She isn’t running a long-shot, independent bid for Congress against a deep-pocketed and entrenched incumbent with decades of experience on Capitol Hill because it’s something she wants to do.
She’s doing it because it’s something she has to do.
She’s doing it for her daughter, Samya Stumo, who died in 2019 when a Boeing 737 Max airliner slammed into the ground shortly after it took off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
She’s spent years in Washington seeking redress for a loss that came on top of her young son’s death from cancer years earlier.
She’s doing it, she told MassLive, for everyone who’s ever felt like their voice doesn’t matter in Washington, where they’ve felt drowned out by corporate interests whose money and clout speak louder than they ever could.
“ … The access that they have is very intimidating for a regular person who doesn’t have a staff, and [who] doesn’t have an organization, and is just trying to go from office to office,” Nadia Milleron, 60, the niece of famed consumer advocate, Ralph Nader, said.
And as opponents go, she’s picked a doozy: U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, the Springfield Democrat who’s represented Western Massachusetts on Capitol Hill since 1988.
In a recent interview, Milleron said she crossed paths with Neal as she pounded the hallways of the U.S. Capitol, seeking justice for her daughter and others who perished in the crash.
She was not impressed.
Earlier this year, the Sheffield resident looked up and realized that Neal, D-1st District, who chairs the powerful House Ways & Means Committee, was running for reelection without opposition.
Not a single Democrat had stepped up to challenge him in the Bay State’s Sept. 3 party primary. And no Republican had thrown their hat in the ring for the Nov. 5 general election.
So she did.
“Like, do you think I want to do this kind of thing?” Milleron asked. “This is not a fun thing to do — to run for office … you have to spend a lot of your own money. It’s like completely stressful and nerve-wracking to do this … But I just thought, ‘No, he cannot just go forward without opposition.’”
But to hear Milleron tell it, Neal, 75, effectively has been running like he has no opposition anyway. He’s ducked invites to debates, she said.
And he avoids town halls “because it brings out the screamers,” she said. The veteran lawmaker has not held one since 2017, WAMC-FM reported earlier this year.
Neal could not be reached for comment by MassLive for this story.
Milleron said she plans to be more accessible. She pledged to serve three terms and step down after six years.
“What you get is somebody who’s ready to respond to the 30,000 calls that are made to every single representative every year,“ she said. ”That is the job. That is part of the job … Richard Neal believes that the job is just bringing money into the district.”
There are other differences, notably in fundraising.
Milleron had just $29,948 on hand in mid-August and had loaned her campaign $75,000, according to her latest campaign finance filings. Members of the Nader family made contributions.
Neal, meanwhile, was sitting on more than $3.9 million during the same timeframe, according to his campaign’s filing with the Federal Election Commission.
His backers include the political arms of Fidelity Investments, which donated $23,850, and Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm tied to bankrupt Steward Health Care, which gave $14,900, according to an analysis by Open Secrets.
“I think it speaks to the interests of the people of Massachusetts,” Neal told WAMC-FM in July, as he defended the blizzard of giving.
”I think that I’ve had a broad swath of support from people from all walks of life. I’ve been a pro-growth Democrat, and I think that the work we’ve done time and again is quite indicative of the support that has been engendered to me on election days,” he continued.
Milleron’s notable relative, Ralph Nader, had a different analysis.
Neal is “one of the more extreme corporate Democrats,” he told MassLive last month. ” … He’s pretty much AWOL.”
- Read More: Lower-income voters could hold the keys to the White House. Ralph Nader explains why | John L. Micek
If she’s elected, Milleron said she wants to focus on addressing a statewide physician shortage, particularly among primary care providers; fighting substance abuse in the Berkshires, where it continues to be a challenge, and shoring up retirement benefits for public employees.
In interviews, Neal has pointed to his record of accomplishment for the district.
He told WAMC-FM he thinks “the career that I’ve had has been marked by achievement upon achievement upon achievement, and I think that voters have sided with me in a lot of elections, and my sense is that we intend to vigorously continue to pursue [reelection].“
So does Milleron. Again, reluctantly.
“I would rather … there was somebody else that was a great candidate, you know, to run,” she said. “I’m doing this because there isn’t anybody running against him. And I’m also doing it because I know that I could do a good job, and I don’t want to stay there [in Washington] for years and years.”
