hi i'm state representative dave rogers and this is the rogers report today i will be joined by belmont resident scott fersen scott founded and runs the liberty square group which has provided strategic advice to many organizations for over fifteen first an update from beacon hill the twenty fifteen twenty sixteen legislative session is underway my first priority is and always will be advocating for state aid to help belmont funded schools transportation projects and other important local priorities beyond that role i have filed a number of bills which you can review on my website at rep dave rogers dot com while the legislation i file covers a number of areas my primary legislative focus this session will be on criminal justice reform the new session is a time of change in massachusetts politics we have a new governor in charlie baker a new senate president in stand rosenberg and many new representatives and senators i look forward to working with all of them the new session also brings new opportunities for me as reflected in my committee assignments i have been selected to serve as the vice chair of a new committee the committee on technology and intergovernmental affairs i will also be serving on the committee on housing the committee on children and families and the committee on power and regional government before i ask got some questions and have a great conversation i'd like to briefly address the recent serious problems with the way the heavy snowfalls have brought significant delays for the public transit system and on some days even shut the system down completely problems with public transportation have been years if not decades in the making in other words i believe in most areas the snow expose six systemic problems it did not create them currently the team faces over eight billion dollars in debt and interest payments and a maintenance backlog of approximately three billion dollars as some of you may recall the biggest debate we had in the last legislative session my first in two thousand and thirteen was about transportation finance although we did pass a transportation finance package two years ago i think it was too small and i push for more funding however the good news is the plan we did pass will support some improvements to the system such as new red line cars orange line cars and commuter rail cars it will also fund construction of a redesign of the troubled a rotary a project that should break ground in the spring the coming months will feature spirited debate over how to tackle the problems and governor baker has put together a special commission to report on the problem my over arching position is this public transportation is paramount to our economic health and our quality of life it connects workers to jobs and businesses to consumers belmont arlington in cambridge the communities i represent are not going to be the places we want them to be without the highly functioning funding and fixing public transportation or remain a key focus for me in my work representing you in state government and now i'm glad to welcome scott first scott welcome thank you it's nice to be here thank you for being here and i guess first just a general question can you tell me a little bit about the liberty square group and how it came into being and what it does sure i'm  clients corporate nonprofit under our group umbrella and political clients because my background is out of the public sector in politics under an entity that we call the blue lab which incubates campaigns only oh wow that's great and so when you say incubates is that a candidate would come to you it toward the beginning of their candidacy and ideally it actually works perfectly for if we if we had known you when you were first time candidate for this past real secret sauce to the blue because for those of us who grew up working on campaigns you sort of know how to knock doors you know how to stuff lopes you know how to do some press work or advance or fundraising here all of those things happen on a campaign and they're involved in the strategy sessions and they work on things collectively so the power has really been in a new generation of people who are going to be interested in politics or old here is to learn and strategic skill sets and is there one university to draw from most commonly or is it sort of all over the greater boston area it's i'm fortunate to have an academic advisor had a complete political science department at stonehill college but we draw from we've drawn from  dozen schools from d c to boston wow we can get a lot from boston college in boston university northeastern that's great you know and i think once you once you get a couple of kids from one school the word of mouth tends to tense they tell their friends how fun it is how interesting it is rewarding i'm sure and let me let me just take you back a little bit what first got you into politics and what did you study political science in college or was there another avenue that sort of brought you to to politics and and government and it was a straight path for me that was political science major and in college i've always been interested in it my parents always wondered why but from my earliest political memory is watching robert kennedy's funeral train and i think growing up here in the sixty's sure with my parents were not politically active they weren't even what i remember being a student of the seventy six presidential campaign and my first volunteering was for john anderson's campaign for president one nine hundred eighty he ran as an independent he was a republican first  your work changed over the years and i guess i mean how is kind of a broad question how politics campaign campaigns change technology change i mean what because you've been added a while now and i guess you've seen the arc of of how things have did a hundred years ago you run for office you pick some people to help you want to campaign none of them they're not it packaged in any particular way you ira campaign manager you hire a pollster and you ira media team and so we do your mail and you set up a store front in your town and you get volunteers and you do messaging and you win and you dismantle it all and then a year later you run again you hire all those people you have to recreate everything yeah yeah i mean you get your experience but you've put your essentially putting it all together and so for kit it's in the technology revolution that's crazy so campaigns have changed dramatically because of the technology revolution but we still fit all those new technologies into the same structure that we do for campaigns so that's what i've noticed but the technology in the ability to be able to to get word out about a campaign about yourself and to be able to target is so sophisticated now and will be increasingly so the story i tell was the first day was ted kennedy's press secretary in one thousand nine hundred for him to read the newspaper the boston globe in washington we forget that this was this was pretty high tech at the internet really i'd cut the newspaper bring it into the office in boston and when you say cut you mean with says with scissors my kitchen table and belmont i drive in a xerox them put them on a fax machine they'd come out i'm curly paper in washington someone xerox someone real