Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: The other Democratic convention

Monday, June 3, 2024

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: The other Democratic convention

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A PROGRAMMING NOTE: Lisa here. It’s our last week together — if you’ve ever wanted to send me a tip or scoop, you’ve got four days left! Hit me up: lkashinsky@politico.com .

UNCONVENTIONAL — As Democrats put on a show of party unity in Worcester over the weekend, renominating Sen. Elizabeth Warren and taking turns bashing former President Donald Trump, some progressives began quietly plotting how to disrupt the party's status quo.

More than 100 progressives frustrated by the far-left's inability to make serious inroads on Democratic-dominated Beacon Hill gathered on a Zoom call Sunday to game out how to increase their influence — in part by unseating incumbents they view as too entrenched with more moderate legislative leadership.

It started with a diagnosis: Massachusetts progressives are splintered. The movement has no centralized coalition, leaving a smattering of separate, small groups with memberships and missions that overlap and that are forced to compete for funding, at least according to keynote speaker Robert Kuttner, co-founder of the liberal magazine The American Prospect.

That makes it harder to push policies — even those that are highly popular with the general public — through a Legislature where power is concentrated among just a few members and where breaking rank with those leaders can mean retribution. Even progressive laws passed at the local level often need signoff from Beacon Hill, where home-rule petitions can languish and sometimes perish in committees.

So, the weekend workshop took a stab at figuring out how to change that — as well as something else progressives here have struggled to confront: why their popular policies don’t translate into more electoral wins across levels of government.

Among the recommendations: Progressive groups should band together to work more like a party, making endorsements and recruiting candidates in a more “coherent” fashion, Kuttner said. Organizers are planning to meet later this week to plot their next steps, Nicky Osborne, one of the activists who helped set up the virtual "UnConvention," told Playbook.

It's unclear how effective they'll be , at least in the short term. The filing window for this year’s legislative elections has come and gone with little competition to show for it. Incumbents have no incentive to change ballot rules designed to protect them. And legislative leaders have no incentive to change their highly centralized form of governance — or to stop punishing those who break rank.

Meanwhile, the progressive governor is heavily promoting decidedly un-progressive policy: tax breaks for businesses and the wealthy. And one of the state’s other major progressive standard-bearers, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, runs the risk of being challenged from the right and the left.

Progressives acknowledge it's an uphill battle . But “if we want to begin to have what I would call transformational politics around housing, health care, jobs — it’s going to require taking on the Democrats that are ensuring the continuation of the status quo,” Rand Wilson, a longtime labor organizer and progressive activist who attended the Sunday session, told Playbook.

GOOD MONDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS . Tips? Scoops? Birthdays? Email us: kgarrity@politico.com and lkashinsky@politico.com .

TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey tours the State House with first partner Joanna Lydgate , ahead of Lydgate’s swearing-in as the honorary president of the Doric Docent Tour Guides at 9:30 a.m. Healey joins Govs. JB Pritzker and Tim Walz for an 11:30 a.m. press call to urge Congress to pass the Right to Contraception Act and attends the June Day Drum Head ceremony at 1:30 p.m. on Boston Common. Healey and Wu speak at the opening reception of the ClimaTech Conference at 6:30 p.m. at Fenway Park. Wu attends Boston’s Pride Month kick off at 11 a.m. at City Hall.

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PARTY POLITICS

Gov. Maura Healey speaks at the 2024 MassDems convention | Lisa Kashinsky/POLITICO

MESSAGE TESTING — Almost every major Massachusetts Democrat is using Donald Trump being found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records as a campaign cudgel — except for Maura Healey.

The governor pointedly left out any mention of the former president’s trial during her MassDems convention speech, a notable omission for both a former attorney general who burnished her reputation in part on repeatedly suing the Trump administration and for a surrogate for President Joe Biden ’s reelection bid. Instead, she warned of why letting Trump return to the White House could be “dangerous.”

But everyone else went there. “ Every time you mention Donald Trump, you should mention ‘convicted felon’ behind it,” Rep. Jim McGovern said. “Trump’s got 34 problems, and being rich ain’t one,” Sen. Ed Markey quipped. Attorney General Andrea Campbell told Playbook backstage that voters “should know” about both Trump’s criminal record and other perceived wrongdoings in his past.

And when Sen. Elizabeth Warren warned “the convicted felon says he wants to be a dictator on Day One — listen to him,” the crowd of Democratic activists erupted into chants of “Lock him up!”

