you could say Maine’s lobster industry has been on a roll. By throwing back breeding lobsters, Maine’s lobstermen have preserved their fishery and actually increased its size, even as other […]
The bottom line
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster VOTING AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT According to a recent article in Scientific American, whether or not you vote may be “hardwired” in your genetic […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass. in the middle
at the end of 2007, “free-market economists” Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer—most famous for the “Laffer Curve” illustrating the idea that higher tax rates can actually bring in less revenue—touted […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
An election rumble in Milford?
There’s plenty of election action outside of the presidential primaries this spring. The Milford Daily News reports on the battle for the highway surveyor’s position in that Worcester County town […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Miami not so nice to McCain?
Next week’s Republican primary in Florida could be a key turning point in the campaign, as it’s the last chance for candidates to gain momentum before the primaries on Feb. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Hail, hail, Freedonia!
Good magazine’s Christopher Ketcham looks at the secessionist movement in Vermont. One of its leaders is 70-year-old author Kirkpatrick Sale, who wants the US out of the Green Mountains:One day […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lay of the land: How McCain won South Carolina
As a follow-up to this post, here is how McCain was able to put together a narrow plurality in Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary. As in 2000, McCain did best […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Is the press doing its job? Case study 1:
Friday, January 18, 2008 Was AP reporter Glen Johnson being persistent or obnoxious in repeatedly interrupting Mitt Romney at a press conference? Dan Kennedy has the video. Kennedy comes down […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Is the press doing its job? Case study 2:
Friday, January 18, 2008 More on the question of whether journalists are upstaging the candidates they cover: Matthew Ygelsias makes his case against Tim Russert:Viewers watch a candidate getting grilled […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Will New Jersey and New York decide the GOP race?
Last year, I noted that Rudy Giuliani was the only Republican presidential candidate with significant support in almost every state for which polls were available, giving him a substantial advantage […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Michigan results and the independent voter’s dilemma
When a demographic group gets bigger, it usually becomes more powerful politically, but there is one major exception in the United States: voters who don’t identify with either major party. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Michigan primary: Top vote-getters by county
I’ll be adding more maps interpreting the Michigan primary over the next day or two, but here’s a simple one to start with, showing which candidate got the most votes […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
What happened to McCain in Michigan?
How did John McCain go from an eight-point victory in the 2000 GOP presidential primary to a nine-point loss this year? The short answer is low turnout. The number of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Clinton’s Michigan majority
Because she was the only major candidate on the ballot in Michigan, Hillary Clinton’s main rival was the number 50. Getting less than half of the vote would have been […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The GOP’s three-way fight
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 The Boston Phoenix’s David Bernstein gives John McCain better odds to survive the Republican-voters-only primaries than I do, but his breakdown of the GOP primary electorate […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
The subprime virus
Writing for the Atlantic, Matthew Yglesias points out that the subprime mortgage crisis is beginning to affect people who have the misfortune to live near people who made unfortunate decisions: […]
Posted inUncategorized
Looking forward
For more than 10 years we have worked hard to make CommonWealth the state’s leading journal of politics, ideas, and civic life. I say “we,” but in reality it is […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lay of the Land: South Carolina GOP primary
John McCain can go a long way toward nailing down the Republican presidential nomination by winning Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, the state in which he suffered his most serious […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Presidential primaries in our 10 political regions
Monday, January 14, 2008 For those interested in our 10-region political map, I have added statistics, in a downloadable Word file, on how each region voted in the 2000 Democratic […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Nifty Nutmeg State maps
Thanks to Walking the Berkshires, I’ve discovered the Connecticut Local Politics site, which has some great maps of past elections in the Nutmeg State — as well as the cartograph […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lay of the Land: Michigan GOP primary
After winning the New Hampshire primary for the second time, next week John McCain will try to repeat his 2000 win in Michigan. The map below gives some idea of […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
The disappearance of Mitt Romney’s New Hampshire
As I noted last night, Hillary Clinton’s suprising win in the New Hampshire primary may be linked to Mitt Romney’s surprisingly weak (by historical standards) showing in the state’s most […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Hillary Rodham Gore?
A few days ago I wondered whether Hillary Clinton could replicate the geographical pattern that gave Al Gore a narrow margin over Bill Bradley in the New Hampshire primary eight […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The California test
Watch for dozens of polls in Super Tuesday states to come out a week or so after the New Hampshire primary results come in tonight. The biggest signal of how […]