren't put to death. And it has to be very serious crimes: murder, aggravated killing of a police officer, a kind of terrorist type of act on innocent civilians. I wouldn't want to prejudge it; it's not something that I believe my administration would be introducing, but if the legislature came up with a plan that I thought protected the rights of innocent people, and yet punish the very worst crimes, along the federal lines.

<strong>Recently you said that your sympathies were with the Arizona governor for the state's immigration law that some say discriminates against Hispanics and you don't support the federal lawsuit challenging the law. What do you mean by this?</strong>

Although I don't think we would have to go as far as Gov. Brewer has gone in Arizona here in Massachusetts, I believe given her unique circumstances of trying to manage law and order and public safety in a border state, and the federal government's unwillingness to enforce security in the border, that she did what she felt she had to do. And I think we need to be tougher on illegal immigration here in Massachusetts, and give police officers, public safety officers tools to combat it and to address it when they encounter it.

<strong>What sort of tools?</strong>

Communication with the immigration service, ICE. There's a 24-hour hotline that they get in Vermont that we could if we wanted to connect with, so that when our public safety officers came across someone that didn't have documentation, they could report that immediately and then allow the federal government to do its job of deporting immigrants from the state. And powering our local and state police to include someone's immigration status if they have arrested or stopped someone in the function of their duties.

<strong>If you were the Governor of Arizona, would you support that immigration law?</strong>

I would have signed that bill if I was governor of Arizona.