Ben Downing's First 100 Days

Ben Downing's a pretty busy guy these days.

Ignoring the turkey sandwich next to him, he pulls out his Blackberry and goes over the schedule for Thursday, his 100th day as a Senator in General Court.

"Let's see. I'll be driving in that morning. I have a 9am meeting with the Newgrange Group, folks I've hired to help out with campaign stuff. We have an informal session on Thursday, which means probably nothing going on other than legislation that passed last year that they're trying to get back into the hopper...late files, bills that were filed after the filing deadline that need the approval of rules and such. I have a staff meeting that I have every day I'm down there at 11:45 until 12:45. I have a meeting, with Representative Guyer, at the Attorney General's office in the Consumer Division to talk about some issues we have over in Hancock, with Verizon not investing in their infrastructure. They have old coaxial cables wrapped in paper, so when it rains they lose service over there. I'm meeting with the folks from Comcast to talk telecom issues; I'm sure they'll talk about the telecom tax. We'll probably also talk about broadband out here. And talk about funny things that come up: Cal Ripken, Jr is coming to the State Senate."

I kind of laugh. That is pretty random.

"Yeah, who would've guessed? He'll talk about the Cal Ripken Sr foundation, and promote Badges for Baseball and Healthy Choices, Healthy Children, with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Massachusetts. And then since it's a Thursday, I've got class."

On top of the Pittsfield-Boston roundtrips, keeping in touch with the 48 cities and towns in his district, and the day-to-day business of legislating, Ben's also the cool kid in his public policy Master's classes at Tufts. "I bet you field just as many questions as the professors," I remarked.

His turn to laugh. "Just about. I really do."

I met with the Senator at the Cup and Saucer in North Adams, where he had just come from what must have been a rousing meeting of the local legislative delegation with representatives from the paper manufacturing industry and State Secretary-designate of Labor and Workforce Development Suzanne Bump. It's that kind of stuff that gets him going.

In the last few weeks, Ben's been involved with issues from all over the public policy map: early-stage funding for local biomass/biodiesel production. Commissioning a study of the recruitment and retention of college graduates within the state. Expanding designation rules at the DHCD to help cities and towns keep tabs on absentee landlords. Stamping out paper-wrapped coaxial cables. Posing for pictures with Hall of Fame shortstops.

All this, plus the always nutcracking annual budget process, and a leadership turnover, in the first three months or so of a setting up the first Democratic administration in 12 years. It really fills up his dance card.

But he lights up when he talks about it. It's obvious you're looking at a guy who digs his job.

Ben is, at 25, the youngest member not only of the Senate, but of the entire state legislature. And he knows his election in 2006 wasn't easy. He's got something to prove. "I go into the building with people saying, all right, the kid's got to be able to campaign, at least, but does he know policy? And how hard is he going to work? And that's one thing that I know I have to prove, and I've been out there trying to prove the whole time."

He still catches up on the blogs, though. Enough to zing me about the lack of content for three weeks after the 500-word real life poop joke I posted in March. I reminded him of the blog he sported for a while during the primary, and asked him what happened to it. "Sheer campaign tactics," he joked. "We decided that Marge was the 'blogging candidate' and that she had cornered that market." Sounds like it might be a while before we see a blog--or MySpace page--from him soon.

It's probably easier to just sit where you are and he'll come to you eventually. "The immediate outreach work that we've done has been community forums and community events throughout the district. We did one in Southern Berkshire with Representative Pignatelli. We did one in the hill towns with Representative Kulik in Williamsburg. We've got another one scheduled this coming Sunday in Representative Guyer's hill towns in Windsor to address issues, and we've got one scheduled April 20th with Representative Bosley at MCLA. So there's been outreach. I know I haven't utilized my web site enough yet; we're just trying to figure out the best way to do it."

He's putting a lot of miles on his car, trying to remember a whole bunch of names, and ignoring a lot of turkey sandwiches. But it doesn't sound like he'd have it any other way.

"I absolutely love what I do, every day," he says. "And I mean that in the fullest sense of it. I love the phone calls about Social Security, and I love trying to find a way to address broadband. The full gamut of it interests me. And at this point, I feel blessed to even be able to say that. What does the future hold? I don't know. Maybe you should stay tuned and see if you'll read about it on my blog."