With most votes counted, the legislative audit question was approved by a margin of 71.5 percent to 28.5 percent. The MCAS question’s margin was 59-41.
The voters have spoken on Questions 1, 2 – or have they?
Posted inPolitics
Looming second Trump term dawns on Mass.
The first Trump administration and its fallout was marked, in Massachusetts, by a scramble to shore up protections for marginalized groups and double down on commitments to Democratic priorities that looked imperiled. Trump’s next term could be even rockier for the Bay State.
Posted inBallot Questions
Rideshare unionization question passes
“Tomorrow we’re ready to build a union,” said Manny Pastreich, president of 32BJ, the union leading the ballot campaign at the campaign’s election party Tuesday night. “Tomorrow, we’re ready to fight for better wages. Tomorrow, we’re going to fight for better benefits. This is the biggest victory for drivers.”
Posted inPolitics
Republicans make a handful of gains on Beacon Hill
Republicans flipped at least three legislative seats in Massachusetts, including one held by a veteran Democrat once in the House’s inner circle. In the other direction, a Democrat claimed at least one House district held by a Republican.
Posted inBallot Questions
Voters end MCAS graduation test requirement
Voters approved a ballot question that will remove a requirement that Massachusetts high school students pass a 10th-grade standardized test in English, math, and science to graduate.
The vote removes a central pillar of the state’s 1993 education reform law, and makes Massachusetts one of only two states with no statewide-requirements for high school graduation.
Posted inBallot Questions
Voters demand audit of Legislature, hurdles remain
In a brief interview on Tuesday night, DiZoglio said she is prepared to take on the Legislature either in court or on Beacon Hill. She said she is enlisting the support of supportive lawmakers to block any action in the Legislature that would undermine Tuesday’s vote. If that fails, DiZoglio said, she is urging the governor to side with the state’s voters.
Posted inPolitics
Warren trounces GOP’s Deaton on her way to third term
Warren sought to nationalize the race by arguing a vote for her GOP opponent was a vote for Republican control of the US Senate.
Posted inTransportation
Unions representing MBTA’s commuter rail workers feeling left out
Of the 14 Keolis unions, only one has agreed to new contract amendments. The rest have all been without new language since their contracts could be updated in July 2022. Under federal laws, railroad contracts technically never expire and remain in place until they are amended.
Posted inOpinion
The long history of ballot questions influencing races between candidates
Ballot questions can energize and draw voters based on the issue being decided. Less well appreciated: The turnout they generate can affect — and perhaps even decide — the outcome of other contests on the ballot.
Posted inBallot Questions
Five ballot questions all have a workplace connection
The CommonWealth Beacon newsroom discussed the ballot sla.te this week on a special pre-Election Day episode of The Codcast. Some highlights of the conversation follow
Posted inThe Codcast
The workforce ripple effects of Mass. ballot questions
This week on the Codcast, Commonwealth Beacon’s Jennifer Smith and Gintautas Dumcius sit down with CWB editor Bruce Mohl, executive editor Michael Jonas, and reporter Bhaamati Borkhetaria, to discuss how the five questions on the Massachusetts ballot may impact the workforce. They also summarize arguments for and against the questions and reveal key financers of both sides.
Posted inEducation
MCAS ballot question: clashing views of educational equity
Education has been called “the great equalizer,” but in the debate over the state’s high-stakes MCAS test, the two sides have diametrically opposing views on whether the state policy is working to advance or undermine that lofty goal.
Posted inOpinion
UMass Boston is heading in the wrong direction
Our chancellor wasted no time in declaring that UMass Boston would henceforth be a “leading anti-racist and health promoting university.”
Posted inOpinion
Wu’s tax shift is no compromise
Boston’s double-digit office vacancy rates—driven in part by remote work—are among the highest in the nation and unlikely to decrease in the near future, curbing demand for office space and straining city revenues as companies opt for less space when leases expire. Rising construction materials costs and interest rates further cloud the outlook.
Posted inOpinion
Question 2: A misguided effort that will harm kids, their futures, and the economy
If this ballot question passes, it will turn back the clock 30 years to a time when children in far too many districts graduated from high school without the skills and knowledge they needed to be successful in life beyond high school.
Posted inOpinion
3 things to keep an eye on in Pennsylvania on election night
Trump railed against voting by mail in 2020 despite the fact it was the Republican state Legislature in Pennsylvania that passed Act 77 in 2019, which allowed mail-in voting (a priority for Democrats) and eliminated straight-ticket voting (a priority for Republicans) in the state.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Empty house, full campaign coffers | Damon and Dushku
Saru Jayaraman’s charity organization, One Fair Wage Inc., was set up in Massachusetts last year, with Jayaraman as the president, and Nika Soon-Shiong, the daughter of the owner of the Los Angeles Times, as a director.
Posted inTransportation
Millionaire tax won’t eliminate T’s fiscal cliff, Tibbits-Nutt says
“I reject the notion that all we’re going to produce is a tool kit,” said James Rooney of the Greater Boston Chamber. “I really don’t want to do that because I think we could’ve spent far less hours producing a tool kit.”
Posted inPolitics
New BU study touts immigration as essential to Mass. economy
WITH THE ECONOMIC and infrastructural strains of immigration a top concern nationally and in Massachusetts, a new study from Boston University offers a data-focused counterpoint. Immigrants are not only essential […]
Posted inOpinion
Voting yes on Question 4 is a vote to support veterans’ mental health
Passage of Question 4 would create a framework for therapeutic (not commercial) use of certain natural psychedelics, such as psilocybin, which is found in mushrooms, allowing veterans and others to legally access an alternative method of treatment that has shown enormous potential to treat post-traumatic stress, depression, and other mental health ailments.