NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Maura Healey pledged to be a governor who will listen to Berkshire County's needs during a campaign sweep on Thursday.

 

"I appreciate the lived experience here and know that I will be a governor who will see Berkshire County who will listen to Berkshire County. I will show up for Berkshire County," said the Democratic candidate at a crowded "coffee hour" at 413 Bistro on Thursday morning. 

 

She later pointed to current efforts from her position as attorney general to provide support for the county, including her office's work on reducing energy prices — such as the rate settlement with Berkshire Gas — grants to local service agencies and for economic development, and violence prevention programs at school's like Drury High. 

 

"You got to show up. You need to show up and I have shown up as attorney general on a number of fronts," she said. 

 

Healey, who now has a clear field as the Democratic nominee, received a warm welcome from local supporters who cheered and applauded at several points during her speech. Officials in attendance included state Sen. Adam Hinds, Mayor Jennifer Macksey, state Rep. John Barrett III, state Rep. Paul Mark, Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington, City Councilors President Lisa Blackmer, Peter Oleskiewicz, Bryan Sapienza and Ashley Shade, former mayor Richard Alcombright and numerous community and civic leaders. 

 

She later took a tour of the city's decrepit public safety building and met with local officials for lunch on the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art campus. There was a fundraiser set for Thursday evening at Hotel on North in Pittsfield and she was to attend Pittsfield's Third Thursday. 

 

"She's been working for working families, how she's going stand up for the principles that we all hold dear in this commonwealth and in this country. She's a proven fighter for that. And that's one of the reasons I'm endorsing her," said Hinds in introducing Healey. "It is absolutely critical that we have somebody who already has stood up for Massachusetts and someone who's going to stand up and make sure that we keep moving forward right here."

 

Healey touched on jobs, transportation, housing, mental health, and the opioid crisis as challenges for the state to continue to tackle. She is a proponent of east/west passenger rail and linked housing and transportation as issues that were intertwined. 

 

"I also know that there's too much of a Boston-centric mentality and the needs we have for housing and transportation in the greater Boston area are different for what we need to do here in North Adams and it helps me out in Berkshire County," Healey said to applause. "I will be a governor who understands the importance of investing in our Regional Transit Authorities, who understands the importance of east/west rail."

 

She said median home prices and rents are "out of control" and that there is a housing crisis not only in Berkshire County but the rest of the state. 

 

"It's really about economic prosperity. How are you going to have that if you don't have a job? And how are you going to have a job if you're not able to get to that job, and that involves transportation, and then obviously, where you live becomes very important," Healey said later. "So we need to increase housing stock around the state."

 

Part of that is through the support of so-called 40B housing that allows for denser neighborhoods in selected areas, reviews of zoning laws, and transit-oriented housing to place people closer to transportation access so they can get to jobs, doctors' appointments and services. When asked about investors buying up homes for short-term rentals (i.e. AirBnBs), Healey said it was a huge problem and that she would talk with Legislature about what can be done.  

 

She stressed several times the need to invest in the RTAs. 

 

"We've got to deal with affordability. We've got to deal with reliability, and we've got to deal with accessibility when things are available, when buses are available," she said, adding that she also believes the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority is fixable. 

 

Healey said she's been reviewing Federal Transit Administration's recent report on corrective actions needed for the MBTA, which had a train catch on fire Thursday morning while passengers were on board. 

 

"I also think it's important though that the discussion, transportation, not just be about the T because we are a statewide operation. We need transportation to the safe and reliable and affordable around the state," Healey said. 

 

The two-term attorney general said the COVID-19 pandemic had upended a lot of things but also opened opportunities for "a new script going forward on how we do things, how we approach things. We can innovate and I am big time on that."

 

"I think about what I mentioned in terms of priorities, housing, transportation, workforce development, mental health, there's so much there and there is so much money coming in right now that can be strategically invested and deployed in areas like Berkshire County that have not had the investment that they deserve," she said. "We can be competing a lot harder when it comes to being a leader in arts and culture and hospitality. And this is a region that can drive that."

 

Healey pointed out that Massachusetts has been first in a lot of things, in technical innovations as well as social progress, and is really the bedrock of the country as the national constitution is based on the Massachusetts Constitution. 

 

She spoke about her childhood growing up on a farm just over the border in New Hampshire, how her dad left when she was 10 and her mom went back to work as a nurse to support her five children, how she played point guard in basketball and worked picking apples and as a cocktail waitress in Hampton Beach to raise money to go to college. 

 

It's all about grassroots, Healey said, pointing out how her team's homegrown with Taconic High graduate Lucas Benjamin as her regional director out here. She said her campaign people aren't coming from other states or other campaigns: "It's about the people who grew up and who lived here."

 

Healey will face off this November against the winner of the Republican primary in September, either Geoffrey Diehl, a Trump-endorsed former state representative for the 7th Plymouth, or Chris Doughty, a Wrentham businessman and founder of Capstan Industries. 

 

She declined to weigh in on the lieutenant governor race, which still has three candidates, saying she is focusing on her own campaign. She said winning isn't going to be easy, referring to her predecessor, Attorney General Martha Coakley, who lost to Gov. Charlie Baker in 2014. 

 

"I can't wait to get started working with this great team," Healey said. "But I need your help as teammates to get me there. Because no woman has ever won. No attorney general ever won and only two Democrats in 40 years, and these are challenging times folks. We cannot take anything for granted."