Last week, the Globe‘s editorial page decried the flow of tens of thousands of dollars in outside money into the race for Boston mayor. Today, one education reform organization multiplied the volume of outside money in the race more than tenfold. And it’s likely that today’s entrance of Stand for Children into the Boston contest will push more outside cash off the sidelines and into the race.
Stand for Children, the national education reform group, lined up behind mayoral hopeful John Connolly in a big way today. The group told the Globe it’s readying a “full-frontal assault” in support of Connolly, who was already among the most well-funded and best-organized candidates in the Boston race. Stand for Children will back Connolly with television ads, mailers, and 1,000 canvassers. The group plans to have between $500,000 and $750,000 to line up behind Connolly after Labor Day.
Connolly and Stand for Children look like a natural marriage. Connolly has been a vocal critic of the Boston Public Schools’ management. He wants to lengthen the school day, enroll more children in prekindergarten, and lift the cap on charter schools in Boston. These stances that have earned him the support of reform grouns like Stand for Children (the group’s state director told the Globe that Connolly is “incredibly well-aligned with all of our positions”), and the enmity of the Boston Teachers Union.
Connolly’s opponents will hope to provoke a backlash against the arrival of deep pockets in the mayor’s race. The BTU cast Stand’s Connolly endorsement as the arrival of “outside corporate money” in the pursuit of the “privatization of schools”; The spokesman for mayoral rival Rob Consalvo struck a similar stance, glibly tweeting about the arrival of Wall Street and corporate money in the race.
The problem for the BTU and Consalvo (who’s presumed to be a frontrunner for the teachers’ union endorsement) is that they appear to be on relatively lonely political ground. It will be politically difficult for any candidate to shout about outside money influencing the race, while also pocketing money and support from the BTU, and pushing a BTU-friendly agenda. Stand for Children and the teachers’ union are both political pressure groups; the BTU seems to resent the loss of its monopoly in education politicking, but it’s gone. And it’s significant that the mayor’s race doesn’t come down to John Connolly and Stand for Children versus the BTU, and the world. Neither of the presumed frontrunners in the race, Connolly and Marty Walsh, line up with the BTU’s agenda.
Walsh is the darling of labor unions in the race, but he’s friendly to charters, and openly talking about going to Beacon Hill to make an end-run around the teachers’ contract.
The large sum that Stand for Children is lining up behind Connolly will likely ratchet up the pressure on other candidates to keep up. Walsh is already the recipient of outside spending by the national AFL-CIO. The Boston firefighters union is lining up a major post-Labor Day television ad buy for him. If education ads in Connolly’s favor start to crowd Walsh out, labor will feel pressure to respond in kind.
EMILY’s List, the national organization supporting Democratic female politicians, is also circling the race. EMILY’s List has endorsed Charlotte Golar Richie, but even with the coveted endorsement, Richie’s fundraising has lagged. The organization opened a state political action committee shortly after the Richie endorsement, but the PAC hasn’t shown any activity, and it’s unclear whether the committee is meant to aid Richie, or female candidates chasing higher offices at the state level.
But the biggest pressure is now on the organization in Stand for Children’s crosshairs, the BTU. The group had been making noises about sitting out the primary, if only to avoid the embarrassment of having its candidate get knocked out in September’s preliminary election, and then having to change course and re-endorse for November. Those plans look to be heading out the window now. BTU president Richard Stutman told WBUR this morning that the union is now considering endorsing a candidate, and committing money and bodies, for September. Stand for Children is forcing the union’s hand, and the union is getting ready to fight outside money with outside money.
PAUL MCMORROW
BEACON HILL
Massachusetts should provide safe houses for victim of human trafficking to help disrupt the sex trade, a panel headed by Attorney General Martha Coakley recommended.
The Globe’s Tom Keane writes that the law preventing Sen. Dan Wolf from serving in the Senater or running for governor is an ass.
State Sen. Jamie Eldridge posts a piece on Blue Mass Group arguing in favor of raising taxes and using the money to invest in local communities in areas such as libraries and green space.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
At Beverly’s Brackenbury Beach, homeowners rope off the private portion of the beach and use a guard to keep out the public, the Salem News reports.
