A conversation with Cameron Costa
"It will be good to have someone in the seat who doesn't owe anyone anything"
NOTE: A previous post mentioned the candidate's campaign kickoff on April 7th. Obviously this is in the past, so please disregard my mention.
Yesterday I wrote about Cameron Costa, a Democratic challenger for the 9th Bristol District's House seat, a district that consists of all of Dartmouth and New Bedford Ward 1 Precincts D, E, and F. Costa is challenging incumbent Christopher Markey. For more information on Costa and his campaign go to cameroncosta.org. For information on Markey's abysmal record, see my last post or visit Markey's Progressive Mass scorecard.
Costa was in Dartmouth this morning to collect signatures and I had an opportunity to sit down with him over coffee.
Cameron Costa was about eight years old when he first began nagging his mother to let him stay up to watch political debates and political party conventions. What kid does that? By the time he attended Greater New Bedford Voke Costa recognized that the school had a problem with representation of Black and Hispanic teachers. He recalls that a Department of Education report showed GNBVT had only eight BIPOC teachers at the time "and I knew each one of them," he recalls.
By the time college appeared on Costa’s horizon, his family's precarious finances were almost enough to discourage him from attending. But he enrolled at Bristol Community College and was able to transfer credits to UMASS Dartmouth via the Commonwealth Commitment Program. At BCC he was the president of the Student Senate and a member of the State Advisory Council. At UMASS Dartmouth Costa became a student voting member of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, a position that was approved by Governor Charlie Baker.
Costa's campaign bio elaborates: "In this role, [he] advocated expanding investment in programs that increase equity, close the achievement gap, and increase economic resources for students. Cameron relies on his experiences as a Board Member on the New Bedford Site Advisory Board for the Department of Mental Health, in recognizing the lack of access to mental health resources for our veterans and community members. Cameron has also been an advocate for workers’ rights and protections, which is why he had served as a trustee of his union: AFSCME Council 93 Local 72."
Costa's early interest in politics, his awareness of social issues, and his own family's challenges, all pulled him into real-world politics. He told me that while still an undergraduate he sought out State Representative Jacob Oliveira (7th Hampden District), a young and somewhat progressive legislator for whom Costa worked 10 months, precisely because the representative was young and progressive. As a legislative intern Costa answered constituent letters and phone calls, and occasionally filled in at constituent meetings.
I asked Costa if he had the bandwidth to serve as a state representative while still in college. That question was prompted by the fact that the incumbent is more often to be found in 3rd District Court in New Bedford than at the State House, while another local representative tends to his cattle more than he does his constituents. Costa told me that he is prepared to work hard, that he will have his Bachelors of Science in Management-Leadership next month, and that he will complete a masters degree in Public Management by December. I asked how he managed to accomplish all that in such a compressed timeframe, and he told me he's been adding to his course load and taking grad courses all along.
I then asked Costa if he thinks voters will take a 20 year-old candidate seriously. He replied by pointing out that the minimum age for a House Rep is 18, that young people have important perspectives not always considered in mainstream politics, that younger candidates appeal to younger voters, and that younger voters are often willing to hear more diverse perspectives than older ones.
Then Costa said something that ought to resonate with anyone who knows Chris Markey and his machine Democrat pals: "It will be good to have someone in the seat who doesn't owe anyone anything."
I asked Costa about his "outsider" status as a working-class kid from an area of New Bedford abutting Dartmouth near the airport. How was a guy without a yacht or Nantucket reds going to handle the insular "not from here, not in my backyard" voter?
Costa answered by pointing out that, while the demographics of South Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, and the district’s New Bedford wards are all slightly different, he has embarked on a listening campaign with everyone from local politicos to farmers. Examples of local concerns he's listened to: Route 6 infrastructure, environmental pollution at Bliss Corner, school infrastructure, and COVID-related health issues. By the same token, Costa notes that Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven and other SouthCoast towns have many more common interests than divergent concerns.
I pointed to Chris Markey's bad voting record — failures to support government transparency, abortion rights, affordable housing, voting rights, progressive tax policy, immigration, and hot-button culture war issues. And then I asked Costa where he stood on those issues.
I won't put words in his mouth, but Costa answered knowledgeably and thoughtfully. For example, on government transparency he told me he had signed on to the Act on Mass pledge, which targets a number of transparency issues on Beacon Hill. With affordable housing, he allowed that municipal control over rents is an important piece of the puzzle. On right-wing assaults on education, Costa made clear that Critical Race Theory is not the same thing as teaching history and that he fully supports an honest accounting of even uncomfortable American history in public schools.
On police accountability he was forthright. "Many members of my family are police officers," he explained. While Costa supports some police accountability measures and a more limited role for School Resource Officers, he’s still pondering Qualified Immunity. When I suggested names he ought to speak to on police accountability issues, he smiled and told me he had already spoken with them.
I came away from our discussion feeling that Costa was earnest, methodical, honest, and trying to thoughtfully tackle not only issues dear to him personally but those that have come up in his listening sessions.
Admittedly, Costa's age, outsider status, lack of incumbency, lack of political machine connections — even his progressive views themselves — all place him at a disadvantage in this race. But we get the politicians we deserve, and I think we deserve a representative like Cameron Costa.
For more information on Cameron Costa, visit cameroncosta.org.