Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Healey takes out a billboard

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Healey takes out a billboard

Presented by

TARGETED ADVERTISING — If you’re looking for a sign to come to Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey can point you to a few — along highways in Texas and Florida.

The state’s first openly lesbian governor has spent Pride month pitching the state’s legal protections for LGBTQ people as a selling point for moving to Massachusetts. Now her administration is targeting that message to red states whose Republican governors are curtailing LGBTQ rights.

Healey’s tourism office is running a Pride-themed advertising campaign in Florida and Texas, with digital billboards and social media posts bearing the slogan “Massachusetts: For us all” and featuring LGBTQ couples photographed in locations throughout the Bay State. The ads will run for a month in the two southern states. The roughly $750,000 campaign also includes New England and New York.

“At a time when other states are misguidedly restricting LGBTQIA+ rights, we are proud to send the message that Massachusetts is a safe, welcoming and inclusive place for all,” Healey said in a statement. “To anyone considering where they want to live, raise a family, visit or build a business — we want you to join us here in Massachusetts.”

Massachusetts is running a Pride-centric tourism ad campaign in states including Florida and Texas. | Image courtesy of the Healey administration

It’s a big national play from Healey. And it’s one that seems more in line with her days as a hard-charging state attorney general repeatedly suing the Trump administration than it does her actions as governor thus far.

Healey has largely shied away from the national spotlight while learning how to run the state — except for when it comes to protecting abortion and LGTBQ rights.

The governor already staked her place in the national conversation on the former , leading the charge of blue-state governors stockpiling the abortion pill mifepristone in the face of court challenges potentially restricting access to the drug. Now she’s flexing her political muscle on the latter.

Healey is no stranger to taking her message straight to her ideological foes. Still, she’s now joining a long line of governors who’ve crossed state lines to drum up attention on the national political stage. And she’s been building up to it throughout the month. Notice how she's slipped “welcome, Disney” messages into press conferences and interviews — a pointed dig at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ongoing battle with the entertainment giant, which started over that state’s law limiting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

But it’s not all about ribbing Republicans with White House aspirations. The billboards also coincide with the speech Healey will give to the Irish Senate at 10 a.m. EST marking 30 years since Ireland decriminalized homosexuality.

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. While the billboards deliver the governor's message stateside, Healey is hammering home Massachusetts' competitiveness abroad. She met yesterday with U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin and talked trade with business leaders during a roundtable hosted by Enterprise Ireland .

Next on the itinerary: a celebration of 60 years of two-way trade between the U.S. and Ireland. More from GBH News’ Adam Reilly in Dublin .

TODAY — Acting Gov. Kim Driscoll attends the Glasswing Annual Summit at 2:30 p.m. at the MIT Media Lab and keynotes the MMA-Suffolk Certificate in Local Government Leadership and Management graduation at 5 p.m. at Suffolk Law. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks at Bisnow’s Boston Multifamily Conference at 8:30 a.m. at the Westin Seaport, joins NAACP leaders to preview next month’s national convention in Boston at 11 a.m. at the Bolling Building in Roxbury, and opens the Boston Common Frog Pond spray pool at 12:30 p.m.

Rep. Stephen Lynch announces federal funding at 11 a.m. at Wessagusset Beach. Sen. Elizabeth Warren visits Cape Cod Community College’s aviation facility at noon. Rep. Jake Auchincloss joins VoteVets at 1:30 p.m. to virtually pre-but Nikki Haley ’s foreign policy speech on China.

A message from American Beverage Association:

At America’s beverage companies, we are committed to reducing our plastic footprint. That’s why we’re carefully designing our plastic bottles to be 100% recyclable, including the caps. Our goal is for every bottle to become a new one, so they don’t end up in nature. Learn more at EveryBottleBack.org.

DATELINE BEACON HILL

— BUDGETING MORE TIME: Acting Gov. Kim Driscoll signed off on the one-month spending plan lawmakers sent to her desk yesterday to buy themselves more time to negotiate the budget. The common practice of passing interim budgets to keep the state running as closed-door talks continue into the new fiscal year elicits little more than a shrug on Beacon Hill. But government watchdogs are warning that a late budget isn't a good thing.

DOES ANYONE PAY ATTENTION TO THESE HACKS?

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance called it "pretty irresponsible" of lawmakers to "brush off deadlines that serve a purpose. Why should people make a bet on Massachusetts when Beacon Hill can't seem to pass a budget on time with unified control of the government and supermajorities in each chamber."

Massachusetts Tax Foundation president Doug Howgate said it's "bad practice" for lawmakers to continue to slip past the start of the new fiscal year. But he said having the interim budget in place makes it so "it's not a crisis by any means."

— “Tax cut talks begin, again, as Legislature works to finish work abandoned last year,” by Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald: “‘We want to make sure that we finish the job on this one, as we’ve obviously had some starts and stops over the last year or two related to these things,’ House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz told his colleagues.”

