Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Inside Healey's Washington week

Monday, February 13, 2023

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Inside Healey's Washington week

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BY LISA KASHINSKY

PROPAGANDA!
NUCLEAR IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE FORM

OF ENERGY!

RADIOACTIVE WASTE?
NO PLACE TO PUT IT!

LOOK AT PIGLRIM IN PLYMOUTH!

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FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: HEALEY TALKS D.C. — Maura Healey is no stranger to Washington, D.C. But her new title is giving her new purpose as she navigates the halls of power in the nation’s capital.

Healey made her first trips to D.C. as governor last week for the State of the Union and the National Governors Association winter meeting. In doing so she stepped out of her new executive suite and into a world in which governors breeze through swanky hotel lobbies with entourages and security details and don suits and gowns (Healey's was navy blue) for a black-tie dinner with the president and a private concert by Brad Paisley.

But governors don’t just go to D.C. to see and be seen. Healey went to Washington with two overlapping missions: to maximize federal funding for infrastructure projects and to huddle with members of the congressional delegation and the Biden administration.

She spoke with delegation members on East-West rail , offshore wind and bringing down the high costs of housing and child care. Healey and her transportation chief, Gina Fiandaca, talked to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Mitch Landrieu, the Biden administration’s infrastructure czar, about finding a path forward for repairing Cape Cod’s aging bridges and expediting permitting for other transportation and energy projects.

And in a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on workforce shortages, Healey reiterated former GOP Gov. Charlie Baker’s request for the feds to expedite and streamline the process for migrants to secure federal work authorization.

“These were important initial meetings. It is important that our administration gets to know members in the Biden administration and that we have the ability to advocate directly for our state,” Healey told Playbook in an interview. Those connections could become even more important with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh poised to leave the administration.

Healey also sat down with President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of governors to discuss the national debt ceiling and the steps states are taking to prepare for the end of the national and public health emergencies for Covid-19.

President Joe Biden welcomes governors to the White House on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. | Getty Images

The governor wouldn’t say whether she agrees with Biden’s decision to end the emergency declarations, which ends extra federal benefits for social safety net programs and medical measures like free at-home Covid tests. Healey has already filed a spending plan to extend extra SNAP benefits and free school meals.

“I respect that the Biden administration made that decision. I’m sure it was after significant consideration,” Healey said. “My focus is on how do we in Massachusetts prepare for that? How do we make sure that we're taking care of folks, particularly those who are potentially in the most vulnerable positions, either with respect to health care, housing, or food security?”

Here's what else Healey got up to in the District:

— Healey attended the White House dinner Saturday with her partner, Joanna Lydgate, and was seated at a table with Buttigieg, White House homeland security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and the governors of North Dakota and Hawaii. She dined on salmon paillard because, she joked, “they didn’t have cod.”

— Healey and her EEA secretary, Rebecca Tepper, discussed the region’s energy needs and projects at a breakfast with New England governors. “There's a general recognition of the importance of moving away from fossil fuels to renewables, and some states are in better positions to do that than others,” Healey said.

— Speaking of cleaner energy, while Healey was gone, 14 climate protesters were arrested at the State House while demanding that she block future fossil fuel infrastructure projects. The demonstrators met briefly with Healey's climate chief, Melissa Hoeffer. And while Healey didn't share any details about the chat, she reiterated to Playbook her pledge to "move away from fossil fuels."

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey speaks at a Democratic Governors Association press conference on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023 in Washington, D.C. | Lisa Kashinsky/POLITICO

GOOD MONDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl, but we stole the ad show. Heading to Dunkin' for my medium iced to celebrate. If only Ben Affleck were still there.

TODAY — Karen Spilka is going full Leslie Knope this Galentine’s Day. The Senate president is hosting her first-ever Galentine’s Day event to celebrate women leaders on Beacon Hill and beyond. Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll are on the guest list for this evening, as are Attorney General Andrea Campbell , Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Rep. Ayanna Pressley .

Healey is on Boston 25 at 10:15 a.m. and speaks at the first Black Women’s Health and Wellness Legislative Advocacy Day at 11 a.m. at the State House; Driscoll attends.

Tips? Scoops? Want the outtakes from the Ben Affleck/Dunkin’ commercial? Here you go . Want to see which Massachusetts congressional district has the most Dunks locations? Of course there’s a map (h/t Cole Perry). Email me on those first two, though: lkashinsky@politico.com .

PROPAGANDA!
NUCLEAR IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE FORM

OF ENERGY!

RADIOACTIVE WASTE?
NO PLACE TO PUT IT!

LOOK AT PIGLRIM IN PLYMOUTH!

