SPRINGFIELD — Both City Councilor Malo Brown and state Sen. Adam Gomez were on the receiving end of accusations slung back and forth at Focus Springfield’s Hampden District state Senate debate on Aug. 15.
Gomez was elected in 2020 and is running for re-election. In the past, Gomez served as a member of the Springfield City Council. Brown currently serves as chief of staff for state Rep. Bud Williams and as a member of the Springfield City Council.
G. Michael Dobbs served as moderator, welcoming the two candidates, and then kicked off questions from a media panel. Following the question-and-answer portion, candidates had the ability to ask each other questions through a Lincoln-Douglas debate.
Q&A
On the media panel sat Reminder Publishing Managing Editor Chris Maza, Matt Szafranski of Western Mass Politics & Insight, Adam Frenier of New England Public Media and Jeanette DeForge of The Republican.
Dobbs began the debate by stating the Cannabis Control Commission is “completely dysfunctional,” and said its dysfunction is affecting businesses and economic development across the commonwealth. He asked what both candidates will do to get the CCC to help businesses around the state.
Gomez stated he did not agree the CCC is in disarray. He said he agrees there are issues with the CCC he is aware of having served as the chairman for the past session, and the issues cannot be spoken of due to litigation, deeming some policy immovable. He said he will be the chairman in the next session and will be working with the commissioners who he feels are “doing a fantastic job.”
Brown stated he feels the CCC is in disarray because of Gomez. “You can tell by his track record,” he said.
He then described a 2019 lawsuit Insa filed against the city of Springfield due to the marijuana retailer being turned down for a special permit to open on West Columbus Avenue. At the time, councilors who voted against the Insa permit were Gomez, current state Rep. Orlando Ramos and Justin Hurst. The lawsuit read that the rejection was based on the perception that Insa would not help other businesses due to its location at an on-off spot of Interstate 91. The lawsuit said this was not a strong enough reason for the council to turn down the application. Ultimately, the decision to not issue a special permit was appealed and overturned by the Superior Court, ordering the City Council to approve the special permit application within 10 days.
Brown hedged, “His track record shows that he was bias with individuals that wanted to be able to succeed in the industry, and he had certain agendas.”
Szafranski asked how the candidates will represent the incredibly diverse district, and why do they feel they would represent the district better than their opponent.
Brown said he comes from a very diverse background, stating his mother is a minister and his father was a captain of a police force. He explained his wife is Irish, and he has mixed children. He said, “Unlike the actual senator and his constant attack on the mayor and the race-baiting etiquette over and over and over again, I’m looking to bring us together and fight for everyone. Not just Black and brown — I’m fighting for us — we the people.”
According to Gomez, his record shows he has been working with all parts of the community. He said he “saved” the John Boyle O’Reilly Club with ARPA funds in his first session. He then said he has historically given more money to communities of color. “I support not only Black and brown people but making sure in the magnifying glass that when Black and brown people win, everybody else wins.” He said he has been careful to not earmark an organization for funds more than twice so everyone can have a piece of the pie.
Moving to the next question, Frenier asked Gomez and Brown how they feel about question one on November’s ballot: the state auditor’s authority to audit the legislature.
Brown said he is in favor of this 100%. He then said he is in favor of it because, “… if you were to audit the senators actual campaign fund, you’ll see that he spent almost $20,000 on food. His campaign fund is a meal ticket. He’s visited the place Shake Shack, Hooters. Hooters — really?”
When Gomez had his turn to respond to the question, he ignored the personal attacks, stating, “On the contrary to the question you actually asked — it’s not auditing our OCPF. I think the councilor is mistaken and misinformed. This is auditing exactly the House — which basically would be his state representative that he works for as well — and also the entire Legislature and where the money is going and how it is being spent specifically when it comes to jobs. But I have received the full endorsement of the state auditor, I have helped her with this piece of legislation, therefore I support it 110%.”
DeForge asked candidates about violence in the city, if they supported the amendment proposed by state Sen. John Velis that did not make it into the gun bill, or the one proposed by state Rep. Angelo Puppolo that calls for bail reform for repeat offenders.
Gomez said he was a co-sponsor to Velis’ amendment, and they fought hard to try to get it implemented. “It was unsuccessful because there were some constitutional issues,” he said. “I represent the most dangerous district in Massachusetts — number one, and number 10 — but we do exactly what we can to support law enforcement.” He then discussed the increase in C3 policing that works to prevent crime and reduce gang violence. He said he looks forward to working with the police and District Attorney to help mitigate some of the issues troubling youth.
Discussing Gomez’s record again, Brown replied, “I can assure you that the senator has done everything in his power to make our streets unsafe. All you have to do is look at his past and he defunded.” Brown is likely referring to the 2020 vote by Springfield City Councilors Gomez, Victor Davila, Melvin Edwards, Jesse Lederman, Orlando Ramos, Marcus Williams, Tracey Whitfield and Hurst to cut $200,000 from the Police Departments $1.8 million overtime budget. In addition, in a separate vote, the council also cut $800,000 from the facilities department budget which was needed to lease a new shooting range for the police.