— “Top House Democrat’s omnibus gun bill would crack down on ghost guns, expand ‘red flag’ law,” by Samantha J. Gross, Boston Globe: “A top House Democrat on Beacon Hill delivered Monday on a request made a year ago by House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, when the lawmaker filed a wide-ranging proposal aimed at reforming gun laws in Massachusetts, which already has some of the strictest rules in the country. The bill, filed by Joint Judiciary Committee Chair Michael S. Day would ‘modernize’ the state’s gun laws and take steps to get rid of so-called ‘ghost guns,’ among other measures.”

— “Lawmakers target cell phone tracking data in abortion fight,” by Jennifer Smith, CommonWealth Magazine: “[W]hile most who offered testimony in favor of the Location Shield Act cited fear about people seeking abortion in Massachusetts being susceptible to tracking by other states, a number offered a much broader note of caution: almost everyone is left startlingly vulnerable by the current system.”

— "Report shows without changes, push to meet climate goals could add $10K to $23K to median single-family home cost," by Tréa Lavery, MassLive.

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 .

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

— “More and more T workers are leaving, thwarting agency efforts to staff up, officials say,” by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: “As the MBTA tries to aggressively staff up, the agency faces a growing hurdle: The workers they already have are leaving faster than before. The transit agency is losing employees at an annual clip of roughly 13 percent, an increase from previous years and one that is hurting its efforts to buttress a stretched workforce, MBTA officials told lawmakers during an oversight hearing Monday at the State House.”

A message from American Beverage Association:

DAY IN COURT

— “Beej Das federally indicted for allegedly defrauding clients of more than $5M,” by Alana Melanson, Lowell Sun: “An attorney, former Tyngsboro hotelier and one-time 3rd Congressional District candidate was arrested in Florida Monday on federal charges for allegedly defrauding clients of more than $5 million in escrow funds. … Two years ago, Das was also arrested for allegedly violating the Federal Election Campaign Act and false statements, for which he was on federal pretrial release.”

— “Mass. colleges brace for Supreme Court's affirmative action decision,” by Max Larkin, WBUR: “The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the use of affirmative action in higher education could land with an outsized impact in Massachusetts, home to several of the country’s most selective institutions of higher learning.”

DATELINE D.C.

— “How do gender care bans affect health? Markey bill seeks research on anti-trans laws,” by Daily Hampshire Gazette staff: “Sen. Edward Markey D-Mass., is seeking $25 million annually over five years for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research barriers to gender-affirming care and the impact of those barriers on health.”

— “Biden Admin Awards $147 Mil for Mass. Internet Access,” by Sam Drysdale, State House News Service (paywall): “President Joe Biden announced $42 billion in federal funds for broadband expansion across the country on Monday, $147 million of which will be directed to the Bay State.”

SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY .

THE LOWELL CONNECTOR

— “City ‘sweeps’ Centralville homeless encampment,” by Melanie Gilbert, Lowell Sun: “Within hours it was over. The so-called Dog Park homeless encampment in Centralville off First Street Boulevard, that has existed in some form for 10 years, was gone. Not only gone, it was obliterated in a coordinated action by city services Monday morning. With it, the city hopes the homeless problem for that location is gone, too, which Assistant City Manager Shawn Machado described as a public health and safety issue.”

FROM THE 413

— “Posts on transgender athletes sink Faginski-Stark’s candidacy for top post at Hampshire Regional schools,” by Emily Thurlow, Daily Hampshire Gazette: “During an emotional virtual meeting Thursday night, the leading candidate for an assistant superintendent job at Hampshire Regional School District apologized for controversial Facebook posts about transgender athletes that emerged when she was a superintendent finalist in nearby Easthampton in April. The apologies from Erica Faginski-Stark, however, were not enough to convince the district’s joint school committees to go along with Superintendent Diana Bonneville’s pick for assistant superintendent.”

A message from American Beverage Association:

America’s leading beverage companies - The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo - are working together to reduce our industry’s plastic footprint through our Every Bottle Back initiative. We’re investing in efforts to get our bottles back so we can remake them into new bottles and use less new plastic. 

Together, we’re: 

Designing 100% recyclable plastic bottles – we’re making our bottles from PET that’s strong, lightweight and easy to recycle.  
Investing in community recycling – we’re marshalling the equivalent of nearly a half-billion dollars with The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners to support community recycling programs where we can have the greatest impact.
Raising awareness – we’re adding on-pack reminders to encourage consumers to recycle our plastic bottles and caps.

Our bottles are made to be remade. Please help us get Every Bottle Back.

HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to former state Sen. Joe Boncore , Lexington state Sen. Michael Barrett , Plymouth state Rep. Mathew Muratore, Molly McGlynn , press secretary for AG Andrea Campbell; Nick Mitchell and Paul Tencher , a Sen. Ed Markey alum.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com .

Follow us on Twitter