FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2, 2006

After talking to some of the most loyal people I’ve ever known who worked on this campaign, we’ve come to the conclusion that this is not our time and this is not the place. So with regret, we are calling an end to our campaign for the 2nd Franklin District State Representative seat for the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

To say I am not bitter about this would be disingenuous, and maybe that was one of the things that made me attractive to some as a potential politician: the fact that I don’t get all smiley and sugar-coat things.

I was prompted to run because of all the gripes and complaints about how things are out here, but unfortunatley you can’t help others who don’t want to be helped. I’ve also been personally told by some that they’d never vote for a Republican in a million years. If that sentiment can put food on their family’s table, more power to them.

It’s my opinion that some politicians in our area live by what I call the “YOYO Doctrine”; in other words, “you’re on your own.”

I’ve lived in politically competitive districts where politicians feared for their own jobs while The People were losing theirs. With the jobs losses at Tyco, coupled with job reductions statewide, I was hoping to initiate an economic development plan that would take root without the blessing (or ire) of Beacon Hill. The plan was embraced by many business owners I’ve talked to. It wasn’t rocket science, and could be done tomorrow by our local elected leaders, but as their own jobs aren’t at stake, YOYO.

It would seem those unfortunates who have to drive way out of our district just to get a good paying job, will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. And as for that young woman who graduated from Athol High and wrote in the ADN that her friends plan on leaving the area after college because there’s no jobs here, that’s a sad but true indictment of our district’s situation.

I had a plan to pursue funding needed to build new schools in Athol and Greenfield that wouldn’t require taxpayer monies (outside of donating the land), and would promote themselves.

That, pretty much, was all I planned on bringing to the district. No “radical” conservative agenda. I appeciate the need to keep our communities small and personal, while trying to stimulate job growth and opportunity.

I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to arouse the passion our campaign had. I find it frustrating to bow out to people who voted for a minimum wage increase they know will kill jobs in our area. I find it frustrating to bow out to people who voted to allow illegal aliens to obtain Massachusetts driver’s licenses. I find it frustrating to bow out to people who overrode the governor’s veto that’s now created a super commission, unanswerable to any legislator in the state, that can present sexually explicit materials in public school classrooms as young as kindergarten.

Ask your local politician about that one…. They probably voted for it.

I wish to thank the many people who supported this campaign effort.
As for the future, I will not run again. This campaign was never meant to be a job promotion, and for all intents and purposes, it would’ve been a career speed bump. But I care about this wonderful part of our state and the people in it, and with that I gave it my all.

I will remain a voice of conservative activism and will remind us of where we are, and where we could be. Should the Democrats add the governorship this November to their control of state politics, I predict it won’t take long for some to see just how long it takes a million years to go by.

Thank you,
Bob Parks