I’m voting for Patrick Roath

Last November, Quincy voters sent an unmistakable message.

By the time the polls closed, we had elected a change-oriented supermajority. Six candidates who had questioned the direction of city government now held seats on the nine-member City Council, marking a clear departure from the mayor’s previously reliable voting bloc.

This September, we have the opportunity to make a similar choice in the Democratic primary for Congress. For me, that choice is Patrick Roath.

A lawyer, voting-rights advocate and former aide to Governor Deval Patrick, Roath helped advance automatic voter registration in Massachusetts. His campaign focuses on the essentials: affordable housing, health care, universal childcare and protecting our democracy. He walks the walk on reform, supporting congressional term limits and refusing corporate PAC money.

Roath isn’t offering change for its own sake. He brings a substantive agenda and a record of strengthening democratic participation. He offers voters a credible opportunity to bring a new generation of leadership to Washington.

My support for this kind of renewal stems from what we’ve witnessed right here at home.

Last November, only two of the seven incumbent city councilors seeking reelection returned to office. Four were defeated by ward challengers, while a fifth lost an at-large seat. In a city where incumbents rarely lost, the result was extraordinary.

Voters didn’t suddenly decide that experience was a liability. Instead, they rejected the assumption that incumbency alone entitles anyone to remain in office.

For years, major decisions emerged from a city government that seemed insulated from public criticism. Voters demanded more independence, transparency and serious scrutiny.

That election transformed Quincy’s governance. It introduced new voices willing to question proposals that once might have sailed through with little resistance. While the new council’s budget cuts were modest, the process was fundamentally different: major proposals now face genuine examination and debate.

As we have seen, new voices make comfortable institutions less comfortable—and often, that is exactly what those institutions need.

I see the primary between Congressman Stephen Lynch and Patrick Roath as a natural extension of this conversation.

Lynch has represented MA-08 since 2001, and he has undoubtedly helped constituents and delivered resources during his tenure. This is not an argument that he is a bad person or that his experience lacks value.

It is an argument that change has value too.

After a quarter-century, relationships with the political establishment can become so familiar that mutual confidence replaces healthy skepticism. Public office is not a lifetime appointment, and voters shouldn’t have to wait for an incumbent to fail before they are permitted to choose someone new.

The 2021 purchase of the Munroe Building illustrates why this independence matters.

Mayor Koch initially asked the City Council to authorize $23 million to acquire the property and begin designing a new home for Quincy College and City Hall. When it became clear that most councilors would not support the proposal, he withdrew it and pursued a different route using federal pandemic-relief money that did not require council approval.

While announcing the federal funding, Congressman Lynch publicly expressed confidence in the local administration and described his own approach this way: “I bring the money to Quincy and then I step back.”

Within weeks, Koch acknowledged that the original project was “a little bit on the back burner.” He said the immediate objective was to “control the real estate,” even if the college plan never came together and the property was eventually used for some other commercial development.

The purchase may have been permissible under the extraordinarily broad rules governing the city’s federal allocation. My objection is not that it was illegal. But I have difficulty believing pandemic-relief money was intended to become an alternative financing mechanism for a real-estate purchase the mayor could not persuade his own City Council to approve.

That hands-off posture troubles me. Extraordinary federal funding demands more oversight and curiosity, not less. At a moment requiring scrutiny, our congressman appeared content to reassure the administration and exit the conversation.

Is it any wonder Mayor Koch seems so interested in keeping Congressman Lynch in place?

I want a representative who will bring resources home while retaining the independence to ask how those resources are used.

Patrick Roath offers us that opportunity.

His candidacy has earned the support of former Governor Patrick, several state representatives and public-education unions including the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Boston Teachers Union. He has also been endorsed by municipal officials and grassroots organizations from communities throughout the district. Here in Quincy, his supporters include City Councilors David Jacobs, Maggie McKee, Debbie Riley, and Virginia Ryan, as well as School Committee members Kate Campbell and Tom Leung.

Endorsements do not decide my vote. But that breadth of support helps establish that Roath is more than a vehicle for dissatisfaction with a longtime incumbent. He has persuaded people who understand government and public service that he is prepared to lead.

Governor Patrick described Roath as having an “old-fashioned commitment to public service.” He also observed that Roath has not yet had his imagination limited by assumptions about what cannot be accomplished.

Washington could use more of that.

Last November, Quincy chose renewal over the status quo. On September 1, I am voting to carry that spirit to Washington.

I’m voting for Patrick Roath.