 | BY KELLY GARRITY AND LISA KASHINSKY | VATICAN VISIT — When Maura Healey returns from her trip to the Vatican, she’ll come bearing a priceless gift: rosary beads blessed by Pope Francis, a present for her mom. Healey’s mother, a deeply religious Catholic who attends church daily, was “thrilled and really moved” when she heard that her eldest daughter would be heading to the Vatican and getting an audience with the pope, Healey told Playbook by phone from Italy Wednesday night. Though Healey is there to talk climate and tout her administration's solutions as the world hurtles past 1.5 degrees warming, the significance of the locale isn’t lost on her. Nor is the influence of the pope — a prominent climate activist — even amid a shrinking Catholic population in the U.S. “As a Catholic, I think about what we were taught about making sure that we look after those around us — that we pay particular attention to those who are the most vulnerable among us,” Healey said. “When it comes to climate, we know that it is the poor, it is people of color, it is low income folks and marginalized communities that bear a disproportionate cost and burden.”
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Gov. Maura Healey at the Vatican climate summit | Domenico Stinellis/AP | Unlike many of the famous Irish Catholic leaders in Massachusetts’ past — and even some of her fellow Catholic governors — Healey doesn’t often play up her religious identity in her day-to-day appearances. And unlike President Joe Biden, the second Catholic to ever hold the country’s highest office, Healey doesn’t shy away from some of the hot button issues where Democrats and Catholics tend to diverge — abortion rights , for example. But there are echoes of the Catholic faith in her remarks. The speech she delivered Wednesday at the Vatican climate summit, for example, highlighted her efforts to prioritize justice and equity in her climate policies. And while her pro-abortion-rights politics and her position as one of the first two openly gay governors elected in the country aren’t in obvious alignment with Catholic canon, Healey believes those issues don’t have to be a dealbreaker for Catholic Democrats torn between church and state. “It's true that I've taken very strong positions when it comes to standing up for LGBTQ+ equality, to standing up for women's access to reproductive health care, to supporting abortion rights in this country, and I believe very strongly in all of those,” she said. “To me, it doesn't make me any less of a Catholic or detract from my relationship to my faith.” GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS . Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu presented their gifts to the pope earlier this morning. Healey brought a USS Constitution Chelsea Clock engraved with the message: "Presented to His Holiness Pope Francis, Maura T. Healey, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." She also presented an inscribed copy of "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau. Wu gifted the pope a Red Sox hat and a bowl made of wood from a tree in the Arnold Arboretum. TODAY — Acting Gov. Kim Driscoll announces awards through the Community Investment Tax Credits Program at 9 a.m. in Chesterfield, speaks at the Western Mass Economic Development Council’s Annual Membership Meeting at 11:30 a.m. in Holyoke, attends a Housing Advisory Council listening session at 2 p.m. in Greenfield and speaks at the El Mundo Boston Mixer at 5:30 p.m. in Boston. Auditor Diana DiZoglio attends a YWCA event at noon in Andover. Abroad, Healey speaks at a Vatican climate summit session 4:40 p.m. CET/10:40 am ET. Wu attends a summit session at 4 p.m. CET/10 a.m. ET and speaks at a session at 5 p.m. CET/11 a.m. ET. Tips? Scoops? Birthdays? Email us: kgarrity@politico.com and lkashinsky@politico.com .
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| MEANWHILE, IN MASSACHUSETTS — While Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu are abroad touting their climate initiatives, top House Democrats back home in the Bay State are pouring cold water on some of their other big plans. House Speaker Ron Mariano, who in March said his chamber was “considering” a local-option tax on high-dollar real-estate transactions, seems to have soured on the idea, which both Healey and Wu are seeking versions of to help alleviate the crushing housing crisis they’re both contending with. The reason: The idea “isn’t as popular as I thought it might be” among House members, Mariano told reporters Wednesday at the State House. "I'm gonna have to really weigh the measure of … what would happen in the chamber if we brought that up.” House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz , meanwhile, was mum on how the chamber would receive Wu’s proposal to increase commercial property taxes in the capital city. The North End Democrat, whose district would feel the effect of any tax-code change, sidestepped a question Wednesday by saying Wu’s petition hadn’t made it to Beacon Hill yet. The City Council is set to hold another hearing on the plan at the end of the month, meaning there are still likely weeks before councilors decide whether to kick the legislation up to the State House. That lag, Mariano said recently on WBZ’s “Keller @ Large,” is “kind of telling.” — “Christmas in May? Mass. lawmakers firehose $2.9B in amendments onto Senate’s $57.9B budget,” by John L. Micek, MassLive: “Lawmakers in the Bay State’s majority-Democrat state Senate gussied up the $57.9 billion 2024-25 budget plan now scheduled for debate next week with 1,100 amendments, totaling $2.9 billion, according to a newly released analysis. And nearly 6 in 10 of those amendments, 58%, are earmarks for pet projects back home that range from $250,000 for a right whale patrol program and a clean energy workforce development program at Roxbury Community College to $200,000 to support the Salvation Army’s food aid.” — “Renters rally at State House, demanding higher minimum wage and rent control,” by Jamie Robinson, GBH News.
