Jay McMahon Running As Pro-Police, Low Tax Voice For The Plymouth & Barnstable District

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2020/11/02/jay-mcmahon-running-as-pro-police-low-tax-voice-for-the-plymouth-barnstable-district/

Jay McMahon has seen Susan Moran in the Massachusetts Senate for more than five months now, and he doesn’t like what he sees.

So now the Bourne attorney and Republican state committeeman hopes voters in the Plymouth and Barnstable District see why they should elect him this upcoming November.

McMahon, 66, lost a special election race against Moran back in May. Moran received 56.2 percent of the vote and McMahon received 43.7 percent. Democrat stronghold Falmouth — where Moran served as a selectman at the time — had a higher turnout than most other towns due to a Proposition 2 ½ override vote held the same day.

With that election behind him and another coming up this November, McMahon has been doing as many campaign events as he can build support and beat Moran.

“There’s a lot of difference between this coming election and the special election,” McMahon told New Boston Post in a telephone interview recently. “Sue Moran has had an opportunity to prove herself, and she’s failed miserably.”

Moran’s campaign did not return a message from New Boston Post seeking an interview with Moran.

One of McMahon’s biggest problems with Moran’s record:  her vote on the police reform bill. Moran voted in favor of a bill (S.2820) back in July that would restrict “no-knock warrants,” eliminate qualified immunity for decertified officers, and prevent school officials from giving information about students to law enforcement agencies.

“She voted for this so-called, ‘reform the police’ bill that does nothing to reform the police,” McMahon said. “Here’s a bill Senate bill 2820. It is 89 pages long. They had about two days of debate and no public hearing. With my 30 years of working in the law, watching the process, and knowing how this works. Nobody writes up an 89-page bill in one day. So where did they get it? Some other state. The reason you know it is because it’s got a lot of stuff in it to do something with deputy sheriffs. We don’t have the same kinds of deputy sheriffs. You can tell they took one from another state and threw it here.”

McMahon also said he takes issue with the idea that police reform is a top priority for Massachusetts — during the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery process from government-mandated shutdowns of businesses.

He noted that the push for police reform came immediately after George Floyd died in Minneapolis at the hands of police officers.

“There was not a peep about Massachusetts law enforcement other than from Liz Warren and her and Maura Healey,” he said. “But they were the only two. No one was giving this serious consideration. We didn’t see bills in the legislature on Beacon Hill. Then something bad happens 1500 miles away and now we’re racist? This is crazy.

“These extreme liberals, they are running a false narrative that white Americans, by and large, are racist,” he added. “We’re not racist. It started in the 1860s, a white Republican Abraham Lincoln ordered Union troops including the Massachusetts regiment — which had some of my ancestors in it — to go down south and fight the Confederates and eventually free the slaves.”

As far as racism in Massachusetts policing goes, McMahon used Boston Police Department commissioner William Gross as an example. He said he thinks Gross, who is black, is one of the best to ever hold the job.

“Wouldn’t you think if there was systemic racism, he’d do something about it?” McMahon said. “The answer is of course he would. He would eradicate it. There’s plenty of rules about how police interact with the public. Massachusetts has some of the highest standards — we set the standard for the nation. “

Additionally, McMahon noted that supporting the police is especially vital on Cape Cod — where a few police officers have been shot in recent years. Not only did Yarmouth police officer Sean Gannon die in a fatal shooting in 2018, but two police officers were shot and wounded in Falmouth that same year. And in 2015, someone shot a Bourne police officer.

“This is how she thanks them?” McMahon said of Moran. “This is how she repays them for almost making the ultimate sacrifice? Those two officers to this day are disabled. They cannot come back to work.”

McMahon said that Moran knows that and it’s disgraceful that she would make police officers’ jobs riskier.

“This is near and dear to Cape Codders,” he said. “When Sue Moran voted for this bill, she knew that she was taking qualified immunity away from first responders, and other municipalities.”

“Now she said she called the police chiefs in this district before she voted for that. I called all of the police chiefs in this district,” he added. “They told me, ‘yes she called, but what she asked us was, ‘are you in favor of high standards for your officers?’ and most of them responded, ‘we already have high standards for our officers.’ But when asked about the bill, not one of these police chiefs liked it. All of the union members hated it. It puts their individual lives and whatever financial gains they have in jeopardy. It’s not a police reform bill. It’s a police gutting bill. It’s an abject failure on her part to turn her back on law enforcement.”

If elected, McMahon has a 10-point economic recovery plan he wants to see enacted to help small businesses recover from the coronavirus pandemic:

An immediate 30 day meals tax holiday when restaurants reopen. A one-year moratorium on new regulations on businesses. Reduce the sales tax to 5 percent. Make several sales tax holiday weekends one each month, starting in June. Repeal the AirBNB tax. Furlough all non-essential state employees for two weeks. Stop all legislation raising the gas tax, creating carbon taxes, and new tolls. Lift the ban on happy hours to help the restaurants. Require Social Security Number verification for all taxpayer-funded benefits. Immediately review the list of essential businesses so as to allow businesses to submit a social distancing plan for reopening.

McMahon said his plan is a big difference between him and Moran, who doesn’t have that kind of a plan on her campaign site.

“Sue is doing nothing about this,” he said. “She has said zero about the economy. I’ve presented a plan for how I want to revive the economy. If you go to her web site, she believes we’re in a climate emergency. We’re in an emergency alright, but climate is the last thing on people’s minds right now. Maybe the work climate.”

The election between McMahon and Moran will take place on Tuesday, November 3.

Towns in the state Senate district include Pembroke, Kingston, Plymouth, Bourne, Falmouth, and Sandwich.