ELECTION DAY may be a misnomer. State primary turnout figures make clear a new reality, with important implications for campaign strategies: Election Day is actually election season. For the second time in as many election cycles, fewer than half of ballots were cast on Election Day itself. More were cast early, either in person or, […]
Shira Schoenberg
Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Posted inState Government
Opposing camps evenly matched on millionaire tax fight
IT’S UNIONS VERSUS businesses in a high-stakes and so far evenly matched battle to raise the tax rate on high-income earners. This November, Massachusetts voters will decide whether to pass a constitutional amendment that would raise the tax rate by 4 percentage points on income over $1 million. If the initiative passes, the extra tax […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC to referee another medical parole dispute
SINCE THE LEGISLATURE established medical parole in 2018, prisoners’ rights advocates and Department of Correction officials have been in a near-constant fight about how the law is being implemented. Advocates say the Baker administration has repeatedly applied the law too narrowly, making too few people eligible for release on medical grounds. The Supreme Judicial Court, […]
Posted inMarijuana
SJC tells judges to grant marijuana expungements
THE 2018 criminal justice reform law let old marijuana convictions be expunged. But by and large, it hasn’t done much. A 2021 Boston Globe story called that provision an “utter failure,” noting that only a fraction of those with marijuana convictions had petitioned for expungement. One reason may be that most people convicted of marijuana […]
Posted inPolitics
Two Mass. political players in Oath Keepers database
A CANDIDATE FOR Barnstable County commissioner and an elected member of the Wilbraham Republican Town Committee have been named as members of the right-wing anti-government group Oath Keepers in a leaked database analyzed by the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL identified Ronald Beaty of West Barnstable, a candidate for Barnstable County commissioner, and David A. Sanders of […]
Posted inPolitics
Devaney narrowly retains Governor’s Council job
INCUMBENT GOVERNOR’S Councilor Marilyn Devaney narrowly edged out Democratic activist and attorney Mara Dolan to hold on to the seat she has held for 23 years. Dolan gave Devaney her toughest competition since Devaney first won the seat in 1998. Devaney represents District 3, which includes the suburbs west of Boston. The Governor’s Council ratifies […]
Posted inPolitics
SJC hears Sal DiMasi lobbying case
FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER Sal DiMasi is a convicted felon. But can he become a lobbyist? State law prohibits someone convicted of a felony under certain state laws from lobbying for 10 years. The Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a case over whether a federal felony conviction – rather than a state conviction […]
Posted inPolitics
Hayden wins Suffolk DA race in tough night for reformers
SUFFOLK COUNTY’S interim District Attorney Kevin Hayden fended off a strong challenge from Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo in Tuesday’s acrimony-filled Democratic primary for district attorney, in a tough night across the state for reform-minded district attorney candidates. Two other progressive politicians seeking their county’s top prosecutorial position also lost their races: Berkshire County incumbent […]
Posted inPolitics
In DA, sheriff races, reformers seek change from inside
DISTRICT ATTORNEYS and sheriffs are traditional “law and order” positions, inhabited by officials often viewed as tough on crime. These jobs are elected, but incumbents, particularly DAs, have often sailed easily to reelection – and sometimes chosen their successors – with little public attention. That has changed in recent years, as a growing number of […]
Posted inMarijuana, State Government
New CCC chair consulted for cannabis companies
SHANNON O’BRIEN, the former state treasurer and newly appointed chair of the Cannabis Control Commission, is not a novice to cannabis. O’Brien worked as a consultant for two marijuana companies that obtained licenses from the commission, although she says she has had no contact with either one for nearly a year. Treasurer Deb Goldberg announced […]