Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: The endorsements Healey isn't seeking

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: The endorsements Healey isn't seeking

PASS — State Attorney General Maura Healey declined to seek the endorsements of two major progressive groups in another sign she doesn’t plan to run a gubernatorial campaign tailored to the left.

Healey failed to return candidate questionnaires to Our Revolution Massachusetts and Progressive Massachusetts, both groups said, making her ineligible for their endorsements.

“It is a challenge to understand what a candidate means by claiming to be a ‘progressive’ but [not seeking] the endorsement of progressive organizations,” Henry Wortis and Martha Karchere, co-chairs of Our Revolution Massachusetts, wrote in an email.

Healey’s campaign defended her efforts to woo progressive groups, saying in a statement that she’s “running on her strong progressive record and her vision to make Massachusetts a fairer, more equitable place for all. Healey's team said she's “working hard to earn the support of progressive organizations during this campaign and is building a broad coalition that will come together to make this vision a reality."

Part of it is timing: Progressive Massachusetts’ deadline was just days after Healey launched her campaign. The group went on to endorse state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz in late February.

But Healey had until Feb. 14 to return Our Revolution’s questionnaire. Chang-Díaz did, and the group held a forum with her last night as part of its endorsement process. While Our Revolution drew inspiration from Progressive Massachusetts’ questionnaire, both groups contend that their endorsements are not linked.

“It doesn’t inspire confidence about the type of campaign that she’s going to run if she’s not trying to build relationships with progressive groups at the start,” Progressive Massachusetts policy director Jonathan Cohn said. “Progressive groups are filled with people who are the types of people who end up being activists on campaigns and active in organizations.”

Candidates aren’t obligated to seek every endorsement or participate in every forum. At best, Healey wouldn’t have been favored to win either of these groups’ support over Chang-Díaz. At worst, her policy questionnaire answers could have been used against her.

Healey is seeking numerous other groups’ endorsements, including the Environmental League of Massachusetts Action Fund, Reproductive Equity Now, the Massachusetts Teachers Association and several other unions. She received 65.8 percent support from Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, just shy of the group’s two-thirds threshold for an endorsement, her campaign said.

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Yesterday’s GLX opening is the happiest your Playbook scribe has ever seen anyone riding the T.

TODAY — Gov. Charlie Baker speaks at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast at 8 a.m. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu testifies at BESE’s monthly meeting at 9 a.m.; hosts a press availability on her fare-free bus pilot with Rep. Ayanna Pressley and former Acting Mayor Kim Janey at 11:30 a.m. at the Reggie Lewis Center; participates in a “Fireside Chat” with the Boston Globe at 1 p.m.; joins Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne for a “The Future (of Cities) is Female” panel at Tufts at 6 p.m.; and is on WBZ’s “NightSide” with Dan Rea at 8 p.m.

Tips? Scoops? Email me: lkashinsky@politico.com.

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THE LATEST NUMBERS

— “Massachusetts reports 1,693 new coronavirus cases over the weekend, hospitalizations fall again,” by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: “The daily average of 564 virus cases over the weekend was up 11% from the daily rate of 507 infections from the previous weekend. For comparison, the omicron variant peak weekend was 20,329 daily cases in early January.”

DATELINE BEACON HILL

— “There’s no organized opposition to sports betting in Mass. So why isn’t it legal?” by Samantha J. Gross, Boston Globe: “There is no organized opposition to legal sports betting in the state. All major sports franchises and casinos support it. So do Governor Charlie Baker and the state House of Representatives, who would like to capture some of the money flowing into bordering states or onto offshore betting websites. The hesitation lives in the state Senate, where some lawmakers fear that easier access to wagering in Massachusetts — which has the highest average lottery spending per capita in the nation — could put people at risk of losing their money. … It’s a hesitation that extends to the two major Democratic candidates for governor; neither Attorney General Maura Healey nor Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz would tell the Globe whether they support or oppose legal sports betting. Republican gubernatorial hopefuls Geoff Diehl and Chris Doughty both said they do.”

