Berwick Hosts Reddit AMA, Answers Campaign Questions

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Democratic gubernatorial candidate recently took to reddit.com for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session, giving Massachusetts residents an opportunity to ask Berwick whatever they wanted to.

While some questions that were asked were on the silly side – some of which Berwick took the time to answer – many questions focused on the state of Massachusetts and the current goals and status of Berwick’s campaign.

“We have great momentum, we have the largest field operation in the race,” said Berwick on reddit. “We have 2000+ volunteers, something like 370 people canvassed last weekend. We've knocked 52,000 doors and I'm having a blast. Our fundraising has grown at an incredible rate the last 3 months and I'm finding that progressive instincts permeate the state--even among those who wouldn't call themselves progressives.”

Berwick posted on the site after the AMA session, telling participants that he enjoyed the process and would be open to doing another in the future. To see the reddit AMA session in full, go here.

Campaign Questions

Berwick says that he is the most progressive candidate running for the Governor of Massachusetts, the only candidate committed to single payer health care and opposed to casinos in Massachusetts.

Berwick also prides himself on his bold ideas to tackle poverty, homelessness, and income equality, which were just some of the topics he covered in his reddit AMA session.

“My opponents approach problems as politicians. I approach them as a problem solver and an executive,” said Berwick. “On substance, I’m the only candidate to support single payer health care -- a powerful tool to stimulate the economy and create jobs. I’m the only candidate against casinos in MA and for the repeal initiative. I’ve got the strongest and most explicit goals. For example: ending hunger, ending chronic homelessness, and reducing substance abuse and suicide by half in 5 years.”

Silly Questions Answered

While Berwick had spent most of his time on reddit to address serious political questions, he also spent time to talk about more trivial things.

Berwick took time to answer questions about his favorite music (U2 and 60s folk music), his favorite college class (bio lab freshman year where he met his wife), and whether or not he received any medieval weapons after being knighted by the Queen of England (“A true knight never tells”).

One of the most interesting questions that Berwick chose to answer was a question regarding whether he would rather fight one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses, a question that Berwick gave an interesting answer to.

“The trick here is to get the duck to eat the horses, said Berwick on reddit. “It would be an innovation--that's my thing.”

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