When asked what voters are supposed to make of the state of the race given the allegations both candidates have had against each other, Brown said he has “ran a clean campaign.”
“When you get scared, you slander. If anything, I’m glad the senators camp has to resort to slandering me. I’m just a city councilor,” Brown said.
Gomez said Brown has a history of being unethical. He claimed Brown walked into City Hall wearing a “Malo for Senate” shirt, which he said is unethical. Gomez said he took a picture of this.
To watch the full question and answer portion of the debate, head to focusspringfield.com or their YouTube page. Additional questions discussed were how the Legislature can better approach high-impact items to prevent zero-hour negotiations, discussion on the skilled labor shortage and how the candidates would support technical and vocational training to be utilized to bridge the gap. They also fielded questions about the affordable homes act and how they can utilize it to help Chicopee and Springfields housing shortage, as well as their feelings on ballot question number two regarding MCAS.
Lincoln-Douglas
Gomez kicked off this portion, asking Brown to name any piece of legislation that he has sponsored himself on the City Council, and what were the priorities of any piece of legislation he wrote that has passed the threshold this session.
In response, Brown said being the chief of staff to Williams, he does not sponsor — but instead he writes. He said one of the greatest pieces of legislation that Williams sponsored that he drafted was Juneteenth legislation. On the City Council, he said he recently did a resolution to help with recycling and waste disposal.
Gomez offered rebuttal, saying he thinks the Juneteenth legislation was historic and was already going to become federal law, and gave his hats off to Williams for passing it. He then said resolutions are non-binding, and he was looking for sponsorship of legislation.
Moving on to Brown, he asked Gomez if he feels spending $20,000 on restaurants such as Hooters and Shake Shack was an ethical use of campaign funds.
Gomez said he has been to many restaurants over the course of his nine-year career. He said food is one of the expenses senators can utilize for staff and, “…if I wanted to pick up wings or some crab legs from my staff or some sort, I think it’s highly in its means when you’re talking about Hooters.” He then said senators use that money to meet people and other councilors, and there were “a lot of other individuals and elected officials that were there while I was eating as well – especially yours, your state rep.”
Doubling down, Brown repeated that, “…people are struggling. To know that we have a state senator who is going out, to Hooters. To Hooters with our money — people who support him — going to Hooters to spend people’s money while we’re out here hungry. I think that’s a horrible look, I think he should be ashamed of himself.”
Moving on, Gomez said he reviewed Brown’s 2024 votes on the City Council. He said he found 27 instances of Brown’s voting on state money, even though he is an employee of the state Legislature. “Why are you repeatedly violating the states ethics laws? Worried about $20,000 of food that is legal but essentially, I have the record of just 2024 only that you voted when you had to abstain, and have put these pieces of legislation at risk every single time.”
In response, Brown said he believes Gomez is misinformed. He said he works with lawyers and the legal team within the city council. He said anything he has questions on whether he can vote or not, he reviews it with the team. He said, “If it was something I was doing for six years, I’m sure the senator understands that they’d have come to me.”
Gomez refuted, “I think he is dead wrong.”
He added that when state Rep. Orlando Ramos was working for his predecessor, James Welch, Ramos abstained “every single time.” Gomez said potential ethical violations is the reason why he himself left serving the City Council. “His employer, his boss, state Representative Bud Williams is the one that legislates on that budget, and that’s how the money comes to the city of Springfield. He has direct access and influence over that, so that makes it unethical.”
In Brown’s turn to ask another question, he echoed the previous discussion about violence in the city, taking it a step further. “When it comes to public safety, it seems like you have done everything in your time and power to deter safe streets by voting on legislations that allow violent offenders to hit the street. You personally went down to stop the first Black chief superintendent. Is your constant battle to stop public safety — I’m just curious and I’m sure the public is — is it because your known prison incarceration that you are lax on public safety?”
Gomez immediately asked him to repeat the question. Brown doubled down. “Your known criminal, prison, incarceration – are you lax on violent offenders because of it?”
Gomez questioned, “Is he asking that if I was — have been in prison? Incarcerated?”
Brown replied yes.
“Oh, you’re cooked bro,” Gomez said.
He continued, “I’ve never been incarcerated in my entire life. Thank you for that. Yes, I have been in trouble, when I was 17 years old when I was charged with the mandatory minimum, but under my leadership, and the governor’s leadership, and the Legislature, we were able to expunge and pardon low-level marijuana crimes.”
Gomez then continued to speak to Brown’s point on public safety, maintaining that he has been supportive of Superintendent of Springfield Police Lawrence Akers. He then shared he has many family members who were in law enforcement, with his mother being a former police commissioner. Gomez said the police commission being led by the community is what Springfield needed — and stated the recent City Council has “gone against the community” and gave back power to Mayor Domenic Sarno and the City Council, after the former City Council “…fought 10 years, hard, on behalf of our [expletive] people.”
The full video of the debate can be found at focusspringfield.com. The primary election takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
