The battle now underway for the top slot in the Massachusetts Republican Party calls to mind Henry Kissinger’s often cited commentary on the pitched battles in the ivory towers of academia: The politics are vicious because the stakes are so small. Clamoring to lead the Massachusetts GOP these days looks a bit like fighting for promotion at a tanking company in order to be put in charge of the close-out sale.
But none of that is stopping the small band of party faithful from gearing up for a showdown next month in the election of a new state chairmanship. Bob Maginn, anointed by his friend Mitt Romney to lead the party, is stepping down. Things didn’t go well for either man. Maginn is bowing out after the GOP’s anemic presence in the Legislature was reduced even further in last month’s election. Romney, well, you may have heard what happened there.
The Globe’s Stephanie Ebbert reported on Saturday that the first hat tossed in the ring for the top party post belongs to Kirsten Hughes, who served as Scott Brown’s deputy finance director in his failed Senate reelection campaign. Brown sent Republican State Committee members a letter on Friday endorsing Hughes. That has some GOP activists grumbling because Brown didn’t exactly carry the Republican banner high as he charged into campaign battle against Elizabeth Warren. Indeed, Barack Obama — cast in glowing light — was a bigger presence in Brown campaign ads and mailings than Mitt Romney. Brown disparaged partisan politicking at every turn, suggesting, laughably, at one point that, if reelected, he wouldn’t be an automatic vote for Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell if the cranky Kentuckian didn’t shape up and cut the party-based rancor. Vote “the person, not the party,” Brown urged in one of his final campaign ads.
It was a smart and necessary tack heading into the state’s strong Democratic headwinds. But it’s easy to see why some hardline conservatives are dubious of Team Brown’s commitment to rebuilding the state party. Brown seems a likely Senate candidate should US Sen. John Kerry get tapped by Obama for a Cabinet position, and some variant of the bipartisan pitch he made in this year’s campaign would surely be deployed again.
“I have a real hard time reconciling how he campaigned and the positions he took with that desire to get back involved with party politics, “Steve Aylward, a conservative state committee member, told Ebbert. “He kind of ran away from Republican values.”
In fact, Brown didn’t so much run away from Republican values as he sought to sharply recast them in the much more moderate vein that was once common in Massachusetts GOP politics. It didn’t work for him, or for congressional candidate Richard Tisei on the North Shore. That has some GOP activists here echoing the cries of Republicans nationally who say Romney’s defeat calls for an even sharper turn to the right.
Every objective assessment of the demographic changes underway among the electorate suggests that would be ill-advised. The state chair battle here will be an interesting opening round of that Republican debate.
–MICHAEL JONAS
BEACON HILL
The Turnpike toll takers’ new contract includes a clause for eliminating all non-electronic toll booths, likely before 2015.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Lowell uses video surveillance to catch a firefighter doing heavy manual labor while he was supposed to be out on leave with an injured shoulder, the Sun reports.
Abington selectmen are set to extend the “special municipal employee status” for several town boards that would allow more people to volunteer or run for office while representing private clients without worrying about conflicts of interest.
Attleboro continues to struggle to sell businesses on its industrial park.
Leominster’s dilemma: Complying with the state public records law, or using an email system that actually delivers email.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Some hope is expressed that we may not head over the fiscal cliff. And a Politico/George Washington University Battleground poll finds that voters believe that the richest Americans should pay more in taxes.
The editors of the National Review say the Supreme Court should reverse the two gay marriage decisions it has agreed to hear in an effort to uphold republican (small “R”) principles.
Herald columnist Kimberly Atkins urges Elizabeth Warren to act more like Ted Kennedy than Scott Brown.
The outgoing governor of Washington pushes for a federally-mandated online sales tax in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column.
A New York Times column speculates that the Supreme Court’s speedy decision to take up a pair of same-sex marriage cases will result in a split decision, and a fractured, state-based system for recognizing marriages.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Firms competing to land a casino in Springfield will present their plans to the public tomorrow night.
Massachusetts women do poorly compared to men in the same jobs when it comes to equal pay for equal work: Women in the Bay State rank worse on that measure than women in other New England states and come in 37th in the US.
Paul Krugman writes that the fault lines in the economy have reverted to an “old-fashioned, almost Marxist sort of” place, where corporate profits are cannibalizing wages: “The pie isn’t growing the way it should — but capital is doing fine by grabbing an ever-larger slice, at labor’s expense.” The column echoes an earlier paper by Northeastern’s Andy Sum, which argued that the economic recovery was boosting the stock market at the expense of workers’ paychecks.
EDUCATION
Whitman-Hanson regional school officials have voted to begin no-cost full-day kindergarten beginning in the 2014-2015 school year but neither town has approved funding yet.
Boston parents are organizing to oppose any revamped student assignment scheme that doesn’t allow younger siblings entering the system to attend the same school as their older brother or sister.
More than three dozen US college college presidents earn more than $1 million. The president of Drexel University in Philadelphia takes home the top salary at nearly $5 million.
HEALTH CARE
Taunton city councilors are looking to restrict medical marijuana dispensaries from setting up shop downtown.
Paul Levy spotlights Gov. Deval Patrick’s plan to cut $26 million from the MassHealth budget and says the funding reduction will force hospitals to pick up the tab for mandated health care coverage.
A new emphasis by Blue Cross Blue Shield is forcing retired public employees who have not enrolled in Medicare to either sign up or pay for expenses out of pocket that are covered by the government program.
IMMIGRATION
Today’s Globe has the second installment in a three-part series, this one focused on the shadowy world of detention of those violating US immigration law. Yesterday’s first part focused on the release from US prisons onto the streets of thousands of dangerous, illegal immigrants whose home countries won’t let them back in.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Conservation advocates have launched a campaign to reduce shipping speed limits in an effort to save the dwindling population of North Atlantic right whales.
Struggling Waltham-based battery maker A123 Systems will be nearly entirely bought by the North American arm of China’s largest auto parts maker if the deal is approved by US Bankruptcy Court and federal officials.
The shift to natural gas for producing electricity has dramatically reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the Associated Press reports (via WBUR).
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
William Weld tells the Herald that he never heard of an immunity deal for Whitey Bulger, but he also says the FBI kept him in the dark about Bulger’s status as an informant. “I was nowhere near that,” he says. “Oh, Lord, no.”
MEDIA
Australian DJs apologize for a prank call that may have led to a London nurse’s suicide, Time reports.