ATHOL — Athol resident Jeffrey Raymond, the Republican nominee for state representative from the 2nd Franklin District, said he has long been drawn to the idea of serving the public. 

“I served my country,” he said. “I spent eight years in the United States Air Force. I’m honorably discharged as a staff sergeant. I was an electronic warfare master technician on the F-111 aircraft, on the radar systems – the jamming systems.” 

After the service, he said, he worked for a time in electronic and design engineering but always felt there was “a piece of me missing.” 

“My calling was always to continue to serve my community as a firefighter and paramedic. I ended up leaving the electronics field and then spent a total of 34 years in the fire service. At 18, I started and worked my way up, and when I left the electronics field, I became a full-time professional paramedic and eventually I went full-time here in Athol as a firefighter/paramedic. I’m currently retired. But, as a retiree, I still had that strong urge to serve my community,” he said in a recent interview. 

Raymond subsequently was appointed Athol’s representative to the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School (Monty Tech) School Committee, a post he currently holds. His experience, he said, is part of what prompted him to challenge incumbent state Rep. Susannah Whipps, I-Athol. 

The 2nd Franklin District covers the communities of Athol, Erving, Gill, Greenfield (Precincts 1, 2, 3, 4, 9), Northfield, Orange, Phillipston, Royalston, Warwick, and Winchendon (Precinct 1). 

“When I see what’s going on in our educational system,” Raymond explained, “it’s very disheartening, especially when I see most of it’s coming from the state, or higher. We can’t really fix it at the local level. It’s got to start to be fixed at the higher levels, and that’s one of the reasons that drove me to try to work at the state level to help fix education. 

Raymond said one of the things that is very important to him is a parent’s rights bill. 

“I think there’s too many times the government is stepping on parents, and parents feel they have no say in things,” he said. “That includes things like school choice. I think parents feel they have very little say. We need a good, strong bill to give them their rights back.” 

Raymond argues that one way to hold schools accountable for poor education is for “taxpayer money to follow the student, not the school.” While the money does follow students who choice out of one public school and into another, Raymond said the money should also follow students whose parents opt to send them to a private school or charter school, or to parents who decide to homeschool their children. 

While education is one of Raymond’s top priorities, he said an area of high concern from people he meets on the campaign trail is the economy. 

“It’s killing people,” he said. “I call it Biden inflation. What concerns me is the ever-increasing cost of food, gas, home utilities, and — most importantly right now — home heating fuel. People on fixed incomes are going to be decimated this winter. They’ll have to choose between eating and heating their home, and it’s just not right.” 

The Athol Republican said that two natural gas pipelines that “Maura Healey brags about killing” would have softened the blow of home heating costs. He also claims Whipps and her fellow legislators have yet to address the issue. 

“When do they want to start discussing it? When it’s over?” he said. “I’ve had elderly people contacting me at home and asking my position on this. I will be willing to propose and support a bill to reallocate funds from existing taxation — no more taxes — reallocate the funds from current taxation to increase assistance for fuel bills, electric bills, things like that. People are in desperate need of it.” 

Raymond added that he supports elimination of the state gas tax. 

“We’ve got money we’re giving back to people now. We don’t need the taxes,” he said. “Why can’t they eliminate it? Some day in the future if we need it, we can revisit it then. 

“My opponent, on the other hand, has already voted on it, and she voted not to rescind it,” he said. 

Raymond also said he opposes passage of Question 1 on the November ballot, a statewide initiative calling for a 4% surtax on annual income over and above a million dollars. He says the wealthy will either pass along the tax to consumers or pack up and “move to Florida.” 

Crime is another priority issue for Raymond, who claims the Democratic Party — and Whipps — is soft on crime. 

Asked how, if elected, he could be effective as a Republican in a heavily Democratic Legislature, Raymond said, “Not all Democrats are nut jobs. We have good Democrats out there. We really do. I will reach out to them and try to talk to them and negotiate with them. People have to stop doing what the parties tell them to do; we need to do what’s right for the people.” 

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.