Auditor Diana DiZoglio sings a song she wrote about transparency at the State House during the 2024 MassDems convention. | Lisa Kashinsky/POLITICO

CONVENTION ODDS AND ENDS — Auditor Diana DiZoglio performed her song about increasing transparency at the State House as part of her pitch to party activists to support the ballot question she’s pushing to audit the Legislature. She followed it up on X by calling out her fellow elected Democrats for slamming Trump over the verdict in his hush-money trial while not "[s]tanding up to our own party leadership" for using non-disclosure agreements in state government.

COWBOY CAMPBELL — The attorney general paid homage to Beyoncé 's "Cowboy Carter" album by donning a feathered cowboy hat (in green, her campaign color) throughout the convention.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell pays homage to Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" album by donning a cowboy hat in her campaign's signature color while speaking at the 2024 MassDems convention. | Lisa Kashinsky/POLITICO

MOULTON MATTERS

MOULTON’S VERDICT — Rep. Seth Moulton believes Trump’s conviction could sway a “frighteningly” close election in Biden’s favor. But he also says Democrats need to “do better” with their own messaging.

“One of the American political parties is in a civil war playing out across the country … and it's led by a convicted felon. And yet, we're not cleaning up,” Moulton said Sunday during an interview on WCVB’s “On the Record,” echoing what he told Playbook last week. “In some ways we've become the party of the ultra rich and the ultra poor. We've lost touch with a lot of people in the middle.”

RELATED — “Looming over Trump’s conviction: Reversal by the ‘13th juror’,” by Erica Orden and Ben Feuerherd, POLITICO.

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TRAVEL LOG

READING THE RECEIPTS — The bill for Healey’s trip to the Vatican last month added up to $30,263, according to the governor’s office. Public funds from the Massachusetts Tourism Trust Fund covered the tab, which included costs for flights, hotels and ground transportation for Healey, three staff members and her climate chief, Melissa Hoffer .

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu also dipped into taxpayer funds to cover costs for her trip, which started with the Vatican climate conference and included a stop in Sulmona, Italy. The total cost for Wu and her entourage — which included two staffers, the city’s Green New Deal director, Oliver Sellers-Garcia , and two Boston police officers — was $21,449, according to her office.

RELATED — “Critics pounce on $30K tab for Mass. Gov. Healey’s trip to Vatican climate summit,” by John L. Micek, MassLive.

DATELINE BEACON HILL

SURVEY SAYS — Housing remains the top issue Bay Staters want to see Healey and the Legislature tackle in the coming year, according to a new UMass Amherst poll of 700 adults. More than a third of respondents have contemplated leaving the state over the past year — with New Hampshire and Florida being their top destinations and the high cost of living and taxes among the top reasons potentially driving them across state lines.

Who are voters blaming for the state’s unaffordable housing? Twenty-nine percent said high interest rates, more so than any politician. But the Legislature has the second-highest culpability at 16 percent, while just 5 percent think Healey bears the most responsibility.

And while the Legislature is again making no move to approve local-option rent control, 72 percent of respondents at least “somewhat” support the concept. Meanwhile, 62 percent “somewhat” or “strongly” support real-estate transfer taxes, which seems to be losing life in the Legislature. The poll was conducted online May 17-30 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

— “#MeToo exposed a history of sexual harassment in the Mass. House. A key position to address it has been empty for years,” by Samantha J. Gross, The Boston Globe: “In recent days, the House announced it is requiring mandatory harassment and discrimination training for all employees, a move that follows years of complaints from rank-and-file House staff, who are attempting to unionize in part due to these safety issues. But the office meant to address these complaints has remained leaderless for nearly two years, and House leaders quietly removed several references to the office in an updated employee handbook distributed to staff last week, prompting concerns that House leaders are minimizing a post they once heralded as a way to address the chamber’s past problems.”

****MUST READ!****

— “Archdiocese objects on Steward sale,” by Matthew Medsgar, Boston Herald.

— “Lawmakers push for 'blue alert' system,” by Christian M. Wade, The Salem News.

A message from Choose Who You Use:

MIGRANTS IN MASSACHUSETTS

— “Massachusetts migrant-family shelter program kicks out more than 20 people for ‘inappropriate actions’,” by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: “The Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities recently sent 22 ‘separation from household’ letters to those in the Emergency Assistance family shelter program — expelling them while referring them to individual adult homeless shelters.”

