Cape Ann’s Democratic city and town committees hosted candidates Andrew “Dru” Tarr and Sarah Wilkinson for a forum where they discussed their priorities and answered a number of questions from residents.
Tarr, the 5th Essex District’s state representative, and former Rockport Select Board member Sarah Wilkinson are vying to secure the Democratic nomination for the state representative’s seat in the Sept. 1 primary.
Both Tarr and Wilkinson competed for the spot during the special primary held earlier this year with Wilkinson mounting a write-in campaign. Tarr ultimately won the seat, filling out the remainder of Ann-Margaret Ferrante’s term following her passing in November last year.
The state primary is preceding the Nov. 3 state election where the winner of the Democratic nomination likely will compete against Manchester-by-the-Sea’s Christina Delisio, the sole Republican vying for the seat, and Essex independent Gilbert Frieden. Both Delisio and Frieden competed against Tarr during the special election.
Tuesday night’s online forum was hosted by Interim Gloucester Democratic City Committee Chair Rani Jacobson and opened with each candidate highlighting their top priorities.
Tarr said his main priorities have not changed much since the special election and are housing affordability, education, economic development and to “bring resources back to (Cape Ann) communities.”
To address housing affordability, Tarr said more work needs to be done to increase the housing supply on Cape Ann and promote affordable housing, a state-defined restriction to help curb housing costs, and “housing that people can afford.”
“We need to prioritize these types of restricted housing for seniors and affordable housing so that we’re not just saying we’ll let the market work it out,” Tarr said. “We need places for teachers, fishermen, people that work in retail, that’s going to be one of the first places I look at in terms of addressing housing.”
Wilkinson, an 18-year Rockport selectwoman with five terms as chair, said being the voice of Cape Ann and bringing its leaders together to address local issues while pushing for transparency and the audit of the state Legislature were some of her top priorities if elected.
“At the local level we operate under transparency requirements, we are audited every single year and we conduct the people’s business in public. That is how government should work,” Wilkinson said. “If our elected leaders aren’t willing to make their own government transparent and accountable, how can we trust them with anything?”
Following the candidate’s opening remarks, the forum was opened to questions from the audience. One question, from David Kaplan, asked Tarr to explain his stance on the audit.
Tarr said he is “absolutely in favor of an audit of the Legislature” but had concerns its scope.
“The auditor has had a number of versions of what her scope for the audit has been, some of that I believe has been unconstitutional, but not the financial audit, that I’m totally fine with,” he said. “In the House we specifically addressed four of the things that the auditor had said she was looking for, both in an earlier letter to the Legislature.”
While only few questions solicited any back-and-forth between the candidates, Wilkinson responded to Tarr on the audit, calling his response “ridiculous.”
“That to me is why I keep hearing from everyone that people are increasingly losing trust in our government,” she said. “If you truly believe in accountability and transparency, you will find a way to make it happen.”
Sunny Robinson asked the candidates to dive deeper into their priorities and what they would do to enact change.
Wilkinson said besides the audit, many people told her to keep fishermen and veterans in mind and to do something about housing.
“I think the state rep’s job is to get all four communities together and say what are our priorities in terms of housing, schools, infrastructure, the local economies and see how we can collaborate then bring that to the state and feds,” she said.
Tarr outlined how he would support education and economic development, largely through finding ways to better fund both areas.
A big campaign point for Tarr since the special election has been reforming Chapter 70, the regulations the state uses to supply school funding. He said wants to make targeted investments in areas such as Gloucester High School’s vocational school and the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy to boost both education and economic development.
“If you can give someone a great education and give them an opportunity to succeed, they will find a way to succeed,” he said.
Other questions had to do with the candidates’ thoughts on what can be done at the state level to combat climate change and its effects on Cape Ann.
Marci Bailey posed the first climate change question, asking what can be done at the state level, especially given that $2.76 million in federal funding to aid in the repair of Long Beach’s seawall was recently rescinded.
Both Wilkinson and Tarr said the state cannot make up all of the federal dollars lost and called for voters to elect climate-minded federal officials to advocate for Cape Ann in Washington.
Wilkinson also said they need to look at what other countries are doing to find unique and innovative solutions to climate-related issues.
“I believe it’s Finland that has solutions to dealing with seawalls that don’t involve just rebuilding barrier seawalls on the ocean, and we all know the ocean is rising, this is very real and we’re going to have to deal with it,” she said.
Tarr said advocating for grant funding to invest in clean energy and climate-friendly infrastructure as well as initiatives such as seawall repair is one way to make-up some of the funding lost.
“We’re going to have to look at some different ways to put our funds and thoughts into action, to invest in our green infrastructure, and make sure we’re securing everything that we can,” Tarr said.