ENDORSEMENT: Atkins has experience

Concord -

The next year is going to be tough for Massachusetts.

The state isn’t immune to the recession people worldwide are now faced with. Unemployment is on the rise, budgets are being cut and retail stores are closing their doors. Residents everywhere are feeling the crunch, and they’re turning to their local and state officials for help.

At this time of economic uncertainty, residents need an experienced legislator representing them in the State House. For Concord, this legislator is Cory Atkins.

Atkins, a Concord resident, has served as the town’s state representative for nine years. She is already familiar with the inner workings of the General Court and has established herself as a leader, by serving as House chairman of the Science and Technology Caucus. She knows the coming months will be challenging ones for her constituents — regardless of the stigma that Concord is an affluent community — and is willing and able to fight for her towns’ fair share of local aid.

This year, Richard McClure, an independent from Chelmsford, has challenged her for her seat in the 14th Middlesex District. He has specific ideas for legislation he would like to file, including dissolving the Mass Turnpike Authority and legalizing casino gambling provided 50 percent of the net tax revenues go back to cities and towns as local aid. But McClure has also spent most of his campaign pointing out where he feels Atkins has failed the district instead of explaining how he is a better candidate. This campaign should be a learning experience for McClure, who has potential to be a strong, viable candidate, and hopefully he will use it as a starting point for a future run for office.

At the same time, Atkins should take her reelection as an opportunity to reflect on her career as a legislator, and should do all she can to represent her towns well in her next term. As much as residents have come out to support Atkins, both on the campaign trail and in letters to this paper, her representation hasn’t been perfect. When Sal DiMasi was chosen to serve as House Speaker following backroom talks and with no opposition, Atkins was the only legislator to vote “present,” to show her disagreement with the process. While this act shows she doesn’t follow the herd, it also came back to bite her — her requests to enact special legislation and home rule petitions that Concord voters had passed fell on deaf ears for several months as punishment.

When it comes time to introduce legislation, Atkins could focus more on the needs of her specific district. Bills she has recently sponsored, including requiring gender-neutral phrasing in all legislation and requiring drivers to keep two hands on the wheel at all times (in an effort to curb cell phone use), are all well and good, but don’t necessarily help her constituents — especially financially. If she is reelected to another term, hopefully she’ll consider sponsoring bills that address issues that hit closer to home for her constituents.

In the end, however, Atkins is the district’s best choice. She deserves your vote as representative for the 14th Middlesex District.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord/news/opinions/x1157504316/ENDORSEMENT-Atkins-has-experience