jd parker o'grady smiling.JPG

Political newcomer J.D. Parker-O'Grady, a 32-year-old Democrat from Southampton, is challenging state Sen. Don Humason, a veteran Republican state lawmaker from Westfield. Parker-O'Grady, who is in his third year of law school at Northeastern University, claims Humason is out of touch with constituents in parts of his sprawling 2nd Hampden & Hampshire District.

(Dave Roback / The Republican)

SPRINGFIELD -- Democratic candidate J.D. Parker-O'Grady believes that state Sen. Don Humason neglects constituents in parts of the sprawling 2nd Hampden & Hampshire District, which is among the reasons the law school student from Southampton is challenging the veteran Republican from Westfield.

"He's not addressing their issues," Parker-O'Grady said in a wide-ranging interview Friday with The Republican editorial board, touching on everything from his support for transgender rights and legalizing marijuana to his opposition to expanding charter schools and limiting Attorney General Maura Healey's right to further control gun sales in Massachusetts.

The 32-year-old political newcomer claimed the 49-year-old senator, an elected official for over 13 years and a public servant since 1991, focuses too much on Westfield and deals only with Republicans -- allegations Humason vigorously refuted in an interview Sunday.

Although Humason claims he reaches across the aisle to work with Democrats, "he's not producing the legislative results, necessarily," Parker-O'Grady said. "He's not getting bills passed for his constituents. He's, in fact, voting against the interests of at least some subsets of his constituents."

"He's wrong," Humason said of Parker-O'Grady, pointing out that he was at an event in Easthampton when a reporter contacted him for comment Sunday. "So, clearly, I don't spend all my time in Westfield," he said. "If I did, I certainly wouldn't be as successful as I am in this office by only spending time in my hometown."

Transgender rights

Parker-O'Grady cited Humason's opposition to the transgender rights bill as evidence of the senator's disconnect with with some district voters. "That's a segment of his constituency that he's voting against right there," said the candidate, the son of two attorneys, one of whom is a judge.

Transgender rights is just one of many issues on which the candidates differ. The bill became state law this past spring after passing by wide margins in the Senate and House. The law bars discrimination against transgender people in public accommodations and allows them to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with the gender they identify with, not the sex assigned to them at birth.

Humason was one of only four state senators, all Republicans, who opposed the bill, which was hailed by Democrats as a major victory for civil rights in Massachusetts.

The senator said he heard from constituents worried about privacy issues and claimed the law, which relies on gender self-identification, would be tough to enforce.

"At the same time we're being asked to be tolerant of transgendered folks, we're sort of being intolerant to the concerns of people who just want privacy in the shower or privacy in the restrooms or privacy in the locker rooms," Humason said in May, when the bill passed by a vote of 33-4 in the Senate. On June 1, the measure passed by a vote of 116-36 in the House of Representatives.

In September, Healey's office issued guidelines to help businesses avoid discriminating against transgender people in places of public accommodation, whether restaurants or locker rooms. The economics of accommodating transgender customers -- the costs associated with complying with the so-called "bathroom bill" -- should not overshadow the human rights issue, according to Parker-O'Grady.

"I don't think that's a reasonable objection to a human rights question, and that's what it comes down to," he said. "If it comes down to just either building a third bathroom or even turning the bathrooms into a unisex bathroom ... I think that's a reasonable accommodation to that segment of the population that does have rights."

Obliging transgender customers' bathroom preferences is unlikely to break the bank for small business owners, according to Parker-O'Grady.

"I find it unlikely that somebody would close for that particular issue, beyond a purely ideological reason that they just don't want to do it, because there are alternatives to building a third bathroom," he said. "A lot of small places only have one bathroom, so it's, I think, more of an ideological issue that they just might not want to cater to that."

Community Preservation Act

In Holyoke, one of the cities in the 2nd Hampden & Hampshire District, voters will decide whether to adopt the Community Preservation Act, or CPA, when they go to the polls next month. If the measure passes, Holyoke property owners would be assessed a surcharge on annual real estate taxes to help fund open space preservation, historic restoration and affordable housing.

Parker-O'Grady believes the CPA is "a good thing" for communities and does not view the surcharge as an additional tax on residents, he said. "It could do some good things. Leave it to the people of Holyoke to vote on it and see if they want it. My personal view is that it can do some good things," he said.

The benefits of the surcharge outweigh the negatives, according to Parker-O'Grady. "I think it's a minimal amount," he said, "and I think people notice the results a lot more than they notice that additional cost."

Gun control

On the issue of gun control, Parker-O'Grady believes Healey has the right to use Chapter 93A, the state's consumer protection law, to ban the sale of "copycat" assault-style weapons in Massachusetts. The attorney general announced July 20 that she would use her consumer-protection powers to prohibit the sale of copycat weapons, prompting instant pushback and legal action from gun-rights groups that claimed she had overstepped her bounds. A federal lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Boston.

However, a flurry of bills, including one filed by Humason, to strip Healey of her of regulatory authority over guns were not taken up before the July 31 end of the legislative session. Humason's bill would have essentially exempted the gun industry from consumer protection oversight, the only such exemption to 93A, according to Parker-O'Grady.

"We have a very strong consumer protection statute in Massachusetts, and to strip the attorney general of authority over any consumer good is just way too far to go," said Parker-O'Grady, who worked on a law-school project on the state's consumer protection act.

"That's an inherent power (of) the attorney general -- to interpret and enforce these regulations," he said. "We have a system where if the Legislature disagrees with the attorney general's interpretation, they can change the statute to be more specific to address that without stripping her of her interpretation powers."

