Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook:

Friday, July 15, 2022

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook:

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE WU — Mayor Michelle Wu has named new leaders for Boston’s big three jobs, struck a deal with the city’s largest union, averted a state takeover of the public school district and got a nearly $4 billion budget approved by the City Council along with $367 million in APRA funding — all in the past three weeks.

If that wasn’t keeping her busy enough, Wu is endorsing Maura Healey for governor today and will attend a canvass kickoff with the attorney general at 11 a.m. Saturday in Boston, one of 19 such events Healey’s team is holding across the state this weekend.

“I’m looking forward to working alongside Maura to make housing more affordable, improve our public transit system, invest in public education and deliver on a Boston Green New Deal,” Wu said in a statement shared first with Playbook.

To help accomplish those aims at the city level, Wu has now named new police, fire and schools chiefs. And over her eight months in office she has installed a new leader for the beleaguered Boston Planning and Development Agency and rejiggered existing high-level positions in the city’s financial and economic development offices, among other personnel changes.

Michael Cox, left, who has been named as the next Boston police commissioner, shakes hands while greeting people as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, right, looks on as they arrives at a news conference, Wednesday, July 13, 2022, in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. | AP Photo/Steven Senne

The result is a diverse Cabinet set up to help Wu advance her progressive vision while keeping basic city functions humming. It also means, with her own people in place, that Wu now owns Boston’s problems as much as its successes.

Wu’s appointees need to tackle some pretty pressing challenges, and fast. The city has just over a month to meet the first batch of deadlines in the Boston Public Schools improvement plan Wu inked with the state last month to avert a district takeover, though doing so falls to an interim superintendent since incoming Superintendent Mary Skipper won’t start until the new school year. That’s on top of improving trust and transparency in the BPD and diversifying both the police force and the fire department, to name a few things.

While Wu inherited many of the issues she’s facing, the mayor and her new team are the ones responsible for fixing them. And how the people she’s selected to lead the charge for change perform will directly reflect on her administration.

“My start was unusual in a number of different ways,” Wu said after unveiling her new top cop, Michael Cox, on Wednesday. “But I have worked as quickly as possible to build our team while moving priorities and embracing that ownership and accountability from the very beginning.”

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Today’s Playbook is brought to you by Maine lobster.

TODAY — Wu speaks at the Greater Boston Labor Council Roundtable at 9 a.m., attends a BFD swearing-in ceremony at 10:30 a.m. and a Highland Park Conservation District celebration at 4 p.m. First lady Jill Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh are among those attending the American Federation of Teachers national convention at the BCEC.

THIS WEEKEND — LG hopeful and Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll is on WBZ’s “Keller @ Large” at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden is on WCVB’s “On the Record” at 11 a.m. Sunday.

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

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THE LATEST NUMBERS

— “18 new monkeypox cases confirmed in Massachusetts, public health officials say,” by Tréa Lavery, MassLive: “Eighteen new cases of monkeypox have been diagnosed in adult men in Massachusetts in the past week, bringing the total number of cases to 49 since May 18, the state Department of Public Health said Thursday.”

— “Massachusetts reports 7,096 new COVID cases, virus hospitalizations go up,” by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: “State health officials on Thursday reported that more than 7,000 residents tested positive for COVID over the last six days, as virus infections and hospitalizations rise amid the extremely contagious BA.5 variant. The daily average of 1,183 COVID cases is up from the daily rate of 969 infections during the previous week.”

DATELINE BEACON HILL

— BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: “Negotiators reach agreement ‘in principle’ on state budget,” by Shira Schoenberg, CommonWealth Magazine: “Two weeks into the fiscal year, legislative budget writers have reached an agreement on the fiscal 2023 state budget. … It will be a quick turnaround for lawmakers to release the budget Friday or over the weekend for consideration on Monday. But the Legislature has a strong incentive to get the document to Gov. Charlie Baker quickly. Baker, a Republican, has 10 days to consider the bill, and he has line item veto power. Formal sessions end July 31, so if the budget arrives on Baker’s desk after July 21, lawmakers could run out of time to override any gubernatorial vetoes. Pennsylvania wrapped up its budget process on Wednesday, making Massachusetts the last state in the country to pass a state budget.”

