WESTFIELD–For congressional hopeful Thomas Simmons, Westfield is a special place.
That’s because Westfield is where Simmons gathered enough signatures to appear on the official ballot in November to challenge incumbent Democrat Richard Neal as US Representative in Massachusetts’ first congressional district.
This will be no easy task for Simmons, as he is tasked with defeating an incumbent who has been in Congress since 1989, and has run unopposed for the position for the past two elections, since the Bay State realigned the first congressional district.
But to Simmons, he feels that his newness is what appeals to Westfield and the rest of the district.
“People in Westfield are very, very open to know a new face in the race,” he said. “People are looking for leadership.”
In addition to his fresh face though, he also has a beard on it. In fact, Simmons does not seem to fit the traditional mold of a politician—and it’s not just the beard.
He has an appearance that is more like the everyman that he is attempting to represent. His shirt is slightly unkempt and he has a shaved head instead of a quaffed hairdo, while the mustache-less beard droops down. He is also openly gay, living with his partner and their six adopted children of different races in Shelburne Falls. This means that if he is elected, he would become just the third openly gay Massachusetts Representative, and the 18th in the US.
And Simmons’ political party—libertarian—falls out of the spectrum of traditional democratic or republican titles. He said that he wants for marijuana to be legalized, helping local farmers and to support veteran services by reconfiguring funding from active military efforts toward veterans.
However, what drew him into the race was not any of this. Instead, it was another idea that has been coming from one of Westfield’s own politics—ending common-core education. Simmons, who retired this year as an educator at Greenfield Community College’s business department, feels that common-core has done more harm than good for students and faculty.
“I believe (common-core) to be the destruction of education,” Simmons said. “I see what it is doing and it’s intolerable.”
Perhaps Simmons’ ideas are too large or bold or different when November comes, but for now he is at least on the ballot.
