If there were similarities between the gubernatorial campaigns of 1990 and 2002, the parallel between 1991 and 2003–new Republican governor facing fiscal crisis–is even closer. There are a handful of reasons to believe that Mitt Romney could be better able to manage the fiscal retrenchment and bureaucratic restructuring ahead than Bill Weld was in slaying […]
Robert Keough
Posted inUncategorized
A botched experiment in this laboratory of democracy
At this writing, the general election campaign for governor has just gotten underway, and it’s looking like a barn-burner. And with the first post-primary poll putting the race at a statistical tie, it’s going to be quite a sprint to the finish. But it’s not too early to be disappointed by the election of 2002, […]
Posted inPolitics
Tom Patterson on why parties campaigns and the media are driving voters away from politics
At the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Thomas E. Patterson is something of a rare breed: a political scientist. The Shorenstein Center, even more than the Kennedy School itself, is as much a practitioner’s retreat from Spin City as it is a haven for […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
In their opinion
By Robert Keough Political campaigns have their rituals, one of which is a round of meetings with newspaper editorial boards. Before the summer is out, the various candidates for governor will make their pitches for the coveted endorsements of every local paper in the Commonwealth. But how much more fruitful might these conversations be if […]
Posted inUncategorized
Whats the big idea
By any measure, the gubernatorial race of 2002 is shaping up as a watershed election. It could mark the end of the Weld-Cellucci-Swift era, a remarkable 12-year reign for the over-achieving standard-bearers of the state’s minority party. This would mean a return to the one-party rule of the 1980s, altering the dynamics of Beacon Hill […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
The New Economys dubious dividend
As we find ourselves heading into a particularly brutal state budget-debate season, the focus, naturally enough, is on the fiscal realities ahead and how to come to terms with them. Still, we ought not to neglect the story of how we find ourselves in the current mess. After all, this has been, in historical terms, […]
Posted inPolitics
Stephen Goldsmith talks about government innovation and fiscal crisis
According to the old adage, necessity is the mother of invention. But you’d never know it, looking at the way state governments, including our own, are reacting to their current budget crises. To be sure, two of the methods government officials across the country are using to close budget gaps are the result of innovation. […]
Posted inEducation
Eavesdropping
For almost nine years now, ever since passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993, there has been endless discussion- ranging from earnest talk to frantic hand-wringing- over the effort to raise educational standards in our schools, especially the impact of the MCAS graduation requirement on students. But most of that discussion, with the exception […]
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Massachusetts exceptionalism
We in Massachusetts like to think of ourselves as something special. We see ourselves setting a civic example for the nation, if not the world; how else could we justify quoting John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill” line ad nauseum? We certainly take our politics seriously. Massachusetts serves the nation as a training ground for […]
Posted inEconomy
Economists give their prognoses for recovery
Left to right: Adrienne Ortyl, Paul Harrington, and Alan Clayton-Matthews. Back in March, when economists and other observers were trying to figure out what kept consumers spending even as indicators of an impending downturn piled up, The Boston Globe‘s Adam Pertman trotted out this theory: “Many Americans [are] feeling certain that any downturn probably will […]