The Fall River City Council is mulling an ordinance to make it illegal to lock pets in cars during hot weather and allow private citizens to take measures to help children or animals in distress in vehicles with the windows closed.
CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow swipes at Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s hands-on/hands-off development dance in a Globe op-ed column.
CASINOS
George Carney, the Raynham dog track owner and longtime rival of former Plainridge Racecourse head Gary Piontkowski, says he’d be open to bringing Plainridge’s harness racing business to his track. Carney lost live racing when voters outlawed greyhound racing in 2008.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie refuses to sign three gun control bills into law, including one he had pushed for earlier, the Star-Ledger reports. The National Review says conservatives shouldn’t buy the blatant pandering.
The Obamas get a second Portuguese water dog to keep company with the first, Bo, who was a gift from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Ambassador to Japan nominee Caroline Kennedy has a few bucks, 250 million to be exact, according to her financial disclosure statement.
ELECTIONS
John Barros, Marty Walsh, and Charles Clemmons debate on Broadside.
Fairhaven residents opposed to the town’s wind turbines have formed a PAC after being reprimanded by the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance for being involved in the town’s April election without filing the required disclosures.
Keller@Large lays out the reasons former Sen. Scott Brown is unlikely to win the Republican nomination, let alone the general election, for president. And from the Dept. of U Are the First to Know: Howie Carr urges Brown to quit touring Iowa and get serious about running for governor.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Rhode Island and New Hampshire are among the top 10 states benefitting from taxes or profits on alcohol, gambling, and cigarettes.
EDUCATION
A university in Maryland plans to enhance security for teachers and students by buying bulletproof whiteboards, Governing reports.
Students in Norwell and Hull will be issued take-home tablet computers when school begins after officials in both towns deemed a test program with iPads last school year a success.
HEALTH CARE
New projections indicate 300,000 Americans test positive for Lyme disease each year, WBUR reports.
Middleboro officials are debating the possibility of developing regulations for a medical marijuana dispensary as the deadline for applying for permits from the state looms on Thursday and at least one firm is eyeing the town to site a facility.
The MetroWest Daily News tackles the conundrum posed by e-cigarettes.
A Springfield man learns to operate a kidney dialysis machine at home so his wife can do treatments there and avoid time consuming trips to a facility for the three-times weekly procedure.
TRANSPORTATION
The Registry of Motor Vehicles is changing hours at branches throughout the state to match customer demand.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
US Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren want new emergency plans for the Pilgrim nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, a group of residents from Plymouth and surrounding towns are appealing a zoning board decision to allow Entergy to build a dry-cask storage facility for spent fuel rods from the plant.
At a time when global warming is causing sea levels to rise, scientists discover heavy rains in Australia caused sea levels to drop, NPR (via WBUR) reports.
Northeast Utilities, seeking to build a hydroelectric power line from Canada down into New England, says it will set aside $7.5 million for job creation efforts in northern New Hampshire, NECN reports. CommonWealth reported on the political and environmental struggle over the so-called Northern Pass line in its most recent issue.
The Dartmouth Conservation Commission rejected an $18 million plan to close and cap a controversial private landfill that has been out of operation for nearly 40 years.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Doctors determined Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey fainted while driving and a clerk-magistrate ruled he will not face criminal charges in the crash that occurred as a result.
Former state chemist Annie Dookhan wants her statements to police ruled inadmissible in court, the Associated Press reports.
Attorney General Martha Coakley calls for a review of the state’s domestic violence laws in the wake of the Jared Remy case, the Associated Press reports. Middlesex DA Marian Ryan defends her office’s decision not to detain Remy last week, but Margery Eagan isn’t having any of it.
MEDIA
Ken Doctor, writing for the Nieman Journalism Lab, says Patch’s retrenchment is more proof that advertising-supported journalism is gone for good.
Greater Boston has a piece on tracking Great White sharks off Cape Cod and while that’s interesting enough, the reporter on the story is even more eyebrow-raising — Gail Huff, the former Channel 5 reporter and wife of former Sen. Scott Brown.
David Bernstein wonders why the Globe’s two websites make the paper’s mayoral race coverage so hard to find.
British intelligence officials raided the offices of the Guardian and smashed the paper’s computer hard drives in an attempt to stop its reporting on Edward Snowden.