Massachusetts Democratic primary voters signaled on Tuesday that it’s time to start updating their office holders with younger (but not inexperienced) professional politicians. The Democratic establishment isn’t under attack in Massachusetts. It is being fortified for changing times as the next generation of skilled political practitioners begins to take its place in high office. The upset…
Can Geoff Diehl Bring the Pot to a Boil?
When I want to know what’s about to happen in Massachusetts politics, there’s no better place to turn than my colleague Professor O’Brien. Her August 2 post, Ayanna Pressley: Harbinger of Change to MA Democratic Party really stands out. But I’ve been thinking even more of her July post, Massachusetts Senate Race Diehls-In Trump Immigration…
In defense of legislatures
The following is a guest post by UMass, Amherst political science professor Ray La Raja. Jeff Jacoby’s commentary, “Short Live the Legislature”, in The Boston Globe is a mix of flawed assumptions and hazardous conclusions about state legislatures. He perpetuates a harmful myth about the superiority of citizen legislators. Does anyone want a part-time surgeon repairing…
Primary Election Day 2018: Sorry, the Commonwealth Is Hungover
Summer is in the home-stretch. Winter in these parts is cruel and none of us get enough sunlight. Every New Englander who has the luxury is thus basking in the last ten days of summer before its unofficial end the Tuesday after Labor Day. Sharks be damned! Beach, cookouts, festivals, porches, lakes, and libations –…
Complex political calculus would complicate a Maggie Hassan candidacy
Today’s guest post is from Christopher J. Galdieri, Associate Professor, Saint Anselm College Add Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire’s junior senator, to the already-large list of Democrats doing the sorts of things people planning to run for president to. Hassan is headed to Dubuque, Iowa, to speak at a Democratic Party event on August 26. Iowa, of…
Ranked Choice Voting: If Maine can do it, why can’t Massachusetts?
Interest in election reform seems to have spiked recently around here in the wake of two significant developments, Maine’s first election cycle with ranked choice voting and the enactment of automatic voter registration in Massachusetts. The ability of our northern neighbors to enact ranked choice voting, (a more ambitious electoral reform than automatic voter registration…
Hey There Little Red Riding Hood! Or, Should the Democrats Take Advice from Democrats for Education Reform?
The conventional wisdom is that Governor Charlie Baker will glide to re-election but amidst this Democratic Party gloom comes the director of Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts with the secret to thrashing Baker: just attack unions and all will be well! This is not surprising since DFER MA is more an anti-union front than an…
Time Out for A Personal-Political Post
One of the catch-phrases of 1960s political activism was “the personal is political.” When you’re a political scientist, this is certainly true. Facebook reminded me of this recently when it showed me memories of our vacation last year. I wrote this post last year, but never posted it; the pictures in my feed reminded me…
Jeff Jacoby’s Latest: Embarrassingly Wrong and Dangerously Irresponsible
Jeff Jacoby’s latest column, published at the right wing website Townhall as well as in the Boston Globe, is a bitter conservative twofer. In a column about the widely reported incident at Smith College wherein a student of color was mistaken for a suspicious and/or unauthorized visitor and subjected to police questioning, Jacoby managed to…
Margaret Heckler: she didn’t wait her turn
Margaret Heckler didn’t wait her turn. Had she done so, she may well have never scaled the heights of American politics from Congress to the Cabinet to an Ambassadorship.