Eighth Congressional District Candidate Forum at Alden Theatre ... >
May 15, 2014 - Mark Levine.
Closing Statement:

I am proudly an Elizabeth Warren Democrat.  I love Hillary Clinton, I worked with her as well; this is no knock on Hillary Clinton, but my role model is definitely Elizabeth Warren.

Thank you Rip, thank you Glenn, thank you everyone for being so patient tonight.  I'll tell you why Elizabeth Warren is my role model.  Because she thinks outside the box.  She's not only really smart, but she's tough and she thinks about ways to help people that aren't necessarily the same solutions.

My boss Barney Frank was aggressive, yes.  He was progressive, yes.  But he was also very, very effective because he knew how to work behind the scenes to get things done.  And sometimes the best way to work behind the scenes is if they know that if they don't work with you, you're going to go out in the media and you're going to call them out, which Barney Frank did all the time, and many of you know I have done hundreds of TV shows and thousands of radio shows; I'm not afraid to call them out.  But I also know that you can work with them quietly behind the scenes.

And I try to think outside the box.  I'll give you a couple examples.  One of them that many of you know about is my education plan, to actually reduce college costs.  Currently we give more money to colleges the more they increase their costs and then we wonder why college rates have tripled after inflation in the last 30 years.  I would reverse that.  I would give money to colleges that lower their costs and take away from for profit institutions and that way that reallocation of funds, the best part about it is I go to the Congressional Budget Office, they score it as a big zero and that's why we can get Republican support.

So I'm looking at ways to do things that are aggressive and progressive but also ways that we can get Republican support.  I've worked behind the scenes, I know how Congress works, I have many friends in Congress, I've worked with Hillary Clinton, I've worked with Joe Biden, I've worked with members of the Judiciary Committee; if I join the Judiciary Committee they know me by name.

We are ready to go.  I studied under Barney Frank.  He was my mentor.  He was one of the most effective members of Congress.  A lot of my opponents do great work in Richmond; I hope they stay in Richmond and do a really good job.  And bring me to Washington; I'm ready to go.
Levine tries to make the sale to a Hope supporter.
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