AMID A NATIONAL progressive campaign to keep former president Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot, should he choose to run again, Massachusetts’s top elections official says it’s not so simple – and the issue is in the US Department of Justice’s hands. The core of the discussion is the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, […]
Elections
Posted inPolitics
Doughty says Diehl cannot win running as an Alabama Republican
POLITICAL NEWCOMER Chris Doughty trails in the Republican primary race for governor, but in a debate Wednesday night with his rival Geoff Diehl he more than held his own and made a clear case for his candidacy. Diehl, meanwhile, sent a clear message to Republican primary voters that he and former president Donald Trump are […]
Posted inOpinion
Look at the history: Taxes do make the wealthy migrate
MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS in November will consider a constitutional amendment that would impose an annual 4 percent surcharge on incomes over $1 million. The debate over the surcharge and the merits of the two common types of income taxation—graduated and flat—will likely focus on the “fairness” of tax rates and the “ability to pay.” A related […]
Posted inOpinion
What’s behind our Common Ground workshop
LEGEND HAS IT that when someone asked Benjamin Franklin after the 1787 Constitutional Convention whether America would be a monarchy or a republic, Franklin said, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Can we? A sure sign of a democracy nearing its end is when people no longer trust election results. That’s where America is […]
Posted inThe Download
MassGOP challenges vote-by-mail law
Permanent mail-in voting is now the law in Massachusetts – unless Republican Party chair Jim Lyons has his way. The conservative GOP chair filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday challenging voting by mail as unconstitutional, a day after Gov. Charlie Baker bucked many in his party by signing voting-by-mail into law. […]
Posted inCourts, State Government
MassGOP challenges vote-by-mail law
PERMANENT MAIL-IN voting is now the law in Massachusetts – unless Republican Party chair Jim Lyons has his way. The conservative GOP chair filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday challenging voting by mail as unconstitutional, a day after Gov. Charlie Baker bucked many in his party by signing voting-by-mail into law. […]
Posted inPolitics
Bucking party, Baker makes vote-by-mail permanent
DESPITE CONCERNS by members of his own party, Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed a law Wednesday making voting by mail permanent. Massachusetts allowed early voting by mail for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Democrats and voting rights activists have been pushing to make the reforms permanent in order to increase voter […]
Posted inPolitics
SJC approves millionaire tax ballot summary
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT on Wednesday decided that the summary of a ballot question raising taxes on income over $1 million can go forward as written, stating that the money raised will, subject to legislative appropriation, be used for education and transportation. Opponents had sought to change that language, arguing that it is misleading since […]
Posted inOpinion
We’re playing catch-up on democracy in Mass.
EVERYWHERE WE TURN, America faces existential threats to our democracy. Voting rights. Economic downturn. Candidates for office from local municipalities to the highest in the land suggest that election results don’t matter. Voter suppression efforts disenfranchise communities of color. Government stalemate. These threats impact our ability to advance economic, racial, and social justice. In this […]
Posted inOpinion
I want to live my life the way I want
I GOT MY KIDS off to school the other day. I made some deliveries with DoorDash. I ran some errands, made some more deliveries, went home for a bit, picked my kids up from school, fed them dinner, then made some more deliveries. It was a pretty typical day. I put my family first, and […]