(Gazette Photo by Rebeca Oliveira) Elizabeth Warren talks to JP residents during a house party on Oct. 12.
EGLESTON SQ.—Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren said she was “astonished” at Congress’s failure to pass the American Jobs Act after a campaign house party in JP on Oct. 12.
“People across this country, across this state, are hurting. I don’t understand how anyone could vote against the jobs bill,” Warren told the Gazette.
Warren returned to Jamaica Plain for an hour-long appearance at Julian Cyr’s Amory Street home, talking to about 40 supporters in Cyr’s kitchen about her past and why she decided to run for Senate.
When the Gazette asked her position on the Occupy Boston protest, Warren replied, “Washington is rigged by those who can hire an army of lobbyists and lawyers…I’ve been working on Wall Street protests my whole life. [But] everyone has to obey the law.”
Warren, a Harvard professor, is credited as the mastermind behind the creation of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as part of a financial reform package passed in 2010. From 2008 to 2010, she chaired a congressional oversight panel for the bank-bailout program known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Her short talk was complete with a history lesson on how the U.S. handled itself after the Great Depression and World War II. It invested in education and infrastructure, Warren said, and created new regulations for the financial sector. Warren said this is why the country had almost 50 years of prosperity.
“I thought the fight was in [the] 2008 [presidential election]. We’d write simple rules, put sensible people in charge and spend the next 50 years investing in America’s future,” similar to what happened earlier this century, Warren said.
Warren proposed a similar path for the future, where the American government would invest in affordable education and re-create a strong middle class.
“I speak for the people in this kitchen, in this neighborhood, in this state,” Warren continued.
“She’s so genuine, honest and real,” Cyr told the Gazette. “We have a candidate that’s too good to not be in this seat.”
Warren had previously visited JP in August, before declaring her candidacy for Senate last month.
JPers can be “a feisty group,” Warren told the Gazette after her short speech. “They remind me that this could still be fun.”
“When I heard about this, I couldn’t resist it. It’s an exciting time to get involved in this campaign,” said Ericka Richard, a friend of Cyr’s.
Cyr, the evening’s host, previously worked on Gov. Deval Patrick’s re-election campaign and has been politically active in other parts of the state. He moved to JP earlier this year.
National media reporters, including from the New York Times, attended the house party.
Other Democratic candidates for the seat include: state Rep. Thomas Conroy, who represents Wayland, Lincoln and Sudbury; City Year founder and 2010 special election Senate candidate Alan Khazei; immigration lawyer Marisa DeFranco; engineer Herb Robinson; entrepreneur Bill Cimbrelo; and corporate lawyer James Coyne King.
The winner of the Democratic primaries will face Republican incumbent Scott Brown in the November 2012 election.
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