paper put a paper clip on it put it on his desk and at nine o'clock you could read the boston globe if i tell that to teacher course on political campaigns if i tell that to my students they look at me like i've got three heads right that's unbelievable to think about that right to think back that we would mail letters right if in the in the senate office is crazy so just the ability instantaneous communication is really should revolutionize campaigns yeah and since you mentioned former senator  kennedy institute for the study of the senate which at the end of this month will be opening up next to the presidential library in jamaica yeah it's exciting to columbia point we were offered as state legislators a tour did you go through i just was busy that day on  kids coming in and becoming a senator they give you a tablet you become a senator and then you could you participate in the debates the great historical debates on the senate floor wow you know an exact replica of it's an exact replica exact replica of the senate floor it's a very cool for i didn't even know can see it and it was strange for those of us who work for him to go in i mean now it's a museum right for us it was very much a living experience it's hard to think that he's been he's died six years ago has been six years and nine but for me i was work for congressman you know kennedy was even at that time a legend and i was going to work on another campaign and the job didn't open up and somebody suggested interv with senator kennedy which i thought was a real long shot and to my surprise they hired me so i was as press secretary for five years in the ninety's wow you had a five year run with him in a five year run with and i knew you had worked for senator kennedy i didn't know it was for pretty late in the period where you worked for him right up until he died senator kennedy you would say you don't you never stop working for him you just stop getting paid so he was always very very good to me and supportive of my business and we would we would always help with were press secretary at the time i was is his massachusetts senate press secretary i said last three months i took a leave and worked on the campaign ironically ironic later on i did some work for the mormon church when they built the medications work and got to know mitt romney a little better than you know one campaigns you're always you know it's adversarial in that way you don't really know who you know the people are and then afterwards you as you tend to get to know people you see them in a different light that's really you do in the heat of the battle that's really true and so you got to know mitt romney a little bit for you through that work as well and one of the one of the very cool things i did when the temple when it was being  you know in the mormon religion yeah that's it that's really interesting and maybe you could talk about some of the other big political races you've been in through through the years i know you've been in quite a few i just did the  think for state senate and he is really the senator from boston that the way that district is right bad bad the fans yeah and you can brighten sixty percent of his constituents must wonder where belmont is you know to know that there senator right is from belmont that was that was great the most memorable thing even even for me with seth winning in an upset which was great if you've been working on the campaign not so great if you were working on it or if you're working for the other side but stephen lynch who is a client  action special irishman moakley had died right and it was you know we all remember was so brilliant as it was a tuesday was it tuesday and you know that the sky and then the plane said a lot of whom were constituents of his because he was a senator from boston and the election was canceled and then reinstated by the governor and the attorney general and you know but just to to now when you say you're taxing my memory a little bit when you say canceled and reinstated how did that work the secretary of state canceled the election middle action and without a been secretary of state galvin attack elven and governor swift and general riley got together and i mean you think about it what do we all do on nine eleven who went home right so the vote vote was higher than expected yeah and it was you know that patriotic act of doing something positive at a time of the attack i think sure people felt so but obviously it made the day was not you know as as expected for anybody no i mean complicat elections i'll say always so the secretary of state put out a press release or pub went on t v i guess said in the election to be called off and then he was he was essentially overruled overruled by the attorney general and governor swift yes said no this should proceed  you know and obviously it was a lot of chaos going on that day but made it very memorable in terms of my campaign experience though sure i'd imagine and you know you've worked in politics and policy now for a chunk of years for you know you've seen changes you've seen history made and now like you i've followed politics in public policy and government my my whole life been interested in it and  i know i've never seen washington in a state of gridlock and dysfunction like it like it is now with government shutdown because of the debt ceiling debate and you know now the acrimony over the prime minister of israel is coming in and just on and on the immigration debate it seems like no major legislation is passing many big national challenges are going unmet i came of age really when ronald reagan was president very conservative republican in many respects and mitt and tip o'neill who from north cambridge was the speaker of the house two people could have been more different and different political philosophies and yet they would they find ways to compromise and pass legislation and so i say all that by getting around this asking have you ever seen had this divided i mean do you share my assessment and what do you think if anything is going to change what's going to be i don't know maybe maybe a little cynical about the about the hand wringing over over the gridlock i mean i think i'm older than you sorry i was in college during the reagan years and and i think we sort of look back and i think both parties to try to create a little bit of what might be a little more myth than reality in terms of how well they were together it was pretty acrimonious oh yeah back at civil war era was nearly clubbed to death on the floor of the senate by a member of the house of representatives from south carolina we haven't hit that we haven't hit that point yet seth moulton says you know it's people are shooting at each other you know from past experience right at least yet right so i do tend to think though that that rather than look to washington and say we don't know what their problem is that really is the opportunity for people here where we elect people to to really make encouraged new people to run a big fan of disruptive politics where we get where it's good for democracy if we have challengers not for state representative but for but just more people getting involved and lowering the barrier to entry right and not making it so conversely i'm for people to take a look at it and i think