BC senior hits campaign

Stas Gayshan, A&S '04, is running for Massachusetts state representative for the towns of Lincoln, Sudbury, and Wayland. Gayshan serves as the head of the Boston College Democrats.

"Running for office is a public service," said Gayshan in an interview with The Heights. He said that it was his way of repaying a country that has done so much for him and his family.

Gayshan is a first generation immigrant from the former soviet republic of Uzbekistan, from which he immigrated in 1992. "Things were never very good for Jewish people in the Soviet Union. It was just an accepted fact that Jews never went to the top universities, and as you could imagine, that was not okay with my family," said Gayshan. His family faced a decision to emigrate to either Israel or America. "My dad wanted to move to America; I think he made the right choice, obviously," said Gayshan.

Gayshan and his family moved to Springfield, Mass. and into what he called "economically distressed housing." His parents, a nuclear-medical engineer and cardiologist, were forced to go on welfare and food stamps due to lack of job opportunities. Eventually his parents found work in Boston and the family moved to Wayland, one of the cities in the district in which Gayshan is running for office. It was here where he had his first experience with American politics.

During an Education for Leadership in the Nonviolent Age (ELNA) forum at his high school, Gayshan found himself questioning the ideology of Republican speakers.

Gayshan used the contacts made at the ELNA forum to acquire an internship with the Massachusetts state Democratic Party. "My first real campaign experience was staffing the vice president of the United States," Gayshan said, recalling his first assignment working a poll team for Al Gore's campaign. "It was such an amazing experience. I really enjoyed not being thought of as a kid."

At Boston College, Gayshan has served in the UGBC senate. Gayshan said one of the accomplishments he is most proud of from the senate was helping to introduce online voting in UGBC elections, which doubled voter turnout.

"One of the things I am proudest of is that [the College Democrats] did not fall apart after primary season. ... The Democrats are united in a way I've never seen before," he said. Gayshan said there is a lack of common sense in public policy, with many laws that are useless that should be taken off the books. "Laws are not always necessary to solve problems," said Gayshan.

"There are a lot of people with good intentions, who become corrupt by the system," he said. Gayshan said state representatives are useful as agents of change, and ambassadors in the community. He wants "not to have people think of government as something they have to fear."

"In a democracy, we are the government," he said. Gayshan detailed the major points of his campaign for his community. His highest priority is lowering the tax burden on senior citizens living in his district.

Gayshan also wants to create more accountability on the part of the state. He said the current process is difficult and does not give citizens all the information of what there state representative is doing. Also important to Gayshan is assisting small businesses in paying for employee health care, developing schools further, and preventing the state from doing business with companies that outsource jobs to other countries.

Though people question his age and inexperience, Gayshan said, "I know I can get things done."