Question One, which was passed on the 2024 Massachusetts statewide ballot by a wide margin, amended the state auditor’s authorizing statute. The amendment explicitly makes the state legislature itself subject to the auditor’s existing authority in exactly the same manner as are all the administrative departments, offices, commissions, and authorities of the Commonwealth’s government. Instead…
Category: Massachusetts Politics
Support the Rule of Law: Vote NO on Q1
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, wants to make herself – and all of her successors – into taxpayer-financed political activists with the authority to ignore the state constitution’s most fundamental principles and to replace the will of the voters and their elected representatives at the state house with her own. Question 1 WILL NOT ratify or…
Globe Gets the Big Stuff Wrong on Question One
Before reading my analysis below, go HERE and read the Globe’s endorsement of Question One. Done yet? If so, read on. I was quite pleased when the Boston Globe editorial board invited me to meet with them to explain why voters should reject or pass on Question One on the 2024 state ballot. The measure…
Massachusetts Exceptionalism is getting its due at CommonWealth Beacon
The newly rebranded CommonWealth Beacon has put the concept of Massachusetts exceptionalism front and center lately with several thoughtful pieces about the quality of life in the Bay State based on the results of a brand new CWB/MassInc poll of Massachusetts residents. Michael Jonas’s Putting Massachusetts Exceptionalism to the Test asks whether Bay Staters can…
Attorney General Campbell got the legislative audit question exactly right.
Click HERE for the CommonWealth Beacon story about Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s rejection of Auditor DiZoglio’s claim that her office has the legal authority to audit the legislature, with or without the legislature’s consent. Campbell’s analysis is entirely consistent with my earlier conclusion that DiZoglio’s push for legislative audit authority is a “well-intentioned bad idea.”…
Why Doesn’t Popularity Translate to Power in Massachusetts Politics?
A couple weeks back MassINC pollster Steve Koczela analyzed his most recent poll of Massachusetts residents in THIS CommonWealth article. Fascinating findings and excellent analysis. The question posed by Koczela that the data can’t answer (yet) is: Why are Democratic elected officials in the state less popular than their election margins and history suggest? I…
The Objective Truth in 2022 American Politics is Easy for Experts to See. Sadly, It Remains Frighteningly Difficult for Too Many to Say.
“If University Students can be Loyal Republicans in 2022, then anybody can talk about anything” The quotation above is a reply I posted this morning to a tweet by the UMass Amherst College Republicans in which they were trolling PA US Senate candidate John Fetterman for talking about crime. The reality that my tweet is…
“Democratic Debate Ducking” is the Wrong Frame in Media Coverage & Analysis of 2022 Elections in the Bay State
The Democratic nominees for constitutional office this year are apparently not keen on debating their MassGOP opponents. The political press appears unwilling to let them get away with this crime against democracy. I think somebody needs to seriously consider the possibility that running under the banner of a political party that has thoroughly abandoned essential…
The definitive list of #MaPoli endorsements
Every election year in Massachusetts, I update my piece on political endorsements in the Commonwealth. Note that the categories below are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes a Small Circle of Friends is also A Perfect Storm. Herewith, the #Mapoli endorsement hierarchy in order of importance: The Perfect Storm Endorsement: For Democrats, this comes in the form…
Is Maura Healey Having a “Sister Souljah Moment”?
Maura Healey is more well positioned to win the 2022 governor’s race than any candidate in an open seat Massachusetts governor’s race in at least half a century. Nonetheless, Healey is apologizing for an analogy she used at the end of a 2020 Chamber of Commerce speech that is being used against her by Bay…