Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Pressley goes for Round 4

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Pressley goes for Round 4

ON THE TRAIL — A government shutdown, a global pandemic, an insurrection and two presidential impeachments: A lot has happened since Ayanna Pressley toppled a 10-term incumbent to become the first Black woman elected to Congress in Massachusetts.

But at least one thing remains consistent, according to Pressley: “The state of our movement is strong,” she told Playbook.

That can be difficult to see in the current Congress, one so dominated by infighting within the slim House Republican majority that last year it earned the title as one of the least productive in history . But Pressley points to the issues that Democrats all the way up to President Joe Biden are campaigning on — student debt cancellation chief among them.

“In three years’ time, we took an issue that people saw as fringe and marginal … [and] we've completely mainstreamed it,” Pressley said, sitting in a conference room in the Dorchester union hall where she held her reelection launch for a fourth term last weekend — the same place where she learned she had defeated then-Rep. Mike Capuano in 2018.

Her decision to take on one of longest-serving members of the Massachusetts delegation at the time — and her eventual victory — shocked the state’s Democratic establishment. And that might be why, when she jokingly floated a Senate bid during state Sen. Nick Collins’ St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in Boston, more than a few people bought it.

“Some people thought I was really announcing that I was running for the United States Senate,” Pressley said, laughing. “And they were sort of like, ‘I couldn't believe you were about to do this and you hadn't even called me.’”

Pressley maintains it was all in good fun —and that Collins was in on her follow-up faux state Senate campaign announcement. “The only title I care about in this moment earning again is that of congresswoman,” she said.

As for 2026? The only plan in place, Pressley said, is her daughter Cora’s college application process.

Playbook spoke with Pressley about her reelection campaign, the conflict in Gaza and its impact on Biden’s reelection bid, and Massachusetts’ migrant crisis.

Our interview was conducted before Iran’s attack on Israel and has been edited for length and clarity:

Rep. Ayanna Pressley is running for a fourth term in Congress. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

There’s been a lot of concern in Massachusetts and other states about Biden’s efforts to push Israel to take humanitarian concerns more seriously in Gaza. Do you think he is doing enough?

President Joe Biden must do everything to ensure that Donald Trump is never the president again. And that includes a permanent, bilateral cease-fire and being full-throated in calling on that — and using the full weight of his presidential and diplomatic powers [to do so].

President Biden needs to be accountable and responsive to the coalition of voters that elected him.

Lawmakers at the state level have grown irritated with the lack of action from Congress on immigration. Do you see any help coming from Congress in states like Massachusetts?

I have learned my lesson by making any predictions about Congress. I mean, most days I don't even know if we'll still have a speaker. This has been a Congress under a Republican majority that’s operated under great chaos and callousness and cluelessness.

Now, the solution is that we have to stabilize Haiti. We need to stop the trafficking of guns to Haiti. We need to support the political stabilization of Haiti. And we need to give humanitarian aid to Haiti, and aid that will support Haiti and its rebuilding. And we have to halt all deportations to Haiti, because it’s a death sentence, And then we need to redesignate TPS [Temporary Protected Status] for Haitians.

In the meantime, in my role as co-chair of the House Haiti caucus, I've advocated for an expediting of work permits.

GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. We're already halfway through school vacation week.

TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey speaks virtually at the Biden administration’s “Making Care Work” event at 10:30 a.m. AG Andrea Campbell is on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” at 1 p.m.

Tips? Scoops? Email us: kgarrity@politico.com and lkashinsky@politico.com.

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YAHD SIGNS AND BUMPAH STICKAHS

JOHN DEATON VOTED 3 TIMES IN 20 YEARS!
NO MASSACHUSETTS TIES.....FOUGHT FOR THE
LITTLE GUY? DID NOTHING TO CHANGE REGULATIONS

JUST ANOTHER CARPET BAGGER!

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Republican John Deaton is releasing the first radio ad of his campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren . And the 60-second spot takes some thinly veiled shots at her.

“I grew up in real poverty, in a dangerous, violent neighborhood,” Deaton says, in a subtle dig at Warren’s references to her family’s financial struggles while she was growing up in Oklahoma.

“I’ve fought for the little guy,” he says later of his work as an attorney for asbestos victims. Now he wants to go to D.C. to “take on the drug and insurance companies, take on Washington corruption and work to solve the migrant crisis.”

CARPET BAGGER!

The ad also plays up the few years the recent transplant from Rhode Island spent in Massachusetts while in law school. Deaton’s campaign declined to share the cost of the ad, which will air on AM and FM radio stations statewide.

DATELINE BEACON HILL

STEWING OVER STEWARD — Days after House Speaker Ron Mariano told WCVB that lawmakers are mulling how to stop the kind of hospital property sales that Steward Health Care engaged in, Healey administration Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh warned against legislating in “haste.”

“I worry about broad brushstrokes that say, 'private equity bad, not-for-profit good,’” Walsh told reporters on Tuesday, per the State House News Service , calling Steward an “extreme set of circumstances.”

Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues called in a recent WCVB interview to “take for-profit, equity-based companies out of the health system.” But Mariano has said some for-profit companies “do” belong in health care, and “some don’t.”

