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To serve as state senator for the Cape and Islands would be a true honor. After 30 years building connections through our communities, raising a family, starting a business, creating jobs while honoring the environment, serving many nonprofit and public boards, I believe I now have the leadership, experience and temperament to represent voters well.
To serve as state senator for the Cape and Islands would be a true honor. After 30 years building connections through our communities, raising a family, starting a business, creating jobs while honoring the environment, serving many nonprofit and public boards, I believe I now have the leadership, experience and temperament to represent voters well.
Two quick stories tell a lot about why I am asking for Cape constituents' votes on Sept. 14.
The first:
A few weeks ago, after a year of hard, sometimes complicated work, I threw the switch on the largest solar panel installation in southeastern Massachusetts.
Cape Air, the company I founded 21 years ago with one plane, and one route, now has almost 1,000 employees, many of whom work at our Barnstable headquarters. That facility will now be electricity-neutral on a year-round basis.
Those solar panels create good jobs as well as electricity. They reduce our unhealthy reliance on fossil fuels.
As state senator, I will work to make projects like this available to small businesses and homeowners, part of a plan we develop together to make the Cape and Islands energy-self-sufficient, strengthening our economy while protecting our environment.
The second story:
Cape Air's health insurance policy recently came up for renewal. We were shocked when the company gave us its quote: an 18 percent hike over last year.
That was on a Monday. By Wednesday, a competitor came back with an offer: How about a 5 percent hike?
We went back to the first company. By Thursday, it had revised its quote: How about a 3 percent hike?
My question: What were they going to do with the 15 percent, more than $300,000, they needed on Monday but didn't need on Thursday?
Of course I know the answer: Drive up profits at our expense.
We need a state senator who understands the crucial difference between business that is part of our community's fabric, and corporations that skim profits without caring about our future.
What does this mean?
It means we support local businesspeople and the entrepreneurial spirit. It means we turn to community banks, where I've served and participated for many years, rather than anonymous off-Cape lenders. It means we encourage local farmers; their food is better for our health, and they are our neighbors.
It means we force insurance companies to roll back outrageous homeowners' insurance premiums. It means we don't allow NStar to spray poison on our land in the name of keeping power lines clear. It means we strengthen public education. My three daughters got great educations at Cape Cod public schools. We must get our fair share of state funding so our towns are not pitted against each other in bitter fights about fiscal formulas.
This has been my lifelong philosophy. This is the understanding I will bring to the Statehouse.
My leadership has been proved. At the state level, I serve on the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, managing the state 's many parks. Here at home, I worked with many others to find solutions to our wastewater crisis as co-chairman of the Business Roundtable.
No matter the issue, my process will always be the same: Bring people together, collaborate with mutual respect, build understanding, and then get real results.
So this campaign, like the past 30 years, is not about what I can do. It's about what we can do.
That's why more than 570 of Cape Air's employees are also its owners, sharing our successes and profits.
That's why I'm proud to have won the endorsement of both the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
That's why I ask voters to turn to anyone they know who has served with me on a public or nonprofit board over these many years. Ask about my commitment, experience and skills. Ask about my ability to connect the dots and bring people together. Ask about my passion.
I'm ready to serve as the Cape's full-time state senator.
Dan Wolf of North Harwich, president of Cape Air, is seeking the Democratic nomination for the Cape and Islands state Senate seat.
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