Left Ahead

“I’ve never accomplished anything in my life by taking the easy roads,” Jeff McCormick said. “I never had access to the easy road.”

As an independent candidate for MA governor, he knows he’s on a tough one. We spoke today a lot about what he wanted to do if he wins and a bit about he he expects to do that.

I opened by drawing a contrast with another MA venture capitalist, Willard Mitt Romney. Like him, McCormick has earned piles and has lots (dare we say binders) of successful companies he can cite that he helped fund. Unlike Romney, McCormick actually is self-made, coming from a blue-collar home in upstate NY, without a rich, powerful, politically and corporate connected father. In that vein, McCormick is good at brief descriptions. When asked about his campaigning, he said because of his background, “I’m really comfortable in diners, much more than in ballrooms.”

He wants voters to think of him as Jeff for Jobs. He cites his VC successes and his ideas of how to create tens of thousands here. Listen in as he describes how education and training will prepare the workforce. He also is keen on helping gateway cities outside the Boston and Worcester areas.

You can hear the VC background as he speaks of changing the culture of Beacon Hill to one of problem solving. Here he points to US Sen. from ME Angus King as a model. McCormick said that when people see you are solving problems, they want to join you and that’s an easier way to govern. McCormick ways he’d bring his work style over. “I’m part of the team. No one is voting for a CEO here.”

 Jeff McCormick [31:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Independent candidate for MA Governor, Jeff McCormick wants voters to think Jeff for Jobs. He joins us to discuss his platform and campaign.

Founder of VC firm Saturn Partners, he got degrees in biology, molecular genetics and finance first. He’ll explain how he plans to replicate and expand his success in growing companies to adding tens of thousands of jobs in the commonwealth.

His platform has planks for education, economic growth, health care, environment and energy. We’ll talk about how he expects to implement those and how he plans to leapfrog the big party pols.

McCormick has the requisite progressive social positions, such as women’s choice and marriage equality. Yet he exudes confidence that his policies would at once expand educational opportunities from K through college, control health-care costs, and add those thousands of jobs.

He says up front that being governor would be a huge change for him. He says he’s quite wealthy, mostly from his VC successes. Yet he longs for public service and to make major improvements, and is willing to lose lots of potential income by doing so.

He points to those successes as proof of his understanding of the economy, and in particular the MA economy.

If you want to hear him live, click here at 2:30 PM Eastern, Tuesday, February 25th. Afterward you can listen on demand there, back here at Left Ahead or on our iTunes page.