Topsfield’s Angus McQuilken considers run in 6th District

May 29-- May 29--TOPSFIELD -- Topsfield resident Angus McQuilken is considering a run for the 6th Congressional District seat currently held by Seth Moulton.

"What has me considering a candidacy is, frankly, frustration," he said during an interview with the Transcript at the Daybreak Café in Topsfield. "I am frustrated with the lack of progress on issues that are important to people who live throughout the 6th Congressional District. I think we need leadership that's going to push forward and ensure that we make progress on those issues."

McQuilken said that, if elected, his highest priorities would be, and not necessarily in this order, gun violence prevention, economic development, healthcare, transportation, climate change, and affordable higher education.

Gun violence prevention, he said, would be one of his highest priorities. It's an issue he's worked on for 25 years. He co-founded the Mass. Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence and last year rode 200 miles in the Tri-Town to Newtown event to raise awareness.

"This is an issue where the lack of progress at the federal level has been profound," he said. "but we have made progress at the state level, and we've created a model in Massachusetts that works, and it's exportable."

Massachusetts is frequently named the state with the lowest gun-death rate.

"Other states could adopt this same model," he said. "It could be adopted nationally, and thousands of lives could be saved every year if we just take the solutions that we know work and apply them throughout the nation."

Economic development

"I spent much of the past decade as one of the people that helped build our state's life sciences economy," McQuilken said.

He spent nine years in a leadership role at the Mass. Life Sciences Center, the agency that was charged under then-Gov. Deval Patrick with implementing the state's $1 billion life sciences initiative.

"The goal was to lead the world in life sciences," he said. "We do that now. But, we can't take it for granted because when you're on top, others will try to knock you off your perch. So, we need to continue to invest."

Federal funding fuels the industry, he said, and Massachusetts is number one per capita in funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

"But, we can't take that for granted either," he said. "And we need somebody who will advocate for that, for those resources to continue to flow to Massachusetts."

Healthcare

"I come at this from the perspective of a cancer survivor," McQuilken said.

Diagnosed at age 38, he said he received excellent care at Dana-Farber.

"I believe that we need to focus on access, affordability and quality so that everyone has access to the kind of care I got," he said.

His perspective is also informed by his experiences helping his aging parents.

"My father spent the past year in the nursing home and rehab hospital system," he said. "It's a nightmare. There is a desperate need for attention at the federal level on quality of care at nursing homes and rehab hospitals."

A rehab facility in which his father was treated, there was no one in charge at night, he said, and the hospital employed all contract nurses. It was all about profit margins and cost cutting, he said.

"It's wrong, and we need to fix that," McQuilken said.

He said he is also concerned about women's healthcare. In a previous role, he ran the advocacy and communications programs for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.

"We have a fight ahead on access to women's healthcare," he said. "Women's healthcare is healthcare, too. We need to make sure that access to women's healthcare is preserved in this country."

Transportation

As the manager of business development for the life sciences practice at McDermott Will and Emery, McQuilken commutes into Boston.

"I experience first-hand the loss of productivity and the loss of family time that comes with the nightmarish commute," he said.

The issues he runs into are also experienced by people commuting within the Sixth District, he said.

"We need a public transportation system that works, even in the wintertime," he said, "and we need more options for people that will take cars off the road."

Climate change

"I believe in science," McQuilken said.

He said the time has come for aggressive action on climate change.

"Some leaders in Washington just want to put their heads in the increasingly warm sand and pretend that it's not a problem," he said. "But, we're a coastal district. We know that it's a problem. We're already seeing the impacts of it, and those impacts are only going to increase without aggressive action."

Affordable access to college

"I'm a UMass guy," McQuilken said.

He graduated in 1991 with a degree in political science.

"When I went to UMass, it was a much more affordable option than it is now," he said. "It's still relatively affordable compared to the $70,000-a-year tuitions that they're charging at some elite private schools. But for many families, it's not the affordable option it needs to be."

McQuilken believes there needs to be significant investment in college affordability. Education isn't just the gateway to opportunity, he said, but it's also what fuels the innovation economy.

McQuilken, who teaches two nights each week at Lasell College, said, "Part of that is avoiding having people graduate with such a crushing burden of student debt that it limits their options for what they can do as a career."

McQuilken, who also serves on the Board of North Shore Technology Council, plans to spend the summer traveling throughout the 6th District, meeting people, hearing what their concerns are, learning about their lives.

McQuilken is getting married in the fall to Diann Slavit Baylis. Between them, they have four children.

So, when does he have time to sleep?

"I gave up on sleep years ago," he said with a laugh. "I'll do it later."

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