— DATELINE, VACATIONLAND: As lawmakers back in Massachusetts called a conference committee to reconcile the differences between their abortion-protection plans, Playbook asked Gov. Charlie Baker , who was in Maine for the National Governors Association summer meeting, whether he would veto a bill expanding access to the procedure after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases of “severe” fetal anomalies, not just lethal ones. The issue has emerged as a major sticking point between the House and the Senate, with key senators believing Baker would reject such language after vetoing a provision expanding later-in-pregnancy abortion access in the 2020 ROE Act.

“We certainly have concerns which we’ve expressed before around some of those issues,” Baker said, vaguely.

“But we are a very pro-choice administration and we believe that the federal decision around Roe v. Wade requires a response,” the Republican governor added in a nod to the executive order he issued the day of the Dobbs decision. “There's a lot that's in both the House and the Senate bills, and my hope is that they find a way to reach an agreement and get something to my desk that deals with many of the very real issues that have been created as a result of the Roe v. Wade decision."

— “Mass. House approves wide-ranging economic development bill that offers tax relief, health care investments, earmarks,” by Samantha J. Gross, Boston Globe: “The Massachusetts House Thursday night passed a massive, wide-ranging economic development bill that infuses $4.2 billion into the state economy in the form of tax relief, investments in health care and environmental programs, and support to businesses, as well as a slew of policy changes and earmarks for local projects and programming. … Lawmakers tucked policy changes into the legislation too, creating a controversial $5 million annual live theater tax credit, a major expansion of the Housing Development Incentive Program, a feasibility study on the future of the Hynes Convention Center that would delay Baker’s push to redevelop the prime Back Bay real estate, and, notably, authorizing the Massachusetts Lottery to sell products online.”

— “Senate President Karen Spilka attributes staffer unionization drive delay to ongoing legal review with days remaining in the legislative session,” by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: “Senate President Karen Spilka, relishing her chamber’s unanimous vote Wednesday to strengthen abortion rights and access in Massachusetts, declined to confirm whether another time-sensitive push on Beacon Hill — a Senate employee unionization effort spanning more than three months — could see action before formal sessions conclude at the end of July. Spilka chalked up the delay to the Senate Counsel’s ongoing review of the collective bargaining request, as officials grapple with murky state law, in addition to political will, to gauge whether staffers can unionize or if a legislative tweak is necessary to proceed.”

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

— “MBTA cites progress in dealing with FTA safety directives,” by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Magazine: “MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said the agency is making solid progress in dealing with the four safety directives issued by the Federal Transit Administration, but he cautioned that reduced subway service levels are likely to remain in place until Labor Day and may even be extended depending on hiring at the operations control center. The T said corrective action plans have been submitted for two of the directives already, a third is due Friday, and the fourth is due next Wednesday.”

— “East-West rail: Massachusetts Senate allocates $275 million in infrastructure bill for planning, design costs,” by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: “The East-West commuter rail project edged closer to shovel-ready status — and is no longer a ‘pie in the sky’ vision, as state Sen. Eric Lesser phrased it — as the Massachusetts Senate committed $275 million to design, engineering and construction expenses, among other investments, within an amendment to a hefty infrastructure bond bill passed Thursday. … Lesser filed a successful bill amendment that boosted East-West rail funding from $250 million to $275 million within the more than $10 billion infrastructure bond bill.”

YAHD SIGNS AND BUMPAH STICKAHS

— FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The Greater Boston Building Trades Unions have endorsed NAACP Boston Branch President Tanisha Sullivan for secretary of state.

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BIDEN TIME

— FLOTUS FLIES IN: First lady Jill Biden visited veterans with Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Ed Markey in Boston, called for a ban on assault weapons at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Andover and somehow managed to get U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins in hot water with the Boston Herald on the first day of her three-day swing through Massachusetts, per the three-reporter team at the Herald who called up Harvey Silverglate to say Rollins showed “questionable judgment” by attending the political fundraiser.

Biden speaks at the American Federation of Teachers national convention this morning at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. She then joins Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to highlight a job training program before jetting off to Nantucket, where she’ll attend another DNC fundraiser on Saturday hosted by Frank Herron and Sandra Urie, per an invite obtained by Playbook.

