PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. Rep. Richard Neal hopes that after election day, legislators will focus on infrastructure and tax reform.

 

The Springfield Democrat is predicting Democrats to come out on top this election, starting with Hillary Clinton winning the presidency, Democrats taking back the Senate and picking up more than a dozen seats in the House of Representatives.

 

He, who faces two challengers this year, expects to be one of those Democrats returning to the office.

 

"I think there is a civil war coming in the Republican Party. But as Democrats, we can't depend upon in-fighting in Republican Party. I think ours has to be a more broad-based message and not to forget the fact that a lot of the frustration people feel across the country comes from people who used to support us. I think trying to win them back should be part of our overall equation," Neal said. 

 

"You don't want the two parties to go through an election season saying vote for us, they are worse than we are. You have to have a positive message."

 

Overall, he said this campaign season "has not been uplifting. The system I signed up for used to be one where it was compare and contrast, sift and sort, and now it has become much more negative, much more hostile. I think people show up with their opinions and call them facts. It has made it much more difficult to legitimately get to the big issues of the day."

 

This year's election has seemed at times exactly like that with the campaigns of Republican Donald Trump and Clinton. Neal says much of the anxiety felt across the nation showing itself in this election centers on the economy.

 

That's why he is calling for large infrastructure projects to put more construction worker and the like out on the job.

 

"There has been downward pressure on wages for more than a decade in America. It is closer to 12 years. Economic insecurity is coursing through the political structure. I think for us, trying to speak to that anxiety ought to be our priority and nothing gets people back to work faster than infrastructure spending," Neal said. 

 

"Across Western Massachusetts, after the highway bill was signed many of these pent up projects are now in the ground, construction workers are on them just about everywhere."

 

He believes that such a large bill will "jumpstart" modest growth in the economy and ramp up job growth - though he added the unemployment rate is at a low 5 percent now. If the pace of job growth picked up, he'd feel much of those anxieties about the economy will be soothed.

 

He's hoping that with more Democrats in Congress, those projects will jump in priority. However, he isn't expecting the party to get all 30 seats it needs to take back the House of Representatives but he does expect enough seats to win the Senate. 

 

"I am hoping that a Clinton presidency will focus on infrastructure and tax reform. Those seem to me to be imminently doable," Neal said.

 

Neal is a longstanding member of the House Ways and Means Committee and is a ranking member of that group's Tax Finance Subcommittee. However, being in the minority party, a tax reform program, his efforts to reform the way the country collects taxes hasn't taken hold.

 

"I've worked on tax reform for a long time and I thought we had a couple decent models," Neal said.

 

Neal is being challenged for his seat by Independent  Frederick Mayock from Springfield and Shelburne Libertarian Thomas Simmons.

 

That race has been somewhat quiet in the Berkshires and Neal has been on the road stumping for Clinton in battleground states. Neal said most of his campaigning work takes place in the "non-election years."

 

"I try very hard to work it in non-election years. I think that's when the primary activity helps. You establish a reputation and then you obviously always work to re-enforce it," Neal said.

 

He was one the thousands to utilize early voting, where he pulled the lever opposing the ballot question opposing the expansion of charter schools. He came to the Berkshires on Friday to campaign in support of Democrats up and down the ticket, joining with Tricia Farley-Bouvier and Adam Hinds at Park Square as well as opponents of Question 2 to hold signs.

 

"I still think the average working man and woman in America get a better shake with the people I am holding a sign for," Neal said, pointing to signs supporting Clinton, Farley-Bouvier, and Hinds. 

 

As for his opposition for Question 2, "I think the Legislature should be positioned to make the determination. I don't like referendum questions. Referendum questions become yes or no and there are a lot of nuisances in public life. You can generally find an agreement through the painstaking process of legislating," Neal said. 

 

"It is boring at times but it speaks to the gray. Every issue in American life is not black or white."