BACKGROUND

First Name: William Last Name: Brownsberger Office you are running for: U.S. Representative State: Massachusetts Congressional District: 5 Campaign Address: 334 Trapelo Rd. Belmont, MA 02478 Campaign Website: wb4congress.com Twitter: @wbrownsberger Facebook: Will Brownsberger for Congress Type of Race (Open Seat, Challenging Incumbent Republican, Challenging Incumbent Democrat, Incumbent): Special election for an open seat How many years have you lived in your state or district? Approximately 40 years. Are you a current or former elected official? If yes, what office(s)? Yes. Current State Senator, 2nd Suffolk and Middlesex, 2012-present; State Representative, 24th Middlesex, 2007-2012; Belmont Selectman General Election Date: December 10, 2013 Primary Election Date: October 15, 2013 When is the filing deadline to get on the ballot? August 14, 2013 Why are you running for office in 27 words or less? We need leadership in Washington that looks past the soundbites and special interest politics and makes the tough choices necessary to move the country forward.

GENERAL ISSUES
(Public) JOBS
YES [ ] NO [ x] Do you support a major public investment in jobssuch as repairing crumbling schools and highways, wiring the country with high-speed Internet, and ensuring that states have the resources needed to keep teachers, police, and firefighters working? I support investing in many of these things but not as a jobs program. YES [ ] NO [x] Do you support a strong Employee Free Choice Act, along the lines of the original proposal in 2007, which would increase democracy in the workplace with card-check elections? YES [x] NO [ ] Do you support raising the minimum wage and indexing it to the cost of living?

SOCIAL INSURANCE

YES [ ] NO [x] Will you vote against any bill that cuts Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, or Medicaid benefits including raising the retirement age and cutting cost-of-living adjustments? (Benefits can be defined as money paid out to beneficiaries, as opposed to money paid in or money paid to others such as drug companies.) YES [ x] NO [ ] Do you support increasing Social Securitys solvency for decades by scrapping the cap so that millionaires and billionaires pay Social Security taxes on more than just the first $113,000 of their income? YES [x ] NO [ ] Do you support saving taxpayers $130 billion by allowing Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies? YES [ ] NO [x ] Do you support a Medicare Buy-In for All, which would allow any American to buy into the federal Medicare program?

WALL STREET

YES [ x] NO [x ] Do you support breaking up "too big to fail" financial institutions, even if that means breaking up some of the major power players on Wall Street? In the sense that I support restoration of Glass-Steagall, but not necessarily on the basis of size alone. YES [ ] NO [ ] Do you believe there has been adequate investigation into whether Wall Street bankers broke the law before and during the 2007-2008 financial crisis? I dont feel I can evaluate investigative progress from outside. YES [ ] NO [ ] Do you believe there has been adequate prosecution of bankers that engaged in illegal activity before and during the 2007-2008 financial crisis? I dont feel I can evaluate prosecutorial decisions from outside. YES [x] NO [ ] Do you support restoring the wall between commercial and investment banking (along the lines of GlassSteagall) to protect families savings from being used for risky Wall Street speculation? YES [ ] NO [x ] Do you support a financial transactions fee (aka speculators fee) which would impact major investors, not ordinary investors, in order to make Wall Street pay their fair share and reduce reckless speculation?

YES [ ] NO [x] The federal government currently lends to banks at very low interest rates. Would you support a plan to extend those low rates to student loans?

FAIR TAXATION

YES [x] NO [ ] Are you willing to increase income taxes on those making over $250,000 a year so that our system of taxation is more progressive and everyone pays their fair share? If it is part of a broader deficit reduction and tax simplification package. YES [ ] NO [ x ] The Fairness In Taxation Act (HR 1723) would raise nearly a trillion dollars over 10 years by raising taxes on income above $1 million per year. It would go beyond the current top rate of 39.6% and be 45% for incomes above $1 million, 46% above $10 million, 47% above $20 million, 48% above $100 million, and 49% above $1 billion all below the top rate of 50% under Ronald Regan. Will you co-sponsor this bill in Congress? I think a one-sided bill like this is mostly a distraction from the hard job of building consensus about our financial future. I also support tax simplification before rate increases. YES [x] NO [ ] Do you support ending carried interest the loophole that allows Mitt Romney to pay 14% or less in taxes? Note: I do support this, but am concerned about enforceability of the changes.

