EP# 53: Advocacy at Heart: Senator Jake Oliveira's Journey of Public Service and Community Connection
Apr 25, 2024Episode 53
Liz Lemon & State Senator Jake Oliveira
What makes the Massachusetts State Senator Jake Oliveira a good neighbor?
Have you ever wondered what it's like to have your community's back, to be the person everyone turns to for advocacy and solutions? State Senator Jake Oliveira joined us on the Good Neighbor Podcast and gave us an intimate view into his world of public service, sharing tales of his deep family roots in Palmer and his journey through local and state government. His dedication to the residents of the Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester District shines through every word, illuminating the essence of true representation.
This episode is not just another political discourse; it's a heartfelt narrative of Senator Oliveira's commitment to his 170,000 constituents spread across 12 communities. From resolving state agency issues to ensuring the voices of Palmer, Ludlow, Belchertown, Chicopee, Springfield, and beyond are heard on Beacon Hill, Oliveira's story is one of passion, perseverance, and the power of community connection. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that peels back the curtain on the life and responsibilities of a Massachusetts State Senator.
What makes the Massachusetts State Senator Jake Oliveira a good neighbor?
Have you ever wondered what it's like to have your community's back, to be the person everyone turns to for advocacy and solutions? State Senator Jake Oliveira joined us on the Good Neighbor Podcast and gave us an intimate view into his world of public service, sharing tales of his deep family roots in Palmer and his journey through local and state government. His dedication to the residents of the Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester District shines through every word, illuminating the essence of true representation.
This episode is not just another political discourse; it's a heartfelt narrative of Senator Oliveira's commitment to his 170,000 constituents spread across 12 communities. From resolving state agency issues to ensuring the voices of Palmer, Ludlow, Belchertown, Chicopee, Springfield, and beyond are heard on Beacon Hill, Oliveira's story is one of passion, perseverance, and the power of community connection. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that peels back the curtain on the life and responsibilities of a Massachusetts State Senator.
The place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Liz Lemon.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of some local and state resources? Surprisingly, it might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your neighbor State Senator Jake Oliveira. Jake, how are you doing?
Speaker 3:
I'm doing great, Liz. Thanks for inviting me onto the show.
Speaker 2:
You're very welcome. Thank you for joining us. We're excited to learn all about you and what you guys do. Please tell us about the office.
Speaker 3:
Well, first off I just want to say you know, palmer has a special place in my heart because my family immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s, early 20th century and my Polish side of my family actually settled in Palmer. My grandfather lived on Green Street, just off of Route 20 and 181, right at the corner there, and my Polish ancestry lived in Palmer for most of their lifetimes before moving to Ludlow in the middle part of the 20th century. So Palmer always has a special place in my heart because it's where my family settled when they moved from Poland in the late 1800s, early 20th century. But my office as a state senator I represent about 170,000 people that are spread across three different counties. So I'm both in Hamden County, hampshire County and also in Worcester County. So I represent 12 communities and my district is called the Hamden, hampshire and Worcester District. It includes my hometown of Ludlow, but obviously Palmer, warren, which is actually in Worcester County, three Hampshire County towns Granby, belcher Town and South Hadley, and then some Hamden County communities Wilberham, hamden East, longmeadow, longmeadow, parts of Springfield, parts of Chicopee and, of course, my hometown of Ludlow.
Speaker 3:
And so what my office does is we represent you on Beacon Hill.
Speaker 3:
There are 40 senators.
Speaker 3:
In the Massachusetts Senate there are 160 representatives, so my partner for the town of Palmer and Warren is State Representative Todd Samola, who is actually from Palmer originally, and Todd and I have a great working relationship where we focus in on the needs of the community.
Speaker 3:
But what my office tries to do is not just provide your voice on Beacon Hill, but it's also to resolve issues regarding state government. So if you have an issue with a state agency, my office can help. We have office hours that are regularly scheduled in Palmer and in each one of my communities that I represent, usually either at the library or a senior center, to make sure that we connect with folks, so that we ensure that we represent those 170,000 people properly and we also can cut through some of the red tape. So if you're having an issue with the state agency, you can call upon our office and I'm not making any promises that we can resolve it, but what we can do is try to work with you to ensure that you're getting the services that you're owed to as a resident of the Commonwealth.
