For all the polling that’s being done in New Hampshire, we rarely get any sense of the geographical divisions in the state. A few polling organizations break the state into […]
The lay of the land in New Hampshire
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Congressional privilege: Hastert ignores election calendar
Yesterday we noted the large number of special elections in Massachusetts prompted by departing state legislators. But most of those legislators left for other jobs. US Rep. Dennis Hastert, who […]
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If you ever think of a joke, don’t say it
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is in trouble for dissing an industry she might not have known was in her state, as the AP reported:She was in Washington state Tuesday for […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
The auto industry goes flat
Things that transport other things still make up the biggest manufacturing sector in the US, but the number of people employed in the automotive, aerospace, and shipbuilding industries is on […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
More “special” legislators on the way?
As noted in a previous post, Massachusetts state Rep. James Marzilli seems poised to move up to the state Senate seat vacated by Robert Havern earlier this year, which means […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Former Speaker Keverian ousted in Everett
Boston.com is reporting that George Keverian, once the Speaker of the state House of Representatives and thus one of the most powerful politicians in the state, has been fired from […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
For Marzilli, up and out of the House would be especially sweet
For state Rep. Jim Marzilli, yesterday’s victory in the four-way special election Democratic primary for a vacant state Senate seat couldn’t come a moment too soon. Though he still must […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Where “Democrat” isn’t necessarily a dirty word
Last week the Democratic Party made gains in legislative races in Mississippi and Virginia, resulting in the map that you see above. (See the National Conference of State Legislatures for […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Massachusetts may, possibly, matter to some degree in 2008
The odds look good that Massachusetts will join the de facto national presidential primary on February 5. We were actually part of the biggest primary day in 2004, when we […]
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Shuffling into Buffalo
Edward Glaeser has a good rundown, from a government skeptic’s perspective, on the urban train wreck called Buffalo (well, Boston could have suffered the same fate if not for Harvard […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Red steak vs. blue sushi
Wednesday, November 7, 2007 Via Andrew Sullivan, here is a report on the blog Urbanspoon that finds a correlation between sushi restaurants and Democratic votes in big cities. Of course, […]
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Here’s a Web site that can kill an afternoon
Hundreds of Top 101 lists of cities, counties, and zip codes ranked by demographic, economic, and even meteorological factors. Here are a few in which a Bay State community made […]
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Metro areas matter, says Brookings
Exactly one year before the presidential election, the Washington-based Brookings Institution this morning launched "Blueprint for American Prosperity," a "multi-year initiative to promote an economic agenda for the nation that […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Vintage voters
Senior citizens are often regarded as a prized voting bloc because of their reliability in heading to the polls for elections large and small. Inveterate Cambridge politics watcher Robert Winters […]
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Harry Potter vs. Bruce Springsteen
The music database Gracenote has introduced an interactive "music map" showing which artists are the subject of the most searches in individual nations and in US states. The Beatles take […]
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UFOs steer clear of New England
Strange Maps has a geographical plotting of UFO sightings per capita in US counties. Sightings are generally highest in the West and in sparsely populated areas. Check out the comments […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Rudy and Hillary vs. their own parties?
Each of the two major political parties in the US actually consists of two factions that don’t always have the same goals: the presidential party and the congressional party. This […]
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Going long for biotech
If anyone can explain to me what makes Robert and Jonathan Kraft’s opinion on Gov. Deval Patrick’s life sciences bill worth hearing, I’m all ears. The Krafts weighed in with […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Obama and the vicious circle of trying to broaden support
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama got in trouble with some liberals, and gay/lesbian groups in particular, for inviting an "ex-gay" gospel singer (see New York Times) to perform at a […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Deval Patrick: The 71st most important liberal in America
The British Telegraph newspaper is in the middle of a weeklong parlor game in which it names the Top 100 liberals and conservatives in America. Today, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Where the presidential candidates have touched down
The New York Times has an interactive map showing where all the presidential candidates have made visits since the beginning of the year. Both parties have campaign activity focused in […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Still on the job
Today’s map, in a seasonal color, uses recent Census data to show where people are most likely to still be working past the traditional retirement age of 65. Seniors are […]
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World Series Inc.
Before the "rolling rally" parade for our beloved Red Sox, let us pause for a moment to lament the crass highjacking of the World Series by the relentless forces of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Voting as if your life depended on it
Scientific American.com reports on a study, by political scientist James Fowler, suggesting that the desire to cast a ballot is genetic. That’s one explanation for the finding that identical twins […]