Friday’s press conference by Gov. Deval Patrick to announce that he’s naming a special commission on ethics had an interesting moment. Although Patrick said a string of troubling cases involving ethics in state and local government prompted his move, there was little doubt that this was all about Tuesday’s arrest of state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson […]
Elections
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
The national media weighs in on Question 1
Saturday, November 1, 2008 If you’re still undecided about Question 1, the elite of the media elite could help you out. Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal editorial boards have weighed in, with predictable advice, on the ballot measure that would abolish the state income tax. The Times urged caution last […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Romney’s neighbors abandon the GOP, and other fun voter registration facts
Secretary of State Bill Galvin has just released the latest party registration figures for Massachusetts (PDF here), and they show a slight bump in total voters; independents (or "unenrolled" registered voters, to use the state’s oxymoronic term) creeping above 50 percent of the electorate; and the Republican Party continuing to slide into oblivion. There are […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Project to track Election Day voting problems in real time
With fears about the potential for all sorts of problems at polling sites next Tuesday, a Harvard professor is teaming up with ABC News to provide real-time reports from across the country on polling place experience of American voters. Voters are encouraged to register at MyFairElection.com and post a report on their experience at the […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Where do the anti-income-tax forces have room to grow?
Will the Dianne Wilkerson saga help Carla Howell and company in their effort to eliminate the state’s income tax next Tuesday? A recent poll by Suffolk University indicated that only 26 percent of the electorate are planning to vote yes on Question 1, but tales of corruption among the people who decide how to spend […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Patrick catches Galvin’s Hail Mary pass on voter registration
As reported in the Fall issue of CommonWealth, after the failure of Election Day registration, Secretary of State William Galvin supported legislation that would allow certain people to vote in Tuesday’s election without resorting to casting a provisional ballot. With the general election right around the corner, such a move was the election administration equivalent […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Mitt McCain?
Massachusetts voters may get a sense of deja vu from John McCain’s latest argument against putting Barack Obama in the White House. As reported by Ben Smith on Politico, yesterday McCain said the following in a speech in Cleveland: This election comes down to how you want your hard earned money spent. Do you want […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Wilkerson backers take the low road
Monday, October 27, 2008 Dianne Wilkerson is counting on a big turnout of black voters for Barack Obama to boost the desperate write-in campaign she’s waging after losing last month’s Democratic primary for state Senate to Sonia Chang-Diaz. Despite Wilkerson’s effort to hitch her wagon to the Democratic presidential nominee, I suggest in my column […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Weld and Fried: New darlings of Massachusetts liberals
Yesterday’s separate endorsements of Barack Obama by former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld and Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried add to the growing roster of prominent Republicans who have jumped over the wall to back to the Democratic nominee. But Weld and Fried share more than that connection. Fried was a Harvard Law School professor […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
A survey of possible voting glitches, coast to coast
"What if we had an election and everyone came?” is the question posed by the Pew Center on the States/Electionline.org’s gargantuan Election 2008 Preview updating election administration issues — voting technologies, provisional ballot verification rules, and the like — for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Massachusetts comes off pretty well […]