— “Western Massachusetts legislators appointed to conference committee assembled to advance Holyoke Soldiers’ Home governance reforms,” by Stephanie Barry, Springfield Republican: “State Rep. Joseph Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat, and state Sen. John Velis, a Democrat from Westfield, were named to the joint conference committee Monday. … Also named to the conference committee were Reps. Paul McMurtry and David DeCoste, Sen. Michael Rush and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, according to the State House News Service.”

VAX-ACHUSETTS

— “State courts lift mask requirement Wednesday,” by Julie Manganis, Salem News: “Starting Wednesday, masks will no longer be required to enter state courthouses, the Supreme Judicial Court announced on Monday.”

— “National Guard Members Complete Mission At Massachusetts Hospitals,” by Tiffany Chan, WBZ: “National Guard members assigned to Massachusetts hospitals during the pandemic are completing their missions. At a time when just about every hospital was overwhelmed with COVID patients, Guard members stepped up, switched gears and played such a critical role.”

FROM THE HUB

— “Ricardo Arroyo says vaccine opponents protested outside his mother’s home Monday morning,” by Nick Stoico, Boston Globe: “Nearly three months after demonstrators began gathering in the early mornings outside Mayor Michelle Wu’s Roslindale home to protest Boston’s vaccine mandates and coronavirus restrictions, City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo says his family is being targeted as well. But when a small group of demonstrators gathered outside a Hyde Park home Monday morning, Arroyo wasn’t there. The house belongs to his mother, a 70-year-old retired Boston Public Schools teacher, he said on Twitter.”

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

— “Decades in the making, Green Line Extension to Somerville’s Union Square finally opens for passengers,” by Taylor Dolven, Boston Globe: “It was 2004. Around 300 people filled a State House auditorium fired up and furious about the stalled Green Line Extension project to Somerville and Medford. It had been promised since 1990 and no shovels had yet hit the ground. Then-Mayor Joseph Curtatone of Somerville demanded the state keep its end of the bargain. ‘A deal is a deal,’ he told lawmakers. Thirty-two years after the state first promised to extend the Green Line and 18 years after that hearing, the first trolley car full of passengers rolled down the tracks from the new Union Square station in Somerville just before 5 a.m. Curtatone was onboard.”

— ALL ABOARD: They say politics makes strange bedfellows? Try public transit. Former Rep. Mike Capuano, a Democrat, praised Charlie Baker for his commitment to GLX — and said he voted for the Republican for governor. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who primaried and defeated Capuano in 2018, specifically thanked her predecessor for “his vigilance, his leadership and his commitment” to the project and said “we are the beneficiaries of his leadership all those many years ago to make today possible.”

“I’m kinda done with this stuff,” Capuano quipped at the press conference. “They made me come because it’s the right thing to do.”

— “Sen. Elizabeth Warren envisions a future for East-West rail as Green Line Extension opens in greater Boston area,” by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: “As $9 billion in federal infrastructure dollars flows into Massachusetts, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sees a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build out new commuter train lines — including East-West rail designed to link Boston to Worcester and Springfield, and potentially to Pittsfield.”

PARTY POLITICS

— NOW WE’VE GOT BAD BLOOD: Republican gubernatorial rivals Chris Doughty and Geoff Diehl are feuding over delegates with two months to go until the party's convention.

Doughty accused Diehl of orchestrating a convention delegate “cheating scandal” after a Diehl campaign volunteer affiliated with the Western Massachusetts GOP Patriots PAC called a caucus without going through the proper party process and elected illegitimate delegates. The issue came up at a party credentials committee meeting with representatives from both campaigns where convention delegates were being reviewed. A state committee member at the weekend meeting told me it was “not very contentious.”