— “First Shelter Exit Notices Won't Go Out Until July,” by Sam Drysdale, State House News Service (paywall): “After previously warning that families in Massachusetts' emergency shelters could get notice starting June 1 that they have 90 days to exit the state-funded housing, the Healey administration said Friday that it is holding off on delivering those notices until early July. … The first families to exit the emergency assistance program under this new policy will receive 90-day exit notices beginning in early July -- meaning they will have until early October to find other housing options -- but not all families will be affected by the length of stay policy immediately, according to EOHLC.”

— “A backlog of over 150,000 cases continues to congest immigration courts in Mass. Everyone waiting has a story,” by Danny McDonald, The Boston Globe.

YAHD SIGNS AND BUMPAH STICKAHS

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — State Rep. Ruth Balser is endorsing former Newton City Councilor Greg Schwartz in the race for the 12th Middlesex House seat she’s leaving. Watch her announcement here.

— Also in the 12th Middlesex, Treasurer Deb Goldberg is endorsing Newton City Councilor Rick Lipof .

— Six more unions have endorsed Democratic state Rep. Dylan Fernandes for the Plymouth & Barnstable state Senate seat Su Moran is vacating as she runs for a county post. They are: Plumbers and Pipefitters Local #51, Painters and Allied Trades DC 35, Plasters and Cement Masons #534, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, IBEW 2222 and IBEW Local 223.

WARREN REPORT

ICYMI — “Elizabeth Warren withdraws from Palestinian conference over organizers’ Oct. 7 praise,” by Emily Jacobs and Lahav Harkov, Jewish Insider.

— “Pro-Palestinian protesters rally outside Warren’s Cambridge home,” by Danny McDonald.

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MARIJUANA IN MASSACHUSETTS

— “Shannon O’Brien suspension hearings to run into June as two sides stay quiet,” by Chris Van Buskirk, Boston Herald: “Meetings to decide the fate of suspended Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien are scheduled to stretch into June after an hours-long closed-door session Friday concluded with no apparent resolution and both sides declining to comment publicly.”

— “Former women staffers allege they were bullied at embattled Cannabis Control Commission,” by Walter Wuthmann, WBUR.

THE LOCAL ANGLE

— “Authorization for machine gun range at Cape base set to expire. Keating blocks extension,” by Walker Armstrong, Cape Cod Times: “With authorized funding for the proposed multipurpose machine gun range on Joint Base Cape Cod set to expire in October, language was introduced in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act to extend the deadline by a year. ... But due to concerns about environmental impacts on the Cape’s sole source aquifer under the base, U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Massachusetts, said he moved on May 23 to cut the language.”

— “Mass. Air National Guard unit to resume post classified document leaker Teixeira,” by Ally Jarmanning and Sydney Ko, WBUR.

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

SUNUNU continues to prove himself a CLOWN!
Endorsed NIKKI HALEY ignored her history! How about the NUCLEAR POWER PLANT that is a hole in the ground & screwed ratepayers? She also raised taxes.

NIKKI HALEY is now signing BOMBS to continue the GAZA GENOCIDE after the RAFAH TENT MASSACRE!

Ignoring the TRUMP.ORG judgement, the E.JEAN CARROL defamation judgment, the ESPIONAGE ACT violations, the GEORGIA RICO trial, the FAKE ELECTORS SCANDALS erupting across the nation, the DISBARRED tRUMP attorneys, the INSURRECTION D.C. charges -

DIAPER DON attempted to overthrow DEMOCRACY and SUNUNU ignores it?

SUNUNU SAYS — New Hampshire's Republican governor told CNN he'll still vote for Trump in November, though "I don't want my nominee to be convicted of anything, of course."

— “Campaign worker charged with falsifying nomination papers in R.I. congressional race,” by Edward Fitzpatrick, The Boston Globe.

— “New Hampshire’s 2017 ADU Failure Has Implications for Mass.,” by Jay Fitzgerald, Banker & Tradesman.

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Massachusetts’ utility customers have recently seen some of the highest electric rates in the country, but customers who chose retail electric providers could have saved hundreds of dollars over the last two years. The last thing we should be doing during this moment is eliminating this choice for Massachusetts consumers and forcing people to live under monopoly utility service.

Choose Who You Use is committed to protecting real electricity choice in Massachusetts. We believe the power to choose energy should be in the hands of the people. In Massachusetts, individuals should be able to choose the type of energy they want and how to pay for it. Learn more.

HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH

TRANSITIONS — Arnold Ventures is adding Andrew Bacher-Hicks as VP of evidence and evaluation. Bacher-Hicks previously was an assistant professor at Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Eric S. Rosengren, Sean McFate and Eric Farmer .

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