kennedyseat.com meets the candidates: Exclusive email interview with Jack E. Robinson.

My ongoing series of interviews took a brief hiatus for the last couple of weeks, but now I'm back with a vengeance.  Below is my exclusive email interview with Jack E. Robinson, and on Monday morning I will be posting my interview with Congressman Capuano.

As a reminder/disclaimer: my goal in reaching out to the campaigns is to try and capture a slightly different picture of the candidates as people and politicians.  I am not asking them about their positions on specific issues because a) I don't have the opportunity for follow up questions, and b) if I want a stock answer I can just look at the website.  Instead I'm trying to gauge their personalities, passions, and sense of humor.

For the time being I will let their answers speak for themselves, and hope readers will weigh in with their thoughts in the comments.

Without further ado, I give you my exclusive email interview with Republican Senate candidate Jack E. Robinson, uncut, unedited, unspun:

Robinson:  Sorry it’s taken a while to respond to your invitation.  We’ve been extremely busy getting organized, having entered the race literally at the last minute.  But our new state-of-the-art web site up is going live today at www.jackerobinson.com.  We are also launching today our new campaign blog called The Robinson Report.  So, here goes:

KS:  You have run for Congress and the Senate before – what have you learned from previous campaigns that will help you in this effort?

Robinson:  When I first ran against Sen. Kennedy almost 10 years ago, that was my first political campaign ever.  I was a tenderfoot and it showed.  The KS post on what happened brought back some vivid memories and was largely accurate (although it was incorrect to state that I faced allegations of plagiarism).  I issued The Robinson Report (now the name of our campaign blog) because I have always believed that honesty is the best policy.  The most important lesson I learned from that experience is that a candidate needs to define himself before he is defined by others.  One last point -- most people don’t realize that there were six candidates in that 2000 race.  So, the way I look at things, I came in second in a 6-person race in my very first campaign!

KS:  Who is your political role model?

Robinson:  Teddy Roosevelt and Ed Brooke, both fiscally conservative Republicans with a strong independent, populist, and anti-establishment streak.  That’s the type of campaign we will run.  Also Ronald Reagan, whom I actually met twice.  The first time was at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City (my father brought me along).  The second time was during the 1980 presidential campaign when, as an officer of the Brown Republican Club, I escorted Reagan during his visit to Rhode Island.  (JFK, Jr., who was a good friend of mine, headed the Brown Democratic Club during that same period.)

KS:  Recession, war, health care: What is the greatest challenge facing the United States and how can you help to address it?

Robinson:  Jobs.  Jobs.  Jobs.  With record numbers of people continuing to lose their homes and their jobs (over 325,000 in MA), record unemployment is the greatest challenge facing the United States right now.  Because I have over 25 years experience solving business problems and creating jobs, I am uniquely qualified to solve this problem.  Our web site provides further details on precisely how I plan to solve this problem (and others).

KS:  You are a Republican in Massachusetts, a rare breed.  How can the GOP begin to rebuild its numbers in the state?

Robinson:  Simple.  As we just saw in Tuesday’s elections, by staying true to typical pro-jobs, pro-growth, anti-tax, anti-spending, “Republican” ideals.

KS:  What aspect of government most inspires your runs for office?

Robinson:  Being in a position to draw upon my education, background and experience in the private sector to bring my unique problem-solving skills and truly fresh outlook to the myriad challenges facing our Commonwealth and our Country.  The same expertise and problem-solving skills that I have used successfully in the private sector for the past quarter-century can be used to create jobs, cut wasteful government spending, prevent job-killing tax increases, eliminate our multiple-trillion dollars of debt, and fix our economy.  

KS:  When Brown (the U not the candidate) plays Harvard, who do you root for?

Robinson:  Actually, because I am a booster at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, I always root for the “Midshipmen” or “Mids” (never “Middies”).  However, in those rare occasions when I notice that Brown plays Harvard, I always root for Harvard.