Cape Cod and the Berkshires seem to have lost electoral clout over the past four years, according to preliminary town-by-town voter turnout in this month's presidential election. The map below (click to enlarge) shows a drop in the total number of votes cast in several communities at the far edges of the state. At the […]
Elections
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The majority rules on dog-racing ban
Over at Blue Mass. Group, Carey Theil rebuts pundits who say that people didn't really know what they were doing when they voted to ban dog racing. (See my geographic analysis of the vote here.) One interesting question is whether it's fair for the entire state to vote on what could be framed as a […]
Posted inPolitics
Cos and effect: Did Bill Cosby pave the way for Obama’s election?
While there was all sorts of talk before last week’s election about a potential “Bradley effect,” a much lower vote for Barack Obama than might be expected based on pre-election polling, there was little evidence of it as the Illinois senator rolled to a decisive victory. Now, as pundits trot out all sorts of theories […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Gateway Cities rally for state income tax
This time it wasn't at all close: Last week Massachusetts voters rejected a proposal to eliminate the income tax by more than a 2-to-1 margin. Only 30 percent voted "yes", down from the 46 percent that put a big scare into the political establishment in 2002. (Blanks are not counted in either case.) Carla Howell […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Cardinal O’Malley’s fuzzy math
In an interview in today’s Boston Globe, Cardinal Sean O’Malley suggests that Catholic voters in Massachusetts turned against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 because of his pro-choice stand on abortion: It was interesting, if one considers Massachusetts, which is so overwhelmingly Democratic, and eight years ago [Vice President Al] Gore got 75 percent […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Western Mass. vote puts an end to greyhound racing
How did proponents of a ban on dog racing in Massachusetts go from a 2-point loss in 2000 to a 12-point victory last week? A higher voter turnout may have helped. The votes against a ban totaled 1.32 million when the idea was last on the ballot, and they slipped only a bit to 1.29 […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Saving the Massachusetts Republican Party: Deja vu
Hub Blog has a good summary of advice for the Massachusetts Republican Party after an election that made it more irrelevant than ever. A lot of it is quite similar to a couple of essays that CommonWealth magazine ran eight years ago. Former Oklahoma Congressman Mickey Edwards argued in 2000 that the Republican Party’s philosophy […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
East Brookfield takes its rightful place as McCain’s Bay State bastion
The Boston Globe has corrected the voting results, and Wilmington actually went for John McCain with just over 50 percent, not 75 percent. So now the tiny Worcester County town of East Brookfield — the "Baby Town of the Commonwealth" — can claim the title of most pro-McCain community in Massachusetts, with 56 percent voting […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Community Preservation Act makes inroads in Bristol County
Wednesday, November 5, 2008 Swansea reverses its 2001 decision and votes to implement the Community Preservation Act by a substantial margin. It’s a notable development because Bristol County and communities bordering Rhode Island have been slow to adopt the CPA — as have cities and towns that, like Swansea, are among the less affluent in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Patrick still not going anywhere, neither is Treasurer Tim
Gov. Deval Patrick continues to insist that he’s not D.C.-bound. During a press availability outside his office on Wednesday, Patrick commented that he was “enormously moved, excited, and proud” of President-elect Barack Obama’s historic achievement. But the governor, clearly tired of the question, said that he has never been asked about any position in the […]