DEMOCRACY

YES [ ] NO [ ] Do you support citizen-funded elections, in which candidates receive matching funds for donations below $100, allowing candidates to spend more time talking to voters and less time calling wealthy out-of-state donors? I'm not sure how this would work in practice. YES [x] NO [ ] Would you agree to at least one debate in your race for Congress with questions submitted and chosen by the public online? YES [ ] NO [x ] Do you support reforming our voting system by implementing "same-day voter registration" nationwide? This has to be done on a state by state basis because voting systems differ.

RIGHTS

YES [x] NO [ ] Do you support, and will you work to uphold, the rights decided by Roe v. Wade? YES [x] NO [ ] Do you support allowing gay couples to marry? YES [x] NO [ ] Do you support immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship? YES [ x] NO [ ] Do you oppose warrantless wiretapping of citizens emails and phone calls? YES [x ] NO [ ] Do you support Network Neutrality laws that guarantee the Internet is a level playing field for all users?

ENVIRONMENT

YES [x] NO [ ] Do you believe global warming is real and requires immediate action from the government? YES [ ] NO [x] Do you oppose the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline? YES [x] NO [ ] Do you support a carbon tax to reduce carbon emissions? YES [x] NO [ ] Do you support a repeal of the fracking exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act?

FIGHT THEORY
YES [x] NO [ ] Are you willing to make promises (aka take pledges) on some issues that represent your core Democratic and progressive beliefs, so that voters know on which issues you will draw a line in the sand? YES [ ] NO [ ] If 80% of the public supports the position held by congressional Democrats on a high-profile issue, and 20% supports the position held by congressional Republicans, would you fight for that position against obstructionist Republicans? Depends on the issue. YES [ ] NO [ ] If elected to the House, do you promise not to join the Blue Dog Caucus or New Democrat Caucus? I don't know enough about the NDC to make a promise against joining it.

COMMENTS ON ANY OF THE ABOVE: See comments in stream above. SHORT ANSWERS:

Republican President and military general Dwight Eisenhower said 50 years ago, "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." What do you think the state of the military-industrial complex is today? I am concerned about the military-industrial complex, and support steps toward a reduction in our military force structure. Broadly, I think we should focus on increasing our use of soft power, which occasionally could include conflict resolution assistance, and reduce our use of hard power, which often backfires. Can you share a time in your career or background when you challenged the Democratic Party establishment? In 2009, I discovered that the legislative leadership was awarding contracts in a non-competitive, secret process. Over a five-year period, leadership had awarded millions of dollars to a vendor who happened to be a major donor to many elected officials. I took my concern about this to the leadership team, who told me to drop the issue. Rather than taking that advice, I resigned my own leadership position and took my concerns to my rank and file colleagues. With a lot of hard work through the personally painful months to follow, we ended the practice and brought some real transparency to Massachusetts government spending. Can you share specific examples where you worked with grassroots groups or the larger progressive movement to

achieve a goal? I was a leader in working for the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2008. Work toward this goal included the engagement of representatives from many grassroots organizations, including as panelists at hearings related to the bill and as outside advocates contacting other representatives. What, if anything, would you change in the Affordable Care Act and the Democratic strategy during the health care fight? I don't have a good answer to this question -- I think it is very hard to evaluate legislative strategy from the outside. What does an inside-outside partnership between elected leaders on the inside and the grassroots on the outside look like, and how will it impact your governing? Often legislators need to work with outside groups to build momentum around an issue. By mobilizing constituents, outside groups can get the attention of other legislators and help motivate them to act on an issue. Outside groups can also be important information resources for legislators. Outside groups can also play a role in developing media coverage of an issue.