CLIMATE AND DEMOCRACY are on the ballot this fall for hundreds of thousands of voters across the Commonwealth. Voters in all or part of 44 communities (a complete list is at the bottom of this column) will have a chance to signal an instruction to their state representative to vote for 100 percent renewable energy […]
Elections
Posted inPolitics
Enviro groups split on state Senate battle
TWO OF THE STATE’S leading environmental groups are split on which candidate is the best to represent the Plymouth and Norfolk Senate district, which includes six coastal communities dealing with climate change and a town that is home to a controversial natural gas compressor station. The Environmental League of Massachusetts endorsed the Republican incumbent, Patrick […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker calls ranked-choice voting too complicated
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said on Tuesday that he opposes ranked-choice voting because it’s too complicated for both voters and election officials to carry out. The governor said voting is already complicated enough. “From our point of view, this thing [ranked-choice voting] is too complicated to have on top of that,” he said at a State House […]
Posted inOpinion
No excuses, find a way to vote this year
FOR THE LAST three-and-a-half years, we’ve heard the same question over and over: “What happened in 2016?“ The fact is, we know what happened. More than 100 million votes that should have been cast, weren’t. When asked why they hadn’t exercised their right to vote, more than half of eligible voting age adults responded that they […]
Posted inPolitics
It’s COVID-19 crunch time
THE SAME DAY President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden debated for a final time, the US set a record for the number of daily new coronavirus cases — 77,640 — topping a previous record set in July. For nearly 75 percent of the country, case numbers are increasing. NBC News’s Kristen Welker asked […]
Posted inPolitics
Getting out the prisoner vote
EVEN THOUGH they’re locked up during a pandemic, it’s starting to look like the roughly 6,800 prisoners across the state who are eligible to vote will have a better chance to do so as Election Day approaches. A statewide coalition of organizations — including Common Cause Massachusetts, League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, Prisoners’ Legal Services, […]
Posted inOpinion
If Barrett is confirmed, we’re for packing the court
WHY ARE REPUBLICANS so desperate to ram through a Supreme Court nomination that will impact Americans’ lives for decades? They’re scared that come November 3 they will lose. That despite their attempts to subvert democracy through false attacks on mail-in voting, felony disenfranchisement of 5.2 million people, and reduction of available voting locations, Americans will […]
Posted inOpinion
Ex-reporter transitions to political partisan
A YEAR AGO, I was a nonpartisan political reporter in Massachusetts, happy to give people from either side of the spectrum due credit or due comeuppance. No longer. Now I am a full partisan in a battleground state. I display a Biden-Harris sign in our window. I proudly wear my Biden-Harris T-shirt. I have made […]
Posted inOpinion
A refreshing non-party-line vote
I AM NOT one for hyperbole, but this is the most contentious election year that I have seen. Republicans versus Democrats. Ideologues on both sides trying to outdo each other in their efforts to gain some electoral advantage. Republicans opposed to ideas that they had previously proposed simply because Democrats are now in favor of […]
Posted inThe Download
Toppling Baker top of mind for Dems
The Democratic Party in Massachusetts is riding high. Heading into the election just two weeks away, party members control the entire congressional delegation, are looking to add to their dominance in the Legislature, and have a lock on four of the six constitutional offices. It’s those two unclaimed constitutional offices for governor and lieutenant governor […]