A message from NextEra Energy:

NextEra Energy is the first company in history committed to moving past net zero all the way to Real Zero™, leveraging low-cost renewables to drive energy affordability for customers.

PARTY POLITICS

— “Bickford to step down as MassDems chair,” by Lisa Kashinsky, POLITICO: “Gus Bickford is stepping down as chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party this spring, paving the way for new Gov. Maura Healey to reshape her party’s leadership. Bickford, a veteran operative who specializes in voter contact, has worked for the Democratic National Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 2012 campaign, several state parties and for John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. He announced his April departure in an emotional speech at the party’s meeting Saturday, according to a video shared with POLITICO. Healey and Bickford are backing Steve Kerrigan, a former lieutenant governor nominee who Bickford defeated to win party chair in 2016, as the Democrats’ next leader. Kerrigan will have to join the Democratic State Committee to be eligible to be elected to the job.”

— “Keller: New Mass. GOP chairwoman Amy Carnevale plans to focus on electability, not ideology, ” by Jon Keller, WBZ: "'We need to moderate our image a bit when we think about Republicans who are electable frankly. I am someone who supported Donald Trump at the national level. But I also strongly supported Charlie Baker here in Massachusetts. I think you can do both. Republicans need to reflect their constituency, whether that be at the national level, the state level, or the local level,' Carnevale said. 'We need to get our party back focused on winning elections. That is going to be my focus as chair of the party. We need to support candidates that are electable.'"

DATELINE BEACON HILL

— “IRS: Most One-Time Refunds Won’t Count Toward Income,” by Chris Lisinski, State House News Service (paywall): “Many, but not necessarily all, Massachusetts taxpayers will not need to count one-time state tax rebates they received last year as income when they file federal tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service said. A week after announcing it was reviewing the taxability of one-time payments made in several states, the IRS said Friday evening that it determined Massachusetts, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia will all fall into the same category excluding most refunds from counting toward income.”

— “In visit to Devens facility, Driscoll pushes funding request to address overflowing emergency shelters,” by Samantha J. Gross, Boston Globe: “Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll Friday sought to keep attention on the need to shore up the state’s strained emergency shelters, reiterating the Healey administration’s call for the Legislature to provide more funding for a system struggling to accommodate the arrival of thousands of migrant families. She emphasized that need on a visit to a temporary shelter in Devens, which opened in December to help alleviate the burden on the system, which has been at-capacity for months. On Friday, there were 79 people being housed at the Devens facility, 42 of whom were young children and infants.”

— “They once passed on hefty pay raises. Two years later, Galvin and Goldberg quietly took them,” by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: “Two years after the fact, [Treasurer Deb] Goldberg and [Secretary of State Bill] Galvin each quietly accepted those roughly $9,000 raises, ballooning their salaries and, in Goldberg’s case, helping now make her the state’s highest paid statewide elected official. … Galvin told the State House News Service this month that he wasn’t accepting the latest 20 percent hike ‘at this time,’ making him the only one of the six statewide constitutional officers to decline the extra money. But in late November, weeks after he won his record eighth term, he did take the $8,700 raise first afforded to him at the start of 2021, payroll records show.”

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING : What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today .

FROM THE HUB

— “Several Boston leaders offer support for longtime city official charged with money laundering and conspiracy in prison drug scheme,” by Laura Crimaldi, Boston Globe: “Several prominent civic leaders in Boston publicly expressed their support for longtime city official Freda Brasfield, who was placed on unpaid leave Friday after she pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges linked to a scheme to deliver synthetic drugs to prisoners at a state correctional facility. Brasfield, 55 ... is finance director for Mayor Michelle Wu and has worked for the city since the 1990s.”

— “In year 2, Boston City Councilors look to pull Michelle Wu to the left,” by Sean Philip Cotter, Boston Herald: “Michelle Wu spent years as the progressive outsider on the Boston City Council, advocating to pull policy to the left. Now she’s on the inside looking out at a council where a contingent of members to her left are trying to draw her proposals further that way. … The council and the mayor both want 2023 to be a year of action: last week the new ‘participatory budgeting’ law went into effect. On the checklist for the council is a move to an elected school committee, rent control and a budget cycle where they hope to push the mayor more than they did last year.”

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

— "24 MBTA employees assaulted in December, most were bus drivers," by Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald: “The MBTA’s largest union is pushing for stronger protections for transit workers, 24 of whom were assaulted in December alone. … This includes pushing the Legislature to codify tougher penalties for those who assault public transit workers, and asking the MBTA for better safeguards for frontline workers, said Christine Lamitina, a union spokeswoman.”

PROPAGANDA!
NUCLEAR IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE FORM

OF ENERGY!