It sure is now. Diehl dismissed Doughty’s charge as “typical campaign tactics of someone desperate to get any attention they can.” Diehl said the MassGOP has “dropped the ball” on keeping town and ward committees active in recent years and that volunteers trying to “rebuild” those groups just lacked knowledge of the party’s rules.

“There was no effort from our campaign to do anything beyond just getting more people included in the convention,” Diehl, who launched his campaign at a Western Massachusetts GOP Patriots event last summer, told Playbook.

Diehl’s campaign has also accused state Rep. Peter Durant, the husband of Doughty’s running mate, former state Rep. Kate Campanale, of “lying” about her voter registration status at the credentials committee meeting to become a delegate. Durant told Playbook that Campanale has “always been a Republican” and chalked it up to a mix-up when she changed her last name at the RMV.

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ON THE STUMP

— “GOP governor hopeful Geoff Diehl picks running mate,” by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: “The selection of [Leah Cole] Allen, 33, further cements Diehl’s vow to be a bulwark against state and city COVID-19 rules and focus on ‘protecting individual freedoms’ — issues that have become a centerpiece of the Donald Trump-backed conservative’s primary campaign. She also offered a measure of support for Trump’s and Diehl’s false claim that the 2020 presidential race was rigged, a belief that could appeal to GOP voters but has been largely rejected by the voters they’d need to appeal to in a general election.”

Allen confirmed to Playbook that she is not vaccinated against Covid-19. “I was pregnant at the time that the mandates were coming out, and I’m still breastfeeding,” the nurse said, expressing concern over limited data about how the shot affects breastfeeding women and babies.

— “5 enter race for 8th Essex seat,” by Dustin Luca, Salem News: “Five candidates have now launched bids for the 8th Essex seat that was left vacant earlier this year when longtime state Rep. Lori Ehrlich resigned to take a post with FEMA. Three Marbleheaders and two from neighboring Swampscott, all Democrats, have recently organized with the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance. They include: Marblehead residents Diann Slavit Baylis, Theresa Tauro, and Jennifer Armini; and Swampscott residents Douglas Thompson and Tristan Smith.”

— “Paula Kingsbury-Evans, an MCLA senior, is running for the seat held by state Rep. John Barrett III,” by Danny Jin, Berkshire Eagle: “A senior at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is challenging state Rep. John Barrett III in a Democratic primary. Paula Kingsbury-Evans, 22, of North Adams, told The Eagle on Thursday that she is running because she believes ‘the Berkshires need a fresh, new voice in the Statehouse.’”

FROM THE DELEGATION

— “Congress earmarks climate grants for rich, white areas,” by Thomas Frank, E&E News: “Members of Congress used earmarks to steer millions of dollars to affluent, largely white communities through a federal climate-mitigation program that is supposed to prioritize helping disadvantaged communities, an E&E News analysis shows. … Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) got $2.25 million for Newburyport to rebuild a coastal retaining wall that protects the city’s downtown and a waterfront boardwalk. A city of 18,000 on Massachusetts’ exclusive North Shore, Newburyport has a median household income of $111,000 and a population that is 93 percent non-Hispanic white, according to census figures. … Matt Corridoni, a spokesperson for Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), said the two affluent, largely white communities for which Auchincloss got BRIC earmarks ‘were deemed disadvantaged’ by Congress and the administration.”

MARIJUANA IN MASSACHUSETTS

— “Illegal grow operations may be ‘tip of the iceberg’ in western Mass.,” by Dusty Christensen, Daily Hampshire Gazette: “When police raided a house at 276 Amherst St. in Granby earlier this year, they described finding an “elaborate” marijuana grow operation with nearly 1,400 plants, an extensive lighting system for six grow rooms and a packaging operation. Since 2020, there have been at least eight similar cases across western Massachusetts: police raid a residential home, find that it allegedly has been turned completely into a marijuana grow operation and arrest those at the home, who end up being Chinese immigrants. The homes are sometimes filled with mold, and the lighting and mechanical devices in them pose a high risk of fire. Nationwide, law enforcement officials have uncovered similar operations, including many that allegedly involve human trafficking.”