Speaker 2:
Wow, that's impressive. You cover a lot of ground for sure. How did you get into the business?
Speaker 3:
Well, I started out actually in high school getting involved locally in my community in Ludlow. I served as a student representative to my school committee in Ludlow for a couple of years and while I was in college at Framingham State, just about an hour east of here, I actually got elected to my first elective office, which was representative town meeting in Ludlow's legislature, which is our representative town meeting form of government, where I served for four years. And then, when I graduated from college, I moved back home and I ran for the school committee and I got elected at the ripe old age of 22 to the school committee where I served for 12 years and at the same time I worked partly with the legislature on a lot of levels. I worked for my now colleague in the Senate who is now the chairperson of the Budget Writing Ways and Means Committee, mike Rodericks. I worked as a legislative aide for him and then went on to work for our nine Massachusetts state universities for 12 years before getting elected first of the House representing Ludlow, belchertown, chicopee and Springfield, and then got elected in 2022 to the Senate, to my current seat that has 12 communities.
Speaker 3:
So my life and my career has been involved in government. It's been advocating for people I've represented and also making sure that people are taken care of when they have an issue at any level of government, and that's what I try to do as a local elected official. It's what I did as a state representative and what I do now as a state senator.
Speaker 2:
That's fantastic. What are the myths and misconceptions within your industry?
Speaker 3:
Well, a lot of misconceptions are that we're in an ivory tower, that we have drivers and people that take us to events and all this sort of stuff. No, we're pretty much as close to the people as possible, and I think that's what's important about legislative work. I do a four-mile loop in my town of Ludlow every morning on my morning walk, where people stop me sometimes and ask about the work that I'm doing and ways in which they can help themselves. We do office hours in each one of our 12 communities in the district, so I try to be as accessible as possible because I think at the state level, unlike the federal government or even sometimes the local level, we're pretty bipartisan and what we want to do is solve problems for people. You know, when you look at state government, what that government does for the people is. You know we do things regarding health care. We do things regarding education. We do things regarding education. We do things regarding workforce development and having that connection with your state legislators, whether it's your state representative or state center. Both Todd and I Todd Smola and I, who represent Palmer always want to be close to the people, and so we try to be as accessible as possible if there's an issue impacting folks.
Speaker 3:
So to say that we're in an ivory tower and we're avoid from, you know, interacting with people is not the case. We're constantly talking with our constituents. We're constantly going out there to community events. So if you have an issue, if you have a problem, don't hesitate to call our office and if I can't respond to it, someone on my incredible staff you know, in particular my district director, jennifer Pickering, is happy to reach out to you and we can try to schedule something to resolve issues. So I think that's one misconception.
Speaker 3:
Another misconception is the level of partisanship that exists in our country. At the state level, here in Massachusetts, partisanship is really at a minimum. You know there are. You know, obviously we're in a democratic state. I'm a Democrat and I'm proud of that. However, I work very closely with my Republican colleagues. I'm very good friends with them and we work together well because we want to solve problems that impact the people of the Commonwealth. So a misconception is that we're in a partisan bubble that we can't break out of. That's not the case whatsoever. So that's a common misconception about politics and my profession is that we're so isolated from the people that we represent or that we are so hyperly partisan that we can't consider or understand other opinions, and that's definitely not the case here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. It's important to hear for sure. Outside of work I know we touched base a little bit you jog. What else do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:
Well, I wouldn't say I jog. I walk more than anything else. I'm a good walker and jogging is not my thing Anytime when you're running, that's definitely you're not going to see me doing that. But walking helps you clear your head. I think it gets you exposure, being outside and in the environment. But a few other things that I like to do I like to in the summertime. I like to kayak, I like to go to the beach, I like to chill out like everybody else does in the wintertime.
