Senator John Kerry
interviewed by Kevin Moran on July 4, 1996
Additional Resources
Kerry '96
Senator Kerry's official campaign site.
On the Record
Kerry's voting record organized by issue.
PAC in the Bucks
The Kerry-Weld campaign is a lesson in the different methods of fundraising.
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is in the midst of the biggest fight of his political career. His Senate seat is being challenged by Massachusetts Governor William Weld, a popular, moderate Republican. Many people feel that this race is of national importance, because it will help define the nation's changing political climate.
Tripod: This race for U.S. Senate has been called "the" campaign that could frame the national debate between the major parties over the nation's future. How do you respond to that?
John Kerry: That's for other people to decide. What I want to make sure is that this campaign does is talk truthfully and forcefully about the real choices facing Americans: how we prepare for the information age in terms of education, science and technology -- pushing that curve and preparing people with a whole set of skills that are very rapidly changing and demanding. The marketplace is so dynamic that education, research and development and technology are more important than they have ever been in our lives. It's imperative that we invest in our future.
And I think there's mindless, simplistic sloganeering on behalf of the Republicans that is too willing to abdicate or avoid those choices. They've offered the greatest cuts in education in American history. We fought to hold on to Pell Grants, Stafford loans, and the scholarships that are so essential to our higher education and our future. They (the Republicans) refuse to provide adequate health care coverage to people who have none. They've offered a thirty percent reduction in funding for research and development. That doesn't make sense.
And I've been fighting to fund research and development and provide them with tax credits and breaks for new technology startups. I think there are different sets of priorities: the Republicans want to divest from our nation's future and Democrats make efforts to invest. The governor has vetoed the minimum wage; I voted for the minimum wage. The governor has cut community policing money; I've been responsible in the Senate for ensuring 100,000 more cops are on the street. The governor vetoes daycare money, and I've been fighting to increase our daycare spending so more families can go to work and make sure their kids are taken good care of.
Tripod: Going further, what are the major differences between you and Bill Weld, the man who wants to replace you in the U.S. Senate?
JK: The governor talks a lot about things, but he doesn't do a lot. Ninety-two percent of the schools in Massachusetts are in need of repairs and maintenance, and eighty percent of teachers and students are working in substandard schools. That's unacceptable in my judgment. The governor has been content to allow that to happen. He has never set a goal to be first in the nation. There are only four states worse than [Massachusetts] in the nation in terms of our school systems. That's a horrible fact to deal with. I'm working to guarantee computers in the schools, and he avoids his public responsibility and just runs around with slogans.
Tripod: Both you and Bill Weld are pro-choice. On some issues, you aren't dissimilar.
JK: The governor has varied on that one, too. The question is, can you trust the governor on where he is? He's now pro-choice. Before that, he was pro-life. Can you trust him to stay there? He flip-flopped on guns and gun control. On PAC money, he's flip-flopped. On choice. On welfare reform. I have not flip-flopped. And women know that they can trust the position, as I have voted pro-choice hundreds of times. My votes are my trust.
JK: Because I have consistently voted for educational assistance for higher education and for Kindergarten through 12th grade; and the governor has consistently tried to cut higher education money or vetoed it or cut it. Last year, he vetoed $19 million in higher education funds ... over the objections the Legislature, which had to override his veto. The governor is not a friend of higher education, and hasn't helped students get education loans and go to school. I have a convincing record of fighting to help 18-year-olds go to college. I lead the fight this year to continue the lending of student loans in the federal level. The governor will tell you he's for it, but what he does will be different.
Tripod: You were a primary sponsor of one of the strongest campaign finance reform bills ever considered in Congress. Explain how that came to be, and will the United States ever see a campaign finance reform package signed into law?
JK: I hope and pray that it will because it has to -- to restore our own democracy and hold the country together. Our politics are deeply threatened by the amount of money that is spent in our elections. Money is setting the agenda of Washington -- too often at the expense of the real concerns of Americans. I believe we have to get the big money out of politics. We have to limit the special interests' influence. And that's why I'm one of very few Congressmen who refuses voluntarily to take any PAC money.
Once again, you have an example of the governor doing one thing and saying another. He'll say that PAC money is bad, and it influences politics. But this year, the governor is taking PAC money. This is a man who says one thing one year and does another thing another year. I have never taken PAC money. In the 1984 election, I ran the first senate race in America free of PAC money.
Tripod: Across the United States, we are witnessing the dismantling of affirmative action programs and the potential for far-reaching backlashes as a result. Where should we go with this and is now the right time to reverse affirmative action?
JK: No, it should not be reversed. I support affirmative action, but I do believe affirmative action needs to be fixed so you're not creating a new kind of unfairness. You have to have an affirmative action outreach in America, but I also think you want to be certain you don't have a new quota system arise from it. And I think President Clinton has set out on a good track to do that.
JK: I don't think there's any thing more important than helping more people get access to public higher education. The new marketplace is dependent on the maintenance of education and access to it. If you don't get a college education today, your lifetime income has been predetermined -- unless you get a lucky break through something like athletics, and even then, the odds are against you. Without a college education, you're pretty fixed. So what you learn is ultimately what you earn.
We have to maximize opportunities to enter higher education. We have to see that people can borrow money at affordable rates. We have to make higher education itself affordable. For every dollar we invest in a student, we get six or more back into the economy. It makes sense, and that's why I have consistently voted against cuts for student lending and have voted for increasing student lending. I lead the fight against the most serious attack to student education launched by the Republicans in history.
JK: I believe that the First Amendment allows people to communicate their ideas in an unfettered fashion. And the Internet has to be protected with respect to First Amendment privileges -- just like news and television. On the other hand, we obviously want to be careful about children being exposed willfully to materials that the average parent wouldn't want them tapping into in the normal way. We need balance. We can't have the government imposing nor the government regulating something that, in some way, impinges on the First Amendment. We need to work with the industries to guarantee that the software programming is sufficient to permit parents to be able to make choices and deal with this the way they see fit and avoid having government intrude on what people are seeing or doing in their own homes.
Kevin Moran is a newspaper reporter and freelance writer based in Massachusetts. He has been covering Massachusetts politics for three years.