MEANWHILE — “Warren, Markey call on Steward hospital landlords to cut or terminate lease payments,” by Robert Weisman, The Boston Globe: “In a letter to hospital landlords Medical Properties Trust and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners on Monday, the US senators from Massachusetts pressed for concessions on their multimillion-dollar leases to ‘make it financially feasible for new operators’ to run the hospitals — and to assure the property owners themselves can collect rents.”

TRANSFER FEE PUSH — Officials from 29 municipalities have signed onto a letter to Democratic legislative leaders urging them to pass the local-option real estate transfer fee that Gov. Maura Healey included in her housing bond bill. Among those calling the tax a “critical tool” for addressing housing needs: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, Malden Mayor Gary Christenson, Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson, Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo and Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne . Read the letter .

FROM THE HUB

TAX TALKS — City councilors weighing a home rule petition from Mayor Michelle Wu spent much of Tuesday morning lobbing questions at Wu officials in an effort to parse the effects of the mayor’s proposal that would allow the city to bump up its commercial property tax rate if property values drop.

Multiple councilors sounded skeptical , and District 2 Councilor Ed Flynn voiced opposition to any measure that would raise commercial property taxes. But the city’s chief financial officer, Ashley Groffenberger , maintained that the legislation could save commercial and residential property owners from a jarring jump in their tax bills.

One big question that hung over the lengthy hearing: What if the pandemic-induced slump in the commercial real estate market is here to stay?

Groffenberger and Nicholas Ariniello , the commissioner of the city's assessing department, pitched the plan as in line with legislation then-Mayor Thomas Menino pursued in 2003, which the Legislature enacted in 2004.

But 2024 is not 2004, former state Rep. Marty Walz , now the head of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, pointed out during the hearing Tuesday. “This is probably not a typical economic cycle, where prices and values go up, they go down, and they’re going to come back up again in a reasonably predictable way,” she said during the hearing. “We’re in a new world.”

Several councilors suggested the city look for new sources of revenue, and Groffenberger said the city has been in conversations with institutions that are tax exempt under the PILOT program about how to “revamp” the program to meet the city’s needs. But the city’s options are relatively limited without assistance from the state, as is the case with Wu’s home-rule petition.

The proposal needs approval from the council before it heads to Beacon Hill, and while Groffenberger said the administration had been in touch with members of the Boston delegation, she didn’t say who specifically might carry the legislation.

— “Boston names city’s first chief climate officer,” by Erin Douglas, The Boston Globe: “Brian Swett, a seasoned sustainability professional who served as Boston’s environment cabinet chief under two prior mayoral administrations, will return to city government as Boston’s first chief climate officer in June, Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration announced Wednesday.”

DAY IN COURT

OVERTURNED — Former U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins ’ law license, which was suspended in February for non-payment of registration fees, is being reinstated after she appealed to the state Board of Bar Overseers, the Boston Herald’s Joe Dwinell reports .

TRIAL TIME — The first seven jurors have been chosen in former President Donald Trump ’s hush-money trial. And the first four jurors have been picked in the Karen Read murder trial.

— “Jailed students in Massachusetts sue Department of Elementary and Secondary Education over special ed access,” by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald.

WHAT'S ON CAMPBELL'S DOCKET

— “Andrea Campbell outlines state crackdown on AI,” by Jon Chesto, The Boston Globe: “Attorney General Andrea Campbell is putting the artificial-intelligence world on notice: She’ll apply the state’s existing consumer protection, anti-discrimination, and data security laws for users of AI, too.”

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WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD BE READING

— “This Braintree teen hasn’t been to school a single day this year. Is a broken special education system to blame?” by Mandy McLaren, The Boston Globe: “Samantha has been in a state of academic limbo since the Braintree Public Schools unilaterally decided in September not to reenroll the teen in her special education placement at a private school in Hingham; the town had been paying her tuition there under a federal law that requires districts to cover the cost of privately educating students whose needs they cannot meet.”

— “Mass. residents say ‘immigration/migrants’ top issue facing state,” by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Beacon.

— “MassDOT tracking investigation into Baltimore bridge collapse for relevant findings,” by Chris Van Buskirk, Boston Herald.

— “After long delay, cannabis social equity fund starts up,” by Bhaamati Borkhetaria, CommonWealth Beacon.

— “Homeless New Bedford students don’t have equal access to charter schools,” by Colin Hogan, The New Bedford Light.

— “Brockton aims to crack down on candidates who don't 'really' live here,” by Chris Helms, The Enterprise.

— “What was the point of Massachusetts' new tax break for renters?,” by Nik DeCosta-Klipa, WBUR.

HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH

TRANSITIONS — Ty McEachern is now communications director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party and Gates MacPherson is returning to the state party as senior advisor overseeing messaging for state races after a stint at SKDK. McEachern previously was press secretary for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and is an alum of Rep. Seth Moulton’s 2018 campaign.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to state Rep. Bruce Ayers, Dean Lieberman, Tom Hunt , Glossier’s Susan Effler, Mark Leicester and Christine Boncore .

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 .

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