RADIOACTIVE WASTE?
NO PLACE TO PUT IT!

LOOK AT PIGLRIM IN PLYMOUTH!

A message from NextEra Energy:

FROM THE DELEGATION

— WATCH: Rep. Jake Auchincloss talk about the war in Ukraine and investigating TikTok — though he says banning it is “not on the table yet” — on WCVB’s “On the Record.” He also repeated that he’s not running for statewide office “this cycle” and said he has “great confidence” in his dad, Dr. Hugh Auchincloss , taking over running the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases from Anthony Fauci .

— “Markey moves to protect community TV,” by Scott Merzbach, Daily Hampshire Gazette.

BIDEN TIME

NOTICE THE INFLAMMATORY WORDS: SHODDY HANDLING! WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THOSE DOCUMENTS WERE BECAUSE A SPECIAL COUNSEL IS INVESTIGATING!
SHODDY REPORTING!

— “Classified paper chase: Biden documents traced to law office in Boston,” by Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald: “Sensitive documents President Biden took with him after leaving D.C. landed in a law office in Boston in the latest development in the shoddy handling of West Wing intel. Multiple reports state the National Archives revealed late Friday that emails point to the paper trail leading to the Hub — with a demanded stop at the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester.”

TODAY'S SPECIAL (ELECTION)

— “Salem mayoral candidate considers options after missing ballot,” by Dustin Luca, Salem News: “Robert ‘Skip’ Bensley, a Lafayette Street resident making his first attempt at public office, ultimately fell seven shy of the required 100 certified signatures of registered voters, following a review by the City Clerk’s office, thus excluding his name form the ballot for the March 28 preliminary election. … Bensley has until Thursday, Feb. 23, at 5 p.m. to challenge the clerk’s office’s line-by-line decisions to reject 25 of the 118 signatures Bensley turned in.”

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THE LOCAL ANGLE

— “A 15-year-old stayed in a hospital for 40 days. The reason? The state child welfare agency had no place to put him,” by Elizabeth Koh, Boston Globe: “For years, Massachusetts’ child welfare crisis has meant kids shuttled around the state in the back seats of workers’ cars or sleeping on couches and bean bags in agency offices. But amid a persistent shortage of group home beds, foster homes, and other placements, the state is also holding children in hospitals for up to weeks or months on end, even when they’ve been medically cleared to leave.”

— “Colonel Christopher Mason to retire as superintendent of Mass. State Police,” by Jeremy C. Fox and Samantha J. Gross, Boston Globe: “The head of the Massachusetts State Police announced that he will retire [this] week, more than three years after being appointed to bring urgent reform to a law enforcement agency rocked by state and federal investigations into widespread abuse of overtime pay throughout its ranks.”

— “They bought mansions, a Rolls Royce, and chartered a jet with COVID relief loans, prosecutors allege,” by Shelley Murphy, Boston Globe: “In June 2020, as many businesses struggled to survive, an Abington used-car dealer was given an $836,800 federal pandemic relief loan to pay his 40 employees. Yet, he lied about the size of his workforce, which was only a handful of people, prosecutors allege, and spent most of the money on the purchase of a 14-room ‘country manor’ in South Easton, a $133,000 Rolls Royce, and a French bulldog breeder.”

— “Boston ESG investment firm takes aim at companies that give to election deniers,” by Benjamin Kail, Boston Business Journal: “A Boston investment firm is striving to wipe from its portfolio all corporations that donated to 2020 presidential election deniers. … Politicians are identified as ‘anti-democracy’ if they voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s election or questioned the vote’s legitimacy, while PACs are evaluated based on their donations.”

— “Massachusetts plant on track to be a global leader in fusion energy,” by Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald.

— “After being placed on leave, Wayland superintendent files discrimination complaint against School Committee,” by Deanna Pan, Boston Globe.

— “Navy Pilot From Mass. Part of Historic All-Female Flyover at Super Bowl,” by Kaitlin McKinley Becker, NECN.

— MEANWHILE, IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: “New Hampshire Senate Votes to Protect State’s Presidential Primary,” by Garry Rayno, InDepthNH.

PROPAGANDA!
NUCLEAR IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE FORM

OF ENERGY!

RADIOACTIVE WASTE?
NO PLACE TO PUT IT!

LOOK AT PIGLRIM IN PLYMOUTH!

A message from NextEra Energy:

NextEra Energy is the first company committed to reaching Real Zero™, as in 100% clean energy. We’re not just offsetting carbon emissions — we’re eliminating them.

HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Katie Trojano, Joshua Solomon, Emily Minster of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office and Jamie Cushman.

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