Another potential Walsh challenger bites the dust
A dramatic quote in a recent Boston Globe story about Mayor Marty Walsh’s standing in the black community suggested that State Representative Russell Holmes might challenge Walsh in the 2017. But Holmes tells me there’s absolutely, positively no way that’s going to happen.
In the quote that raised eyebrows, Holmes recounted what he’s told people who’ve attempted to recruit him for a mayoral challenge. “Clearly, [you’ll be] running against an incumbent,” he told the Globe. “My response to all of them is, ‘If you go after the king, you have to kill him.”
Yikes! But Holmes tells me he was simply dispensing advice to people who’ve been “hounding [him] for months” in search of a Walsh challenger—not announcing his intentions.
“Obviously, Marty and I are great friends,” Holmes, who served with Walsh in the Massachusetts House, said in Lowell. “I’m not running against the mayor. Not the current mayor.”
But as that “current” caveat suggests, it’s clear that Holmes wouldn’t mind being mayor someday—if it doesn’t involve a run against Walsh, that is.
“I think the mayor’s job is the most powerful job in the entire state, just because of the way the charter’s set up in Boston, which is very different than our [Massachusetts] Constitution,” he said.
(In Boston, the power balance between the mayor and the city council is tilted heavily in the mayor’s favor.)
So, just to be clear: is there any way you’d run against Walsh in the future? Maybe?
“No,” Holmes replied. “No.” – Adam Reilly
The Senate Versus The House
Both of the Legislature’s top two Democrats came to Lowell on Saturday carrying messages of accomplishment for carrying out liberal policies. But Senate President Stan Rosenberg politely dropped something of a gauntlet of challenge to House Speaker Robert DeLeo, calling on the House to enact many of the bills the upper chamber has already passed.
“The Senate’s been listening and we’ve been working, but there’s much more to be done,” Rosenberg said, adding the he’s proud the Senate has taken positions in tune with Democratic goals.
Rosenberg listed a number of liberal proposals the Senate has taken up and approved or worked on this session, including climate change, child services, consumer protection, housing reform and agriculture.
Without explicitly calling out the House for the lower chamber’s moderate bent and slower legislative pace, Rosenberg touted many of the accomplishments his Senate has already passed. He went so far as to attempt to start a chant of “get the job done” as he left the stage.
DeLeo’s ten 160-member House is a lot different from Rosenberg’s 40-member Senate. Compromise and consensus are often seen as the main engines for pushing legislation through the House.
DeLeo spoke about two mega-bills in front of the House now as time ticks away on the year’s legislative session, clean energy and economic development.
“We believe that for the sake of our climate and our economy, we need to promote clean and sustainable energy sources that will diversify the energy sources that we rely on,” DeLeo said, of the “omnibus” clean energy package currently working its way through the House.
Rosenberg took things further, listing a number of issues still caught up in the legislative process that he said can be delivered to Baker’s desk before the end of session in eight weeks, including hiring for people with disabilities and worker protections.
The Senate President mentioned that after years of languishing in the Legislature, a bill to combat pay inequity finally passed one of the chambers, his.
Both DeLeo and Rosenberg took victory laps over the success of the transgender accommodations bill that should soon see Baker’s signature after a lengthy campaign.
“You told us that transgender people deserve equal protection the law. The legislature has passed the transgender rights bill and it will be on the governor’s desk soon” Rosenberg said. – Mike Deehan
Healey Focuses On The Base
Before the convention kicked off on Saturday, Attorney General Maura Healey laid out some of the goals of what could be seen as an off-year for local campaigns.
“There’s never an off-year for Democrats,” Healey, one of the top office holders in the state and a Democratic leader, told reporters between greeting party members at the Tsongas Arena door.
“These are a lot of the workers, the organizers and the activists within the party who we really look to to help get out the vote and turn out the vote for the fall,” Healey said.
While she’s not up for reelection and there’s no Senate candidate to stump for, Healey said the focus for Massachusetts is on the presidential race.
“Events like this, it’s an opportunity for people to come together sort of refocus energy and attention on the job ahead. Which I think for us is about getting Hillary Clinton elected our next president and moving forward with that agenda,” Healey said.
Healey said that this election cycle is important because many disillusioned citizens are becoming active and interested instead of remaining uninvolved with politics and not holding elected officials accountable.
“As a result decisions get made and actions get taken and we wake up wondering what happened,” Healey said. – M.D.
Dems Of Color Carry Dem’s 'Big Tent’ Themes
Democratic convention-goers heard from a handful of new and upcoming speakers Saturday, showing a racial diversity throughout the blue team bench as the party addresses its post-Deval Patrick era.
Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera had the coveted speaking slot right before Sen. Elizabeth Warren unleashed her anti-Trump routine. Rivera hammered home the day’s theme of inclusion and the fruits of Democratic policies.
