Hey, Devin. Would you like to start us off with some pretty basic information?
Yeah, so I’m Devin Coleman. I’m a senior, born and raised in New Hampshire, political science major and I’m also getting my Masters of Public Administration right now.
How did you become interested in local politics? Or more specifically, what made you decide to run for office here in Worcester?
I’ve always been interested in politics, literally since before I can remember. So people ask me, “aren’t you kind of young to do this?” but I’ve been waiting to do this for about 10+ years, so for me it doesn’t feel like it. What inspired me to get involved in local politics specifically? Well, there are a couple factors. One is, it’s my opinion that if you’re going to college in an area, that is your home for that time and that is your community, and you should do something to give back to it. The other factor is a specific story, actually. I went to a networking meeting for Student-Alumni Relations Club (SARC) and Joe Kennedy was there, who ran for Senate against Martha Coakley and Scott Brown. He didn’t do well, he got about one percent of the vote. He is a libertarian, so that is to be expected. But anyway, he’s a Clarkie, a Clark grad, so I told him I was an aspiring politician, was looking for some advice, and asked him what he thought was a good job to have in between college graduation and getting into politics. He told me “don’t wait, do it now.” There are a couple reasons for that. First, there is no good job to have, nowadays. There used be the military or pre-law, but nowadays there’s not really a good job that necessarily prepares you for politics, except for politics. So basically he told me to go back, run for office, and I may or may not win, but at least I will get a lot of experience that will help me get a leg up on everybody when I’m older. So I went home literally that night and looked at the election calendar. This is also on top of going to community service and hearing all these horrible stories on city government and their responsiveness and transparency. So the combination of those just pushed me over the edge and I decided I would just do it in the 2011 elections. So that’s really where it started and from there it’s just snowballed into where we are now, which is one year and eight months later…
Wow, it’s been going on that long?
Yeah, I mean it starts off with laying the groundwork, the behind the scenes stuff, like networking and meeting people, asking for advice. Then we really came out publically this year in like April-May. That’s when things were really kicked into high-gear and I started working these long hours, which is sixty to seventy, or sometimes even eighty hours a week.
Yeah, my next question is how do you manage being a fulltime student and running a campaign for city council? That must be stressful!
It is, it’s definitely stressful. I mean, campaigning is really the proving grounds for work ethic and for deciding, “do I really want to do this form of public service?” Because when you work as hard as you do on a campaign, you have to love it. There’s just no other explanation. But right now, I’m only taking three classes, which is helpful. So I only really have classes four sessions per week, which is nice. My Wednesdays and Fridays are free and fully dedicated to my campaign. Sometimes from 6:30 AM until 9-10 at night.
What are some of the major changes or contributions you want to achieve in this community, if you are elected into office?
So, there is a couple. Accountability and transparency are important across the board. We have multiple Human Resource Departments, which doesn’t make sense at all. But basically they have been unreliable in properly filing paper work to the IRS and the city has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars because of their mistakes. Also, right now in one of the HR firms, there are two people recruiting for three positions. In a normal HR firm, you have one person handling about 30 positions. So there are huge amounts of waste. So what I propose to do, is to consolidate and privatize those two. Consolidating saves money. Privatizing makes sure you have qualified people working in those offices. Thereby, the city won’t get fined lots of taxpayer money in the future. That is one aspect of it.
Another big part of the platform is a wellness program to be tacked on municipal employee’s health insurance programs. This has been done in municipalities and corporations around the country. Basically what it is, is that in the first year it’s enacted, employees have the opportunity to opt in. If they do, baseline biometrics are taken and that gives the health insurance company an idea of the issues that are pertinent to the population. For example, if it is high blood pressure or cholesterol, the health insurance company then offers free classes on how to lower those. What that does, is it creates a lower-risk population, so the health insurance company knows that they will have to pay less in the end, because their client will be healthier overall. So right now what the city is doing is, we’re paying $32 million a year for health insurance premiums for municipal employees. In this coming fiscal year, it is going up another $2 million. What they’re trying to do in order to save on the city’s premium, is to raise everybody else’s deductible. What my program does, it lowers the individual’s deductible because they’re lower-risk as an individual, and it lowers the city’s premium because the population as a whole is lower-risk. Conservatively, 2-3 years after the enactment of the program, the city would save $5 million a year going forward.
You know, we talk about the four S’s, which is schools, safety, streets and sidewalks. You’ll never find a politician who does not support those. The question is, you have to go a little below the surface and figure out how you’re actually going to pay for those. I’m happy to say, I am the only candidate to have a concrete plan on how we’re going to do it.
That sounds very promising. So, I know by now you have won the primaries. What comes after this? What is the next step?
First, I am happy to say I am the youngest ever candidate to make it past the primaries, which is cool and sort of a validation for all the hard work I’ve put in. But the question is, where do we go from here? Now is really the time to call in the unions to endorse us. I’ve been endorsed by various ones already and am actually among the highest endorsed candidates running right now, if not the highest. For a first time candidate, this is literally unheard of, let alone with someone my age.
So obviously I cant do this alone, right? I only have so many man-hours myself. So what we need to do now, is go out to the unions and say, “we proved ourselves, we made it through the primary, now it’s your turn to step up and help me. Because if you don’t help me, I don’t get elected and I can’t do anything for you.” So we call on them for things like mailing to their members and letting their members know who they’ve endorsed, who they suggest they should vote for. Standouts are big. Basically what it is, is getting a group of people on a busy intersection during rush hour and just stand there with big signs. While going door-to-door is more effective on a personal basis, it is impossible to get to everyone’s door. Also, I need 7,000 votes. So if you do a standout instead, you know with all those cars driving by there is someone that sees it. Then if they see you a few times, even if you haven’t come to their door, they see your dedication and go look you up on their own time. So it is about visibility and about name recognition.
Other than in the obvious ways, such as voting, how can Clark students come support you and your campaign?
First of all, things like this. This is great and thank you for doing it. But what they can do is, they can come to standouts or volunteer, because we do go door-to-door for an hour and a half every day during the week and 6-7 hours on Saturdays. Other then that, they can basically just spread the word! If they’re in a community organization, talk to them about it and get people discussing this. Then, when the time comes, obviously vote. We do live in one of the lowest voter turnout precincts in the city, I’m sad to say. So it would be great if Clark students took the initiative to try and change that and make a difference in their community. And I can definitely help with registering here. It is simple; all you do is fill out a form. Also, if people are concerned about wanting to vote in their hometowns, it is easy enough to re-register back home the day after elections here are over. So I would definitely encourage all Clarkies to do this and come support me on Election Day!
Speaking of which, when is Election Day?
November 8th.
Then one last broad question; what are your plans for the future? Do you see yourself running for president one day?
It’s funny actually, because I was listening to NPR the other day and they were talking about how the worst thing you could do is ask someone if they plan on running for president. Because they’re only going to tell you when they want to tell you. But, obviously that is still years in the future. What I would say to answer that, is that it depends on how things go. Worcester City Council is not the end of my political career. I’ll say that. Moving forward, if the voters, the residents, the constituencies and the party feels that I’m the man for the job, then I should step up and do it, in whatever office that is.
Thank you, Devin, and good luck with the rest of your campaign. We hope to see you elected into office this coming November!
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Clark chapter.