GOP challenger: Clark dodging debates
Republican congressional candidate Caroline Colarusso attacked U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark for being a puppet for Nancy Pelosi and said the two-term congresswoman is too busy moving up the ranks in Washington to represent her district at home.
“She has Massachusetts in the rear-view mirror and she’s driving away. She has plans to climb the political ladder and that’s not good for the people of the Fifth District,” Colarusso said.
Speaking in front of the Melrose Public Library on Thursday, Colorusso accused Clark of debate “dodging.”
Clark agreed to face her Republican challenger in a live-streamed interview with The Boston Globe last Friday, but Colarusso said her campaign has sent multiple letters and “heard crickets” on when and where a debate will take place.
“How can a sitting Congresswoman refuse to debate in the current political climate that we’re in when our nation is burning, when police departments are being defunded and there are so many important issues?” Colarusso said.
A spokesman for the Clark campaign said the congresswoman is working with organizations to set up a forum for the candidates. As of Thursday, no date has been decided.
Clark this week announced a bid for the for assistant speaker position under Speaker of the House Pelosi, a powerful position that would make her the second-highest-ranking woman in the party’s leadership and the sixth-highest-ranking Democrat in Congress.
Colarusso, a two-term Stoneham selectwoman and former postmaster, described herself as a “lawand-order constitutionalist.” A lifelong Republican, she plans to vote for President Trump in the upcoming election, but said she would never do another politician’s bidding.
“I’m not running and asking people to vote for me because I support Donald Trump, I’m running and asking people to vote for me because I’ll do what’s best for the people in my district. If I disagree with something, I’ll vote against it. Katherine Clark votes exactly the way Nancy Pelosi tells her to,” Colarusso told the Herald after her Thursday campaign event.
Colarusso highlighted “stark differences” in the two candidates positions on policing and how they would go about reforming the postal service. She accused Clark of “hiding” from constituents.
It’s a familiar refrain from GOP candidates on the campaign trail in an election year where tensions over race and policing have reached a boiling point.
“There haven’t been enough debates at all,” state Republican Party Vice Chairman Tom Mountain said. “Democratic opponents are running away. They don’t want to debate us because they’re afraid.