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| | 75% of Massachusetts voters support requiring the largest AI companies to publish safety plans and report serious incidents. See the poll. |
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New from CommonWealth Beacon |
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HEALEY POLL: Gov. Maura Healey is cruising in her reelection bid against Republican challenger Mike Minogue, according to a new CommonWealth Beacon/MassINC Polling Group survey that found President Donald Trump is top of mind for many voters. Chris Lisinski unpacks the results and the areas in which voters think Healey is a bit lackluster. |
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NEW CODCAST: The Boston Fed updated its landmark study about net worth among different demographic groups, and the financial footing of Black households improved — but not all that much. This week on The Codcast, Jennifer Smith interviews Sharon Scott-Chandler, president and CEO of the antipoverty organization Action for Boston Community Development, about the racial disparities that remain. |
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FIRE STATION: In a visit to New Bedford, the governor touted state money she wants to deploy to keep open a 92-year-old fire station that had been slated to close amid a local budget crunch. Colin A. Young reports for State House News Service. |
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Massachusetts voters look like they’ve largely made up their minds on two of the highest-profile questions on the November ballot. They seem on track to retain legalized recreational marijuana and a sweeping new gun law passed in 2024, according to a new poll. |
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In a MassINC Polling Group survey (Toplines | Crosstabs) for CommonWealth Beacon, attitudes toward the other seven ballot questions were more mixed, with percentages of likely voters saying they expect to vote yes hovering in the high 40s and low 50s. |
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But the two final questions on the ballot are bucking that trend. Sixty-one percent of likely voters said they would vote no on Question 8, which if approved would end legal sales of recreational marijuana and create civil penalties for possessing more than a small amount of recreational cannabis. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said they would vote yes. |
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Question 9, a referendum on whether to keep the state's sweeping 2024 firearms law, looks set for a resounding affirmation of the law, with 70 percent of respondents saying they would vote to keep it and 18 percent saying they would repeal it. |
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These two are also the questions voters seem most sure about, with just 11 percent of voters undecided on each. That is the lowest undecided share of any of the nine questions on the ballot. |
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"People don't want to go backwards on these two things," said Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group. |
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“They might not love the Legislature,” Koczela said of voters, pointing to their strong support two years ago for a ballot question to audit lawmakers. “But they approve of what the Legislature did on firearms, at least.” |
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The survey of 800 likely voters was conducted online September 14 through 22. It has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4 percentage points. |
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Got questions about the 2026 Massachusetts ballot? We want to hear them – in your own voice. |
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CommonWealth Beacon is collecting listener questions for an upcoming episode of The Codcast. Record your question as an audio file and submit it using this form, or text your audio recording to (617) 858-0510. Please include your name and where you're reaching out from along with your question. |
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More from CommonWealth Beacon |
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FIRING LINE: A legal challenge before the state’s highest court targets the “suitability” part of the state’s firearm licensing statue, which gun rights advocates say allows licensing officials to use an unconstitutional level of discretion in deciding who can carry a gun in public. Jennifer Smith digs in. |
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ON TRACK: A Green Line shutdown for upgrades that started over the weekend is “essential” to the success of the Type 10 cars that MBTA leadership says are on track to begin running in 2027. Ella Adams of the State House News Service has more. |
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OPINION: The gas tax breaks proposed by Gov. Maura Healey and Republican challenger Mike Minogue are ill-advised, writes James Aloisi, a former Massachusetts secretary of transportation. It is profoundly wrongheaded, he says, to reduce the revenue stream at a time when our transportation system is suffering from chronic and worsening traffic congestion, when the public transportation system is undergoing a massive and long-overdue rehabilitation of its system, and when federal dollars for projects across the board are being withheld or clawed back by the Trump administration. |
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OPINION: MIT researchers are pushing back on a CommonWealth Beacon op-ed that criticized their study cautioning against cutting solar credits. The net effect of utility-scale solar on the delivery system’s costs runs in the other direction from what the op-ed claims, write Fischer Espiritu Argosino, a research assistant at the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR), and Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability at the MIT Sloan School of Management and director of CEEPR. |
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| Massachusetts is growing and reliable energy helps make that growth possible. National Grid is investing in the energy infrastructure that powers our homes and businesses, while supporting new housing, new jobs, and economic growth across the Commonwealth. | In Massachusetts, it all starts with safe, reliable energy. |
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SAGAMORE: The Healey administration is accepting bids for the massive Sagamore Bridge replacement project, the winner of which will be required to strike a project labor agreement for unionized construction work. (State House News Service via WBUR) |
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LAWRENCE: Two Lawrence city councilors expect voters to pursue a recall election against Mayor Brian DePeña following his indictment on state charges that he secretly taped City Hall employees and federal fraud charges. (GBH News) |
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EDUCATION: The massive increase in state K-12 school aid has not translated into a widespread increase in standardized test scores, fueling questions about return on investment for the billions of dollars spent and what the next policy change should be. (The Boston Globe – paywall) |
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AI: The dean of Harvard College said forthcoming artificial intelligence guidelines at the school will likely be advisory rather than a mandate applying to every course, even while acknowledging Harvard needs to “move faster” to tackle the issue. (The Harvard Crimson) |
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MBTA: Former MBTA employee Jensen Vatel pleaded guilty to falsifying inspection records on the Red Line and collecting overtime pay for shifts he did not work. (MassLive – paywall) |
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