Asked if he felt Healey handled the issue the right way, Parker-O'Grady said she should have sought public input before the crackdown. "I think a major interpretation like this -- a reinterpretation -- should have had at least a public comment period, as we do with many new regulations, generally," he said.

"I don't think going to the Legislature would be completely necessary, because they do have the ability to -- if they disagree -- change the statute to limit ... her room for interpretation," he said. "So, yeah, I do think there should have been a public comment period only because this was ... a surprise to a lot of law-abiding gun owners and gun dealers, and it was just 'and this is how it is.'"

Charter schools

On the state ballot issue of whether to expand charter schools in Massachusetts, allowing up to a dozen new schools a year or expanded enrollment at existing charter schools, Parker-O'Grady said he believes charter schools drain resources from public schools.

"I see the charter schools as siphoning money away from public education, and I do feel if we actually fully funded our public schools properly, we wouldn't have a need for, or a demand for, these kids to go to charter schools," he said.

"But beyond that, I think there's value in traditional public education that's beyond the pure education value. It's about building a shared sense of community and civic values. It's about riding the bus to school with the kids in your neighborhood," he said. "You start splitting people up into various charter schools, you have different niche environments and split up that community."

Some charter schools do get positive results, "some don't," Parker-O'Grady said. "But when you're outside of any public control of this public money, it gets complicated how you actually ... kind of put any control or standards over it. So, yeah, there is an aspect of measurement to it."

Legalization of Marijuana

With medical marijuana and decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the drug already on the books in Massachusetts, Parker-O'Grady said he also favors legalizing pot for recreational. That is why he supports Question 4 on the state ballot, which would regulate and tax marijuana similar to the way alcohol sales are regulated in Massachusetts.

"I am in favor of the ballot question for two reasons: The first is the money issue," Parker-O'Grady said. "You look at Colorado, where they had over $100 million last year in tax revenue -- we could use that tax revenue for education, we could use it for opiate treatment programs. We have uses for that money."

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that states with medical marijuana laws "have significantly lower rates of overdose deaths from opiates," Parker-O'Grady said, citing his second reason for supporting Question 4.

"If we want to talk about the opiate issue, we want to talk about all the solutions, and this should be something to consider," he said.

Opponents of legalizing marijuana have compared edible forms of the drug -- cookies, brownies, cakes, chocolate bars and other types of edibles -- to candy, arguing that it sends the wrong message to children, particularly since the commonwealth has declared war on heroin, painkillers and other opioids.

"That's an argument that's been used for years," said Parker-O'Grady, who supports labeling and regulating marijuana edibles "the same way we do for alcohol and tobacco." In the grand scheme of things, he said, pot is less dangerous than nicotine or alcohol when used by adults responsibly. "It's not for children. It's not for teenagers. It's for adults," he said.

Seguing into a discussion about the state's opioid epidemic, which resulted in around 22.6 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents last year, according to Massachusetts Department of Public Health estimates, Parker-O'Grady said getting addicts the help they need would be a top priority if he's elected. The opioid crisis has gotten progressively worse in recent years, with 2015 resulting in the highest death rate ever for unintentional overdoses and a 23 percent spike over 2014.

"Unless you get long-term treatment options, you won't address the crisis," said Parker-O'Grady, who supports diversion programs and other pathways to get addicts out of jail and into treatment. "Drug courts are a great example of diverting people from the traditional court system," he said.

Economic development

The untapped potential of the Senate district's 11 cities and towns is among the reasons Parker-O'Grady decided to enter the race, he said. "They all have so much potential for economic development and we could be doing more," he said, vowing to "hit the ground running" if elected.

The candidate said he is encouraged by the success of the Eastworks development in Easthampton and the Canalwalk project in Holyoke, both bright spots on the regional revitalization front. These efforts are good examples of how former mill cities can tap economic resources and the region's "creative economy" to lure artists and businesses to help breathe new vitality into old places.

"The canal area of Holyoke is ripe for something big to happen there," he said. "It's a great space."

Eastworks, a 500,000-square-foot converted mill building in the heart of Easthampton, includes a mix of commercial, office, artist, warehouse and residential space. The massive building is home to restaurants, galleries, pop-up shops, community meeting and performance spaces, a state branch of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, and more.

"It's young, it's vibrant, and there are businesses," Parker-O'Grady said of Easthampton, which has come a long way since his high school days, when people were leaving the small Hampshire County city. Now, though, Easthampton is the place to be, he said, citing Eastworks and three successful city breweries as models for redevelopment and revitalization.

Qualifications

Parker-O'Grady acknowledges he is young, but that does not necessarily mean he's green. He was a field organizer for Obama for America in 2008, an intern for U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Hillman, and a legislative director for former Republican Sen. Mike Knapick, Humason's predecessor.

Being exposed to a major presidential campaign kindled his interest in policy and legislation, he said, and ultimately led to his enrollment in a graduate program in Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University, where he earned a master's degree. He earned a bachelor's in political science from St. Michael's College in Vermont and currently is finishing his third year of law school at Northeastern, where he is a staff member for the university's law journal.

"I know I'm young; I'm 32," he said. "But I have the policy background, both in my education and from working in the Senate."



The 2nd Hampden & Hampshire District includes all of Westfield, Holyoke, Agawam, Easthampton, Southampton, Southwick, Granville, Tolland, Russell and Montgomery, and and three city wards in Chicopee.