Representative Nika Elugardo: How to enact systemic change

Hi, this is Anna Callahan and you’re listening to Incorruptible Massachusetts.  Our goal is to help people understand state politics: we’re investigating why it’s so broken, imagining what we could have here in MA if we fixed it, and reporting on how you can get involved. Today I’m interviewing Representative Nika Elugardo.Nika Elugardo is the state representative for the 15th Suffolk district which covers parts of Brookline and Boston including neighborhoods in Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, and Roslindale. Rep Elugardo was the founding director of MassSaves, an economic justice collaborative, and she founded the research and consulting departments at the Emmanuel Gospel Center.  As a state rep, Nika has championed bills in housing, education, and environment. Rep Elugardo is clearly a systems thinker, something we need more of in the state house.  In this interview, she talks about how we need to have states that are willing to lead on justice issues — environmental, economic, racial, lgbtq, that all justice issues are under attack and we need to have our state legislators become the leaders on a vision of justice and opportunity for all.  This voice is sorely needed in Massachusetts, where we have one person, the speaker of the house, who dictates what can and can’t pass, and who is beholden to corporate and billionaire donors.   She also talks about how there are more people in office now and running for office who aren’t there just for a career in politics, who are there to fight for the rights of people.  In state house culture, where there is intense pressure to conform and do what the speaker says, it’s imperative that we elect people who don’t need to have the approval of their peers — or perhaps who see their constituents as their peers, not other politicians. Without further ado, here is my interview with Nike Elugardo.