State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven wants to make child care for families making under $120,000 “virtually free” until age 11. Challenger Kathleen Hornby wants to treat chronic school absences as a public health issue. The two candidates discussed their policy issues at a forum Aug. 8.
They made efforts to distinguish themselves despite holding similar stances on many issues.
“I dream in budget spreadsheets,” Hornby said. “What I bring is this lens from my work as an advocate and an activist,” Uyterhoeven said.
Uyterhoeven has served as state representative for the 27th Middlesex District since 2021. Hornby has spent a decade as a legislative staffer for Cambridge state reps Alice Wolf and Marjorie Decker.
The forum, held by the Somerville Democratic City Committee, drew upward of 125 people to the John F. Kennedy School in Spring Hill on short notice after two early attempts at scheduling were frustrated, chair Jack Perenick said.
It’s now the role of more than 200 committee members to distinguish between the candidates, as they are now casting ballots for which candidate will be nominated officially for the state primary Sept. 3; results are due late Thursday or early Friday, Perenick said.
Labor was an area staked out by Uyterhoeven. “One of the biggest things that I’m most proud of is the number of strikes, and public sector strikes, that are happening across our state, which is why I filed the bill to restore public sector workers’ right to strike. And that is particularly crucial here in Somerville, with what’s happening to our Somerville DPW,” said Uyterhoeven, referring to a Somerville Municipal Employees Association fight for a new contract.
Hornby, whose children attend the Kennedy School, noted her advocacy for public education. She wants to change the inflation cap of 4.5 percent of the Chapter 70 program, a state program that provides aid to public school districts, she said.
“We all know inflation over the last couple of years has been way above that,” Hornby said, referring to the 4.5 percent. She also wants to work on school truancies, which are still high since surging during the Covid pandemic. “We need to focus on why, not only who is chronically absent. That means supporting and hiring bilingual teachers who represent the communities they’re serving, investing more in out-of-school-time programs and making sure we are taking a systemic public health approach to these issues and not dismissing them as ‘kids skipping class,’” she said.
The candidates acknowledged that the State House can be frustratingly inaccessible, with political decisions happening behind closed doors in difficult-to-understand processes.
Uyterhoeven emphasized her desire to increase transparency and accountability, including by having regular office hours for constituents – and that legislators from other districts are surprised by how much engagement she has with those she represents.
“My approach would be restructuring the committee system so that members elect their own chairs. Right now with leadership appointing the chair positions and providing the stipends that go along with them, we can’t get anything done. It’s going to take a wholesale restructuring of that system in order to really make the change we need to have an effective, functioning Legislature,” Hornby said.
Hornby sees housing as one of the largest issues facing Somerville residents. She wants to increase voucher funding and other assistance programs for people struggling to afford rent, including programs that provide aid to families living in shelters. “I also think Somerville needs an overdose prevention center, and needs to move faster on that,” she said.
The money being dedicated to housing is good, Uyterhoeven said. “But we need to do more than just that. We need to have real policy changes around the tenants’ opportunity to purchase, the transfer fee and rent stabilization,” she said. She noted her vote for the “Millionaire’s Tax” that led to more money for housing and the MBTA.
Uyterhoeven showcased her work on climate legislation, particularly on a new bill that would let Somerville eliminate natural gas in new construction. Another piece dedicates millions of dollars into clean energy and clean-energy initiatives.
The bill is supported by Hornby, who noted an especially important part of it: that the state is going to ban “competitive electric suppliers,” that, despite the name, led to Massachusetts residents paying significantly more in electric bills than they otherwise would have. Low-income people were often preyed upon by these companies. “It increased the instability and insecurity of already very vulnerable residents,” she said.
Uyterhoeven took the 27th Middlesex seat when Denise Provost retired, winning a primary with 62 percent of votes against Catia Sharp – or 8,943 ballots to 5,494, according to the Somerville Election Commission – to run unopposed in a general election.
Either Uyterhoeven or Hornby will go on to run unopposed in this year’s general election too, making the Sept. 3 primary the day of decision.
The last day to register to vote in the primary is Aug. 24. There will be in-person early voting days at Somerville City Hall in the week and a half before the election. Polling locations can be found on the Massachusetts secretary of state’s website.
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