FROM THE 413

— “Center plans to give W.E.B. Du Bois and other Black Berkshirites the credit they’re due,” by Tiana Woodard, Boston Globe: “The Clinton AME Zion Church served as a gathering place and spiritual home for Black Berkshirites for nearly 130 years, a refuge from discrimination, its pulpit a platform for pastors’ antilynching campaigns, and its basement hall a venue for social events. A National Register of Historic Places landmark, the church closed in 2014 and fell into disrepair. But now, its former members and other supporters have come up with an ambitious plan to give it new life as a heritage and cultural center honoring both local Black history and the church’s most famous congregant, the civil rights activist and intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois.”

THE LOCAL ANGLE

— “‘Antisemitic’ Boston Mapping Project now hosted on Icelandic server; Anti-Defamation League asks for Icelandic government to help remove it,” by Will Katcher, MassLive: “Mapping Project — an illustrated web of purported connections between Massachusetts groups and the state of Israel — has faced widespread denunciation by critics who said it represented a dangerous, antisemitic mapping of the state’s Jewish community that could leave organizations vulnerable to attack. Now, a leading anti-hate organization — the Anti-Defamation League — wants the Mapping Project removed from its internet server, and it wants help from the government of Iceland in doing so.”

— “Milton Public Schools superintendent arrested in May in connection with domestic incident,” by Travis Andersen, Christopher Huffaker and Nick Stoico, Boston Globe: “Milton Public Schools Superintendent James F. Jette was arrested in May on a misdemeanor domestic assault charge after allegedly shoving his partner against a wall and putting his hand on her neck during an argument over a broken plant pot, according to legal filings.”

— “Riley steps down as food program director after sex allegations; diocese report says pastor not at fault,” by Cyrus Moulton, Telegram & Gazette: “The Diocese of Worcester released a report Thursday into allegations that William Riley, the director of the St. John Food for the Poor Program, coerced vulnerable soup kitchen patrons into sex. Riley has resigned. The heavily redacted report found claims against the Rev. John Madden, pastor of St. John Parish, ‘were not warranted.’”

— “Slain wife of former North Attleboro man featured in Congressional probe of Jan. 6,” by Tom Reilly, The Sun Chronicle: “Congressional hearings on the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol a year and a half ago have brought the name of the wife of a former local man back in the news. Ashli Babbit, an Air Force veteran, was killed when a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump — who were trying to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on Jan. 6, 2021 — tried to break through a door to a secure area in the Capitol.”

MEANWHILE IN MAINE

— "Governors avoid hot button issues, focus on common concerns in Maine meeting," by Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald: "Governors from both parties meeting in Maine for roundtable talks about issues pertinent to every state left issues like abortion and guns alone. 'The governors, generally speaking, get along. We always have,' Gov. Charlie Baker told reporters Thursday in Portland."

MEDIA MATTERS

— “Investigative reporter Kathy Curran announces departure from WCVB,” by Dialynn Dwyer, Boston.com.

HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH

TRANSITIONS — Nahid Bhadelia is now senior policy adviser for global Covid response on the White House Covid-19 response team, per Boston University’s The Brink. She’s on sabbatical from her role as a BU School of Medicine associate professor of infectious diseases.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Ariel Zirulnick, David Lippman (h/t son Daniel), Jon Hurst, Stefanie Coxe and Allison Godburn.

HAPPY BIRTHWEEKEND — to Maddie Conway and Daily Hampshire Gazette alum Sarah Crosby, who celebrate Saturday; and to Sunday birthday-ers Assistant House Speaker Rep. Katherine Clark and to Clark alum Lauren Pardi, John Milligan, Alicia Amato (Furnary), WaPo’s Katie Zezima, R. Kevin Ryan, COS for Rep. Stephen Lynch; Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan, Chanel Prunier , former Republican National Committeewoman; Brendan Beroff, Jacob Watts and John Dacey.

NEW HORSE RACE ALERT: STATE SINGALONG — Hosts Jennifer Smith and Steve Koczela run down the seven official state songs; Lenny Gomulka, writer and performer of "Say Hello to Someone From Massachusetts" shares how it came to be the official state polka and Joyce Linehan helps unravel the saga of the unofficial state rock song. Subscribe and listen on iTunes and Sound Cloud .

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