Speaker 3:
I'm an avid skier, so we're finishing up the ski season right now, so I have a season pass up to Mount Snow and go up there when I can, when I can find the time. But I also like to do something that kind of clears my head at home, and that's cooking. So I thoroughly enjoy, you know, recreating dishes and experimenting with things and really savoring things that I can make, because a lot of times in my profession you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. It takes a while to get anything done. If you're trying to pass a bill, it could take, you know, years, decades in order to get something off the finish line. When you're cooking, you can really have the fruits of your labor in a couple of hours after you're done cooking or after a half an hour.
Speaker 3:
So I love watching on Facebook. I'm going to plug them right now. French boy Jeff, and he has these amazing maybe five to six minute Facebook videos where very flavorful dishes that aren't really that complicated to make kind of puts together and you can follow him. And then what I like about him is that you can use stuff that's left over in your refrigerator. I hate wasting anything and I'm notoriously cheap. I hate wasting anything and I'm notoriously cheap. So not spending money on buying more food and utilizing what's actually in your fridge to recreate something that's flavorful, nutritious and something that you can enjoy.
Speaker 2:
That's kind of what relaxes me and what I enjoy doing as well Healthy, busy and definitely ways to stay active throughout work and throughout your home life. For sure, that's awesome. Let's change gears just for one moment. Can you describe one hardship or life challenges that you rose above and can now say because of it, you're better and stronger? What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:
Well, there are a couple of things that you know that come to mind when you talk about, you know, struggles or life challenges. So when I first got elected to the school committee when I was 22 years old, we had a really controversial vote in our community that, you know, reorganized the way that we did our elementary school education and I got so much grief for a vote that I took, you know, a couple months into my tenure as a school committee member and it wasn't really popular at the time, but long-term it allowed us to build a new elementary school. It allowed us to unify our communities together. So sometimes, looking a little bit more long-term at issues, it's important to do because you know, even when you're you know you're catching a lot of grief from people that you grew up with, people that you know sometimes when you see that the end result, something that you're striving towards, you need to move beyond kind of the rhetoric and the noise of that particular moment and kind of rise above it. And so you know, even though, that I had everything from death threats to phone calls in the middle of the night, to private investigators following me trying to say that I didn't live in the community, which was completely bogus.
Speaker 3:
At that time I really felt that it was hard for me as a young person to feel that kind of pressure, but I really felt that it kind of built a little bit of character in me to say, listen, we need to take down the temperature on this particular issue. We need to rise above it, we need to look beyond it, and that's what I tried to do as a 22-year-old person, and what I try to do today as a state senator is try to rise above a lot of the noise that we hear in society and try to come up with solutions that help people long term. And a lot of times we don't necessarily see that, but that's one example of when you want to, when there's a problem that you're trying to address and there's an issue that's impacting you and it could be hard or difficult at the time, but if you see beyond that, I think that's that's kind of where you build a little bit of understanding about yourself, but also about your role as an elected official that you can rise above that.
Speaker 2:
What is the one thing you wish our listeners knew about the state senator's office?
Speaker 3:
Well, the one thing that I wish people knew about our office is that you can call us or email us at any time. You know we try to be as close to the people as possible. So if you send an email to jacobolivera at masenategov, you know someone whether it's me or someone on my staff can get to you pretty quickly and, unlike a congressional office or a US Senate office or when you're, you know, emailing let's say, the White House or the governor's office, you know there is someone that's going to be looking at it right away. I wish the other thing that people would know how to do is spell my last name.
Speaker 3:
It's very tricky when it's a Portuguese last name like mine. The E and the I are inverted. So a lot of times people will email me and say you never got back to me and a lot of times they reverse the E and the I in my last name. So a simple way that I always tell people how to spell it is you spell Olive, then Irish Republican Army, ira at the end, so O-L-I-V-E. Ira, and that's the best way to actually reach out to us is just send me an email and we can get back to you pretty quickly. And if you don't have access to email, you can simply call our office at the state house at any point.
Speaker 2:
That's fantastic. Can you share that phone number for us?
Speaker 3:
Offhand. I have to look at my business card and I will tell you what it is. Momentarily. Our number at the Statehouse is 617-722-1291.
Speaker 2:
Awesome. Well, jake, I really appreciate you being on the show today and we wish you and the office and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:
Thanks, liz, thanks for having me today.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnppalmercom. That's gnppalmercom, or call 413-414-5940.