| | MIGRANTS IN MASSACHUSETTS |
| — “Norfolk residents ripped at being blindsided over migrant shelter at old prison,” by Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald: “Norfolk residents packed an emotional pre-Town Meeting addressing state plans to use a shuttered prison as the next migrant shelter with a nearly universal disgust at the Healey administration for blindsiding the community. … Hundreds showed up to testify in front of selectmen who held the forum at the King Philip Middle School cafeteria in town just before the night’s regular Town Meeting.” — “Under a deadline to leave shelters, homeless families face obstacles,” by Lynn Jolicoeur and Lisa Mullins, WBUR.
| | HEALEY HIGHLIGHTS |
| MAKING IT OUT OF THE GROUP CHAT — The 19th got a peek inside the women Democratic governors group chat , and Healey’s colleagues had high praise for the first-term governor: “I have been a governor for longer than Governor Healey, but you better believe I’m calling Governor Healey and saying, ‘Look, you’re making some real progress on work issues, particularly related to asylum-seekers and migrants. Given that I’m a border state, I’m very interested in your successes here. Here’s where I wasn’t as successful — I wonder if you could help me figure out why,’” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told the 19th. “It’s not about who’s got seniority — it’s about the fact that I have a relationship with Governor Healey. I trust her. I like her.” It’s not all serious in the group chat, according to Healey: “We’re a tight group and we laugh together and we joke together and we commiserate together and we talk about really serious things together.”
| | ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR |
| — “After end of pro-Palestinian MIT encampment, students march to the president’s home,” by Lila Hempel-Edgers, The Boston Globe: “And as hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters marched from Massachusetts Avenue to MIT president Sally Kornbluth’s Memorial Drive home on Wednesday evening, it was clear that their protest against Israel’s war in Gaza did not disappear with the removal of the encampment at Harvard, the city’s last one, on Tuesday.” — “Many political leaders paid lip service to protesters' free speech while agreeing with arrests,” by Anthony Brooks, WBUR.
| | YAHD SIGNS AND BUMPAH STICKAHS |
| MARK YOU CALENDARS — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed in rapid-fire fashion on Wednesday to a pair of presidential debates — one on June 27 on CNN and the other on Sept. 10 on ABC. The intrigue, besides the obvious: the debates are far earlier than normal in an already abnormal election year and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could still qualify.
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| STAND BY — Sens. Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders are asking Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to “stand ready to provide any support or regulatory flexibilities necessary to help ensure that no one loses access to care as a result of Steward’s gross financial mismanagement” as the for-profit health system navigates bankruptcy. Read Markey and Sanders’ letter to Becerra . RELATED — “Steward crisis adding to stresses on hospital care, as state scrambles to contain fallout,” by Robert Weisman and Jessica Bartlett, The Boston Globe. — “Senators Call For Shuttering Of 'Inhumane' ICE Detention Centers,” by Rowaida Abdelaziz, HuffPost: “A group of Democratic senators led by Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter Tuesday night to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to shut down four private detention centers … in New Mexico, California, Louisiana and Virginia.”
| | WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD BE READING |
| — “Massachusetts gambling helpline saw increase in calls last year; many from people wanting tech support for sports betting apps,” by Emily Sweeney, The Boston Globe: “From July 2022 through June 2023, the Massachusetts Problem Gambling Helpline’s call volume increased by 121 percent from the previous year, a third of which included ‘non-helpline calls from those looking for technical assistance for their sports wagering mobile platforms,’ according to a report released Wednesday by the state Department of Public Health.” — “Biden approves flooding disaster declaration for Massachusetts, reverses earlier denial by FEMA,” by Maeve Lawler, The Boston Globe: “President Biden Wednesday night approved a disaster declaration for parts of Massachusetts which suffered major flash flooding last September, reversing an earlier denial from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the White House announced.”
| | HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH |
| HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Christian Scorzoni, the Lowell Sun’s Alana Melanson, Emma Rothschild and Alvin Gunnion. Happy belated to Western Mass Governor's Councillor Tara Jacobs, who celebrated Wednesday. 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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