When listening to Adam Hinds in a debate, it’s easy to forget he’s not the incumbent state senator, and we mean that in a good way.
The 40-year-old Buckland native and Mohawk Trail Regional High School graduate talks quickly and easily about a wide range of issues as he campaigns for election to the 52-community Senate seat being vacated after 10 years by Pittsfield Democrat Benjamin Downing.
That district represents Hilltowns in western Hampshire and Franklin counties, in addition to all of Berkshire County and a little of Hampden County.
Hinds, a Democrat, demonstrates a depth of knowledge on the issues that his Republican opponent, Christine Canning of Lanesborough, does not. Canning is an engaging, independent-minded and outspoken educator and gadfly. She nonetheless gave answers that too often wandered off the mark at a recent debate in Ashfield, skimming the surface or failing to elucidate many of the issues being discussed, including charter schools.
Hinds, on the other hand, articulated responses that drilled down into the substance of the issues. If he struggled in the debates, it was to cram his detailed answers into two-minute summaries.
Drawing on deep knowledge of the issues to develop positions and to make decisions in the Legislature is vital, but we must also care about where candidates stand on the issues themselves, and Hinds passes that test, too.
He opposes lifting the cap on the number of state charter schools, a question before voters on Tuesday’s ballot. Local public school leaders have warned more charter schools would jeopardize their ability to provide quality education, especially in rural districts that Hinds would represent. If the referendum passes, our local districts will need sympathetic legislators to help blunt its effects locally.
“To me, it’s really about financing,” he has said. “Right here in Mohawk, for example there’s a Chapter 70 (the state funding mechanism for schools) shortfall of $600,000 … We’re going to need to get our financing right first.”
At an Ashfield forum, Hinds differed from Canning in defending Attorney General Maura Healey’s decision in July to ban so-called copycat assault weapons, a move the AG said was to close a gap in the state’s existing assault-weapons ban.
Hinds has outlined program goals that include universal pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten and changes to the state’s education funding formulas to “recognize the challenges specific to rural districts or those with declining populations.”
Hinds spent a decade in the Mideast working as a negotiator for the United Nations, good preparation for the sometimes turbulent give-and-take currents of Beacon Hill politics.
He is no stranger to politics. Indeed, the graduate of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy worked on the 1998 and 2000 campaigns of former U.S. Rep. John W. Olver of Amherst and served as his 2000 campaign manager. He was New Hampshire regional coordinator in 2003 and 2004 for presidential candidate John Kerry, later serving on his campaign’s national security and foreign policy team.
Hinds has also proven himself in an area closer to home. In his work as executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition and founding director of Pittsfield Community Connection, Hinds led a program to help troubled young men move toward education, jobs and counseling. His efforts there have included coalition-building to respond to local challenges including access to health care and strategies around heroin addiction.
Hinds has won endorsements from his former boss, Olver; the man he would replace, Downing; progressive firebrand U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan and other public officials. Among the organizations endorsing him are the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the American Federation of Teachers — particularly interesting, given that his opponent is a professional school administrator — as well as the Laborers’ International Union of North America, the National Association of Social Workers, the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists and the progressive advocacy organization Mass Alliance.
Add our voice to the chorus — and listen to the candidate himself:
“We need somebody who can stand up and be a strong voice for western Mass.,” Hinds said recently.
What else is there to say?
The Gazette endorses Hinds for this state Senate seat. We hope voters will do the same on Tuesday.