Senate Candidate Lynch Getting to Know Berkshires

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Stephen F. Lynch is hoping to bring what he says is a different perspective to the U.S. Senate.

"You really have to have somebody who has their sympathies with regular families," said the representative for the 8th Mass District on Monday morning during a swing through the region.

Lynch spoke of his "humble beginnings" and his working-class experience in the Quincy shipyards and mills and construction sites around the country, sometimes working from paycheck to paycheck.

"I think I bring a perspective to the United States Senate that is not there right now," he said, noting he'd been "strapping on work boots" for longer than he'd been a lawmaker. "I think we have multimillionaires and career politicians that never ever worked in the private sector."

The ironworker-turned-congressman from South Boston is running for the Democratic nomination to fill the seat left by John F. Kerry, who is now secretary of state.

Lynch had dropped in for breakfast in Dalton before appearing on WBEC's "Up Front" on 1420-AM and then heading east for lunch with the mayor of Springfield.

He spoke of his strong support for unions (he was the youngest president of Iron Workers Local 7) and the social support system, including unemployment insurance and the Social Security and Medicare programs on which his elderly parents rely.

"I grew up in public housing, that's not a program that's my home," said Lynch. "I know what public education offers people, I wouldn't be sitting here as a United States congressman if it wasn't for a good solid public school education."

But he voted against the Affordable Care Act because he said it did not address the issue of cost.

"I'm hearing from a lot of unions who originally supported the Affordable Care Act but are now asking me to implement changes, and asking the administration to implement changes, because they will no no longer be able to provide health care," he said. "That's not the way this thing was supposed to work."

More small and medium-sized businesses are dropping their workers into the health exchanges created for the uninsured, and cutting off a prime benefit of union organization, he said, and that's hurting both business and labor.
 

He followed his father into iron working, only to see the shipyards and automobile plants close as employers pushed jobs overseas. In between, he graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology and later from Boston College Law School. He served in the state Legislature before being elected in what was then the 9th Mass. District in 2001.

"I think because of my experience, I'll look at trade agreements a heck of a lot differently, they're not just policy, they're somebody's jobs, they're my job," he said. Rather than incentivizing corporations to ship jobs out, the tax code needs to be reformed to grow the job base here, he said. "We need to re-engineer our economy."

Lynch says the Berkshire expansion in hospitality and culture is a winning way to play to the region's strengths while also providing "fertile ground" for the life sciences field. especially as companies begin looking outside the high-cost urban areas.

Commuter rail (which is also being expanded in Western Mass.) is both propelling companies into smaller towns and providing more moderately-priced real estate for workers.

"There's fatigue out there," he acknowledged. "I met with unions who put their heart, souls and treasure into the Warren-Brown race ... They're like, 'your kidding ... .'"

The Democratic establishment did try to sidestep the issue by quickly backing Markey, the state's senior congressman, when he announced last month. (Markey's making an appearance Tuesday night at a reception hosted by the local Democratic organization).

"Unfortunately, I gummed that up a little," grinned Lynch. The short time span for the special election may help the fatigue factor but it will be hard to get out the vote. "A very small number of people are going to decide this race."

He vowed to be the region's champion in the same way he's represented his congressional district.

"I know there are folks who get elected and go to Congress and are never seen again in Massachusetts," said Lynch, which might have been a jab at Markey, who's had to fend off questions of residency. "When the gavel drops I'm back here. I am very much engaged in the areas I represent ... .

"My most important relationship is not with Nancy Pelosi. It's with the folks I represent."

Sheffield Craftsman Offering Workshops on Windsor Chairs

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:30AM / Sunday, March 29, 2026

Andrew Jack uses hand tools in his wood working shop. 

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — A new workshop is bringing woodworking classes and handmade items.

Andrew Jack specializes in Windsor chairs and has been making them for almost 20 years.

He recently opened a workshop at 292 South Main St. as a space for people to see his work and learn how to do it.

"This is sort of the next, or latest iteration of a business that I've kind of been limping along for a little while," he said. "I make Windsor chairs from scratch, and this is an effort to have a little bit more of a public-facing space, where people can see the chairs, talk about options, talking about commissions.

"I also am using it as a space to teach workshops, which for the last 10 years or so I've been trying to do out of my own personal workshop at home."

Jack graduated in 2008 from State University of New York at Purchase, and later met woodworker Curtis Buchanan, who inspired him.

"Right after I finished there, I was feeling a little lost. I wasn't sure how to make the next steps and afford a workspace. And the machine tooling that I was used to using in school." he said, "Right after I graduated, I crossed paths with a guy named Curtis Buchanan, and he was demonstrating making really refined Windsor chairs with not much more than some some flea market tools, and I saw that as a great, low overhead way to keep working with wood."

Jack moved into his workshop last month with help from his wife. He is renting the space from the owners of Magic Flute, who he says have been wonderful to work with.

"My wife actually noticed the 'for rent' sign out by the road, and she made the initial call to just see if we get some more information," he said. "It wasn't on my radar, because it felt like kind of a big leap, and sometimes that's how it's been in my life, where I just need other people to believe in me more than I do to, you know, really pull the trigger."

Jack does commissions and while most of his work is Windsor chairs, he also builds desks and tables, and does spoon carving. 

Windsor chairs are different because of the way their backs are attached into the seat instead of being a continuous leg and back frame.

"A lot of the designs that I make are on the traditional side, but I do some contemporary stuff as well. And so usually the legs are turned on a lathe and they have sort of a fancy baluster look to them, or they could be much more simple," he said. "But the solid seat that separates the undercarriage from the backrest and the arms and stuff is sort of one of the defining characteristics of a Windsor."

He hopes to help people learn the craft and says it's rewarding to see the finished product. In the future, he also hopes to host other instructors and add more designs for the workshop.

"The prime impact for the workshops is to give close instruction to people that are interested in working wood with hand tools or developing a new skill. Or seeing what's possible with proper guidance," Jack said. "Chairs are often considered some of the more difficult or complex woodworking endeavors, and maybe less so Windsor chairs, but there is a lot that goes into them, and being able to kind of demystify that, or guide people through the process is quite rewarding."

People can sign up for classes on his website; some classes are over a couple and others a couple of weekends.

"I offer a three-day class for, a much, much more simple, like perch, kind of stool, where most of the parts are kind of pre-made, and students can focus on the joinery that goes into it and the carving of the seat, again, all with hand tools. And then students will leave with their own chair," he said.

"The longer classes run similarly, although there's quite a bit more labor that goes into those. So I provide all the turned parts, legs and stretchers and posts and things, but students will do all the joinery and all the seat carving the assembly. And they'll split and shave and shape their own spindles, and any of the bent parts that go into the chair."

His gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m to 2 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday by appointment.