that helps will help solve the gridlock problem sure well that's that's a really good insight and i and i i share your share your view and i actually was in college for part of reagan's years but i mean i remember they did like to have for the tax equity fiscal responsibility act that was a tax hike that reagan supported they did  now with immigration the republicans say they don't want to do in the city is the buzzword right and i remember we certainly do have a more leisurely eighty six reagan signed a bill that in part i think modern day republicans would have called amnesty but he was practical enough to realize that it was and so i guess nice going with you it was still acrimonious the times and there were bitter divisions but they did get things done and you're right that this is a good distinction now very there's very little common ground whereas back then you know issues of environment or certain other big issues were not contentious and were not politicized right they were you know rebel to it's amazing when you go back in history and you think that was easy to get done back then it would be impossible now right right i guess another thought i have is you know you work with young people in incubate or in the blue lab and and what it vice do you give young people interested in a career in public service politics campaigns and about about the mission that you're engaged in about and then more practical stuff about how to how to have a career doing what you do because they probably look at you and you know you've had quite a run and they probably would look to you for advice when i don't talk to people all the time and it's really it's amazing couple a couple of fronts politics when i started was very much of male business and the only business now in the latest round of associates we have in the blue left from colleges you know i had a lot of women help on my campus and i mean i don't know where the when that started necessarily and but it's that was not the case in the one nine hundred eighty s when people when you would come in and volunteer on campaigns pretty much so that's a great trend and then the critical thinking that goes into critical thinking and good writing of the two skills that set you up i think basically for for a lot of you know for a lot of a lot of jobs in life and certainly the practical experience of having worked on a campaign so the kids who are in college now but have worked on stuff models campaign american rights campaign is really really valuable so right even if your we've had some high school kids  you're in high school if you've got an opportunity to volunteer the nice thing about working in politics is there's lots of opportunities that's true in campaigns that's really true and getting in there or not being afraid to do it or think you're too young gives you real practical experience yet i had a very young campaign manager my election and so you do see a lot of young people getting involved a lot of women a lot of my colleagues are women and it's great because it was only more women to run yeah that's true but a little bit baby baby working maybe more more women working in campaigns is the entry to will solve that problem yeah and you work both in federal your your company and terms of giving strategic advice you will do both federal and state yeah i like a mix of the did their different you know in each level their you know what you can do it a states senate race really is still you can reach voters yourself right and if you question race it's just not possible it's just not possible so you have to say why it is and you know we we think how far pittsfield is from here but i mean if you go to big states you know and then you're running for senate u s senate running around is just you know next to impossible yeah one thing you mentioned earlier in our conversation is to you talked about barriers to entry and how it be good for the democracy to lower barriers to entry i know many people now of all political persuasions are concerned about money and politics that may be the biggest barrier to entry for for anyone is the kind of money you now have to raise and also maybe to associate yourself with large so called super pacs the big political action committees that can spend on your behalf malta and in his upstart congressional campaign raised in three point two million dollars so huge sum of was a huge sum of money when you think and i think the dollars tend to mean nothing after a while you know we don't count it's not real when you think about the amount of time you have to spend you know to fundraise that you have to spend just on the phone raising three point two million dollars i mean it is get it tends to be six hours a day so if you're spending six hours a day on the phone raising from local races the amount of time you just you each get twenty four hours in a day if you're running for state rep or you're running for u s congress right the u s congress should be spending six hours a day doing fund raising which you don't have to do at the state rep level fortunately yeah yeah yeah yeah you know i've heard stories of candidates who told me they spent the majority of their time was actually spent raising money and it's a little disconcerting you know and it doesn't and then it doesn't sound like much to you know i mean i mean because a part of why you get motivated energized to want to make a difference in the world is yes you know to be demanding and challenging and difficult but also part of it is in livening and fun and having been raising money at that clip is always are hat in hand asking people for a contribution pretty and the good news is underclass of because of technology i think you know would be of three point two million dollars you might be spending two point five on t and you know you know people are getting their information not just from watching the evening news so i think we're at a tipping point where reaching voters will become more sophisticated and i think significantly cheaper at least the short term through technology technology alleviate some of the problem saws by big money i mean is that we have to realize as we bring our hands over this money is going to stay in politics so that you have to figure out some other way to get at the problem with right well this is great i really appreciate you side and people tend to you know fall into both categories and i think a lot of messaging and i'm really a campaign messaging person is always geared to the people are going to support of or opposed from whatever camp right and i think there has to be a bit of a crossover and your thing strikes me now that i don't have kids in the belmont school system and you know if a case has to be made to people who are in my category to say that the biggest value we have is in our home our home is valuable because of the school system here that's what's going to make attractive when my wife and i go to sell our home sure we've been here for twenty five years as if we ever do that is that that we have to big the case of the people who wore it sure mad about the roads are mad about the funding of the schools  over i think the trick well thanks again thanks very much and thanks for listening to another edition of the rogers report and i look forward to seeing you again soon take