Thanks to Ms. Brita Frederickson for sharing her news with Westwood Minute.
Bret Bero's decision to make a go at the office of Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor was a family decision, says his daughter and Westwood resident, Brita Frederickson. Father and daughter both share a love of politics. It was something they bonded over as she was growing up. They would talk about it around the dinner table.
A friend, who owns a political consulting firm and who has worked on Joe Kennedy's campaign, offered his opinion that he thought Mr. Bero has a good shot at political office. So, last summer, when they were seated around the dinner table, Mr. Bero asked Ms. Frederickson, her brother, and her mother what they thought about him running. Would they feel good about it? The answer was yes.
With that decision made, Ms. Frederickson has thrown her support into her father's campaign. "It's cool as a daughter to watch your dad fulfill a lifelong ambition, a lifelong goal. Whether he wins or loses, it's such an unbelieveable opportunity for him and our family," she says.
"Right now, getting signatures is the big push," she notes. There is no firm sending hundreds of people to canvas the state, as established political candidates might employ. It's a grass-roots effort to get Mr. Bero's name on the ballot. Ms. Frederickson herself has been walking door-to-door in Westwood with her 8 year-old daughter Elin, asking neighbors for their signatures in support of that goal. The Bero campaign needs to obtain 10,000 signatures plus 15 percent of delegates at the Democratic Caucus by May 10, 2022. The goal is to have the signatures by mid-April. They are doing well, she says, but need more.
Ms. Frederickson appears fueled not only by loyalty to her father, but a strong belief that "He is the right guy for this time." Along with currently serving as adjunct professor at Babson College, Mr. Bero's experience includes being a small business owner. A review of Mr. Bero's campaign materials show that he has positioned himself as an "economic optimist" and "small business champion." Of all the issues on his platform, he shines the brightest light on the plight of Massachusetts's small businesses, which he says have lost up to 25 percent of their average income in the last twelve to eighteen months.
"Small businesses in Massachusetts . . . they have struggled mightily during Covid and a lot of them have failed to regain the momentum they had before Covid, or they are being shut down all together," Ms. Frederickson says. "Currently, there is no one on Beacon Hill with the type of experience that he has, or private equity experience that he has," she adds.
Ms. Frederickson remarks, "Especially because he hasn't been in politics before, he doesn't have any special ties or interests. He's coming to it fresh. There's a lot that someone else, who has been running for office a long-time, can't do because they have to think about what comes next [i.e., the next office.] Not my dad."
Ms. Frederickson notes the significance of her father's political positions, which she says are "fairly moderate" in a deep blue state. "There needs to be a place for moderates in political discourse. Otherwise, it just becomes a purity test. It's simply, who has the most progressive plan?"
"A lieutenant governor should complement, not duplicate the governor," she continues, observing that both candidates running for Democratic nominee for governor, Attorney General Maura Healey and State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, are to the left of her father on the political spectrum. "Both have incredible experience in public office. With someone like my dad on their team, we have such a wider breadth of knowledge that can be used. . . . My dad has publicly stated he's only running for this. It's not a stepping stone. He doesn't want to be a senator or a representative. He just wants to do this. He wants to use it to help."
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