FROM THE 413

— “Former Northampton principal to lead high school while district investigates Lori Vaillancourt’s ‘asshat’ comment,” by Will Katcher and Tristan Smith, MassLive: “Following the revelation that Northampton High School’s principal referred to members of student government as ‘asshats,’ the district plans to hire an independent investigator to probe the situation and will retain a former administrator as the new high school principal in an acting capacity, according to Northampton Superintendent John Provost. In internal messages revealed last week in a public records request, Northampton High School Principal Lori Vaillancourt used the term ‘asshats’ to describe members of the high school’s Student Union after the group expressed concerns about changes to an honors math program.”

— “Protesters in Northampton demand end to US policy that eases expulsion of asylum seekers,” by Brian Steele, Daily Hampshire Gazette: “More than 50 people gathered in Pulaski Park on Monday for a noontime protest against Title 42, part of an international day of demonstrations decrying the U.S. immigration policy that allows for the expulsion of asylum seekers from the country without a court hearing.”

THE LOCAL ANGLE

— “Gas Prices in Mass. Down 9 Cents Compared to Last Week,” by Thea DiGiammerino, NBC10 Boston: “Last week the state average was at a record high of $4.35 per gallon; today, it is $4.26 per gallon. In part to thank for the lower price, AAA says, is a lower global price for crude oil, which is around $105/barrel.”

— “Anti-war demonstrators occupy Raytheon Cambridge facility’s roof to protest profiteering from war,” by Marilyn Schairer, GBH News: “A group of anti-war demonstrators were arrested Monday after they climbed onto the roof of Raytheon’s Cambridge facility to protest the military defense contractors ‘profit[ing] from death’ in Ukraine, Yemen and Palestine.”

— “Attorney General Merrick Garland will address Harvard commencement in May,” by Travis Andersen, Boston Globe: “United States Attorney General Merrick B. Garland will deliver the main speech during the joint commencement ceremony in May for Harvard University’s classes of 2020 and 2021, cohorts that were denied in-person celebrations when they initially finished school as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, university officials said Monday.”

— “Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña on his plans to turn around the city's schools,” by Jeremy Siegel, GBH News: “DePeña wants to get Lawrence’s school system out of receivership, out of state control and back in the hands of the city. He thinks the push should come from residents, and not just the mayor’s office.”

— “Maine's landfill is meant for in-state waste. Here's how Mass. and N.H. are filling it up,” by Charlie Eichacker, Maine Public/WBUR: “That rule — no waste from other states — has been a guiding principle of Maine’s trash laws since the late 1980s. … It’s also misleading: Other states have sent hundreds of thousands of tons of construction waste to the state dump over the years. Massachusetts is the biggest exporter of all that wood, brick, asphalt and other debris, much of which is banned from its own landfills. The imports have accounted for almost a third of what’s buried in Maine’s state landfill in some years.”

— “'A real issue': Quincy could ban sales of nips to reduce litter, ocean pollution,” by Mary Whitfill, Patriot Ledger: “Mayor Thomas Koch said he is interested in asking the city’s license board to ban the sale of mini liquor bottles, or nips, in Quincy, an increasingly-popular move by Massachusetts communities to combat littering, waterway pollution and other problems. Koch said nips contribute to trash along city roads, fall into storm drains and are carried to the ocean, and make it harder for restaurants, entertainment venues and other establishments to control underage drinking.”

MEANWHILE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

— “Chris Christie Slams Trump's False Election Claims and Praise of Putin in NH Speech,” by Mike Pescaro and Jill Colvin, NBC10 Boston: “When he spoke Monday at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, a frequent stop for presidential candidates, [former New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie condemned the former president's open praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and said [Donald] Trump was ‘dead wrong about the election.’”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to former state Rep. Tom Sannicandro, Daniel Sullivan, Zachary Agush and Larry Farmer.

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