IT SEEMS LIKE an odd strategy for a party that claims only 9 percent of the state’s registered voters and is a decided underdog in polling match-ups looking ahead to the November election. A week after the two Republican candidates for governor, Geoff Diehl and Chris Doughty, shunned a WBUR forum on climate change, their unofficial running mates who are vying for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor did the same this week with a forum on human services issues.
WBUR, which held the climate forum last Wednesday with only the Democratic gubernatorial candidates taking part, reported that Diehl “declined and businessman Chris Doughty did not respond to several requests to join.” Maura Healey and Sonia Chang-Diaz had the stage to themselves as they engaged with host Tiziana Dearing before a live and virtual audience at the station’s CitySpace auditorium.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Providers’ Council, an organization representing the human services sector in the state, held a forum in Worcester for candidates for lieutenant governor. All five Democratic hopefuls attended, but neither Leah Allen Cole, who is teaming up with Diehl, nor Kate Campanale, who is forming an unofficial ticket with Doughty, attended.
Organizers said they never heard back from Cole after twice emailing an invitation to take part. They said Campanale had confirmed in early March, but then canceled last Friday, citing a scheduling conflict.
Ed Lyons, a Republican activist who has been sharply critical of the state party’s turn to the right in recent years, said candidates running under that conservative banner have simply given up on engaging more broadly. “We are witnessing the complete alienation of conservative Republicans from the state of Massachusetts, its politics, all of its civic institutions. They are just apart from it,” he said.
Erin O’Brien, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said it’s a reflection of national trends. “I think it has to do with the Tump takeover of the GOP,” she said. In that world, she said, “the mainstream media isn’t to be trusted.”
The candidates’ absence from the events also may have had something to do with the particular focus of the two forums and the sponsors. “They don’t view environmentalism and these sort of human service issues as in the GOP wheelhouse,” said O’Brien. “They don’t see an advantage of being on the record on those issues because those are not issues that they prioritize.”
The Providers’ Council forum focused largely on candidates’ ideas for getting more money into the system, where critics have long complained that direct care human service workers in the state are underpaid. Meanwhile, the WBUR climate change forum was cosponsored by the Environmental League of Massachusetts, an advocacy group that supports aggressive policies to tackle the issue.
Lyons said he doesn’t agree with everything the environmental group says, but the Republicans should have gotten in the ring. “If you think they’re being extreme, just go and say so – in a nice way – and tell them what you think,” he said. “They’ve given up on engagement.”
A dozen years ago, then GOP gubernatorial challenger Charlie Baker and incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick took part in a debate cosponsored by MassINC, the publisher of CommonWealth, and WBUR on environmental issues and the controversial Cape Wind proposal.
None of the four GOP candidates responded to messages left yesterday asking about their decisions not to take part in the two forums.
Lyons said he questions whether the candidates looking to head the party ticket today are actually even gunning for victory in November. “It’s a very strange thing to say,” he said. The disconnect, he said, is driven by the party’s hard-core base in Massachusetts taking its cues from the strength of the Trump brand nationally and ignoring how deadly it is for candidates here.
The Mass. GOP’s orientation today, Lyons said, seems driven more by something resembling religious fervor than practical politics geared toward winning a majority in state elections. The attitude, he said, is “we believe what we believe, and we’ll get salvation in the afterlife, and the afterlife is national politics.”
MICHAEL JONAS
FROM COMMONWEALTH
Roe reverberates in Mass. – A small group of Democratic elected officials hastily gathered in front of the State House to reassure Massachusetts women about their access to abortion no matter what happens with Roe v. Wade at the US Supreme Court. The group was responding to a draft opinion leaked to the press indicating Roe is about to be overturned, which would return regulation of abortion to individual states. Massachusetts lawmakers prepared for this possibility in 2020 with passage of a law codifying abortion rights in state law.
– The Democrats and activists also laid out the welcome mat for women from other states and girded for battle on a number of fronts. “They will not be satisfied with rolling back the clock on women,” said US Rep. Katherine Clark. “They will come for LGBTQ communities, communities of color, for immigrant communities. They will come because they have told us they will. This is not hyperbole. This is not paranoia.”
– Senate President Karen Spilka called the leak of the draft Supreme Court decision “one of the saddest days” in US history and House Speaker Ron Mariano said it’s time to fight back. Read more.
Springfield pilot aimed at new mothers: For mothers with a history of opioid abuse, a pilot program called Mothering from the Inside Out aims to help them survive the stresses of early motherhood without returning to heroin. Read more.
Robinson appointment delayed: A US Senate committee splits 10-10 along party lines on the appointment of Rep. Maria Robinson of Framingham as an assistant secretary of energy in the Biden administration. Read more.
Nantucket defers short-term rental fight: Town meeting voters on Nantucket back away from a major fight over short-term rentals, sending competing proposals back to town boards for further review. Town meeting did implement basic regulations covering short-term rentals. Read more.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
BEACON HILL
Gov. Charlie Baker signs a bill making the Podokesaurus holyokensis the official state dinosaur. (MassLive)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Town meeting in Nantucket approves a bylaw allowing women to go topless on all public beaches. The bylaw still needs the approval of the attorney general’s office. (WBUR)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Heywood Healthcare of Gardner and UMass Memorial Health are exploring an affiliation that would bring Heywood into the UMass system. (Telegram & Gazette)
Attorney General Maura Healey announced settlements and fines in the case of five nursing homes where there were repeated instances of neglect, including three deaths. (Boston Globe)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Rep. Jim McGovern says his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the need for continued US support for the Ukrainian people. (Telegram & Gazette)
Abortion rights advocates protested throughout the state – including in Boston, Worcester, and Northampton – after a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision showed the court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. (MassLive)
ELECTIONS
Gigi Coletta declared victory in the special election for the Boston district city council seat covering East Boston, the North End, and Charlestown that was made necessary by former city councilor Lydia Edwards’s resignation following her election to the state Senate. Colette is a former top aide to Edwards. (Boston Herald)
Author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance, who flipped from never-Trumper to embrace the former president, rode the tailwind of a Donald Trump endorsement to victory in the Republican primary for US Senate in Ohio. (New York Times)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Framingham-based Bose Corp. has been steadily shrinking in the face of growing competition and appears to have shed at least 2,000 jobs since 2019. (Boston Globe)
Workers at four more Boston-area Starbucks have voted to unionize, less than a month after two of the company’s coffee shops did so. (Boston Globe)
ARTS/CULTURE
KISS 108’s Matt Siegel signs off after 41 years on the air. (Boston Globe)