Joseph Kennedy Comes to Mansfield's COA

Joseph Kennedy III stopped by Mansfield’s Council on Aging on Thursday to discuss the issues close to his campaign and the upcoming election in Massachusetts for Barney Frank’s Fourth District seat in Congress.

“It’s a tough crowd, but it’s a good crowd,” he said.

Mansfield resident Angela Roman asked Kennedy what he thought about how he would correctly represent average citizens in this day and age. She said it could become impossible to represent their interests when the gap between rich and poor is getting high enough that a campaign could conceivably be run on funds from super Pacs (political action committees) and not have to worry about funds from large groups of average citizens.

“Just because someone gives you a campaign donation doesn’t mean you’re going to exclusively represent their interests,” he said.

Kennedy added that such use of super Pac funding with unlimited donations and no accountability would be something he would want to work against.

“We also want to increase transparency,” he said. “It creates an honest race where it’s just people funding a campaign.”

Mansfield resident Frank Grant asked Kennedy what he thought of the 2010 BP oil spill and what he thought could be done in the future to help prevent such a catastrophe of mismanagement.

“Oil and gas does have a future in this country and our economy,” he said. “But you’ve got to make sure the restrictions and regulations are put in place so you don’t have another disaster like that.”

Kennedy said that this election will be the most polarized he’s ever seen. He said that the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate

“I think it solidifies the fact that there’s a real choice going forward in this election,” he said. “Probably clearer than any I’ve ever seen in vision and direction. [Republican platform] wants to voucherize Medicare, give more tax breaks to millionaires, cutting $3 trillion in programs for working class families and Paul Ryan’s also talking about privatizing social security, so there’s a real big difference.”