“I’m a kid from Lawrence. My mom came here from the Dominican Republic. I’m basically a poster child of great Democratic policies,” Rivera said, crediting everything from public assistance to after school programs and public higher education for helping him throughout his life.
“If it’s good enough for the this chubby kid from the projects to become mayor, it’s good for the next generation of kids from immigrant communities,” Rivera said.
During her remarks, Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry (D-Dorchester) gave a rallying response to Republican standard bearer Donald Trump’s campaign slogan to “Make America great again,” and focused on the strengths of diversity in America.
“America is great because as a daughter of immigrants, I am able to stand before you as a state senator from the first Suffolk District,” Forry told the crowd.
“No matter where we come from or how we got here, we’re all Democrats working together and looking ahead,” Forry said.
Newton Mayor Setti Warren is seen as a potential statewide candidate and told how his parents went from poverty in New York City to success in Newton in one generation.
“I knew my opportunities didn’t appear by accident, and that’s why I’m here today, Democrats. I’m here today because I know our generation must have the courage to act if we want to ensure that the next generation has the same opportunities that we have had,” Warren said.
The least senior elected official on the stage was Lowell’s own Rep. Rady Mom, a Cambodian immigrant elected to the House in 2014. Mom echoed the sentiment that Democrats welcome immigrants and promote the “American dream.” – M.D.
A Touch Of Raspberry
Several Donald Trump supporters sporting leather biker vests stood outside the Tsongas Arena early in the day with signs promoting the presumptive Republican nominee.
The Massachusetts Republican Party took a jab at their competition as well, with a statement released Saturday afternoon saying the Lowell “is getting a huge influx of hot air from the party that lost the governor’s office and legislative seats in 2014 but continues to push a highly toxic doctrine of higher taxes and more wasteful spending.” – M.D.
Could Elizabeth Warren Bridge The Clinton-Sanders Divide?
As the Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention started Saturday morning, a small group of die-hard Bernie Sanders backers stood outside the entrance to Tsongas Arena, holding an array of signs—“FEEL THE BERN,” “WE WIN ONLY WITH BERNIE”—that made their allegiance clear.
The political establishment, including the political media, has concluded for some time that Hillary Clinton’s nomination is all but inevitable. But Joe Warren of Lowell told me that he’s not ready to make that concession.
“I think he still has a really good chance,” Warren (no relation to the Massachusetts senator) said of Sanders. “I think that it’s been misrepresented in the media so far. The lead that Clinton has has been made to be bigger than it is, because of the superdelegates.
“It’s going be a contested convention either way,” he predicted. “I think Tuesday”—when California and five other states hold primaries and caucuses—“will go pretty good for him.”
Warren isn’t a registered Democrat. Asked what he’ll do if Clinton is the Democratic nominee, he equivocated—saying his opinion of her has dropped over the course of the campaign, but adding that what he termed “the whole get-Trump-out thing” might force his hand.
Clinton could make his choice easier, Warren said, by tapping Sanders as her vice-presidential pick.
And what if she picks Elizabeth Warren, whose vice-presidential buzz has been boosted by a recent report in the Boston Globe?
“I think it would be a fantastic choice,” Warren (again, no relation) said. “I think that she is possibly the only person that Clinton could pick that would maybe win over some of these Sanders supporters. But unfortunately, I think it’s going to be a much harder-to-elect ticket with two women. I think that, unfortunately, a lot of the country might not be ready to vote for that.”
Perhaps. Presumably, though, there are also a lot of people who’d be thrilled to smash ultimate glass ceiling with extra aplomb. –A.R.
Markey: Why Not Warren?
After a rousing speech in which he laid into Donald Trump repeatedly, and earned enthusiastic applause from the Tsongas Arena crowd, US Senator Ed Markey discussed theGlobe’s recent report that US Senate President Harry Reid is looking into how to keep Elizabeth Warren’s seat in Democratic hands if she’s tapped as Hilary Clinton’s running mate.
“Elizabeth Warren is an incredible national leader, and it’s possible that she could be the vice-presidential nominee,” Markey said. “And so I think it’s wise to begin to think, in an anticipatory way, of what all of that could lead to in terms of an unfolding political dynamic.”
For the record, Markey says no one from the Clinton campaign has spoken with him about a possible Clinton pick.
“I think what the Clinton campaign is doing right now is focusing on California next Tuesday,” he said. “I think she’s keeping her eye on the ball.”
And what about the possible risk of putting two women on the ticket?
“Well, that’s like saying, ‘Is it problematic to have Al Gore and Bill Clinton, two young Southern Democrats, on the ticket in 1992?’” Markey replied. “That worked out pretty well! So to say you can’t have two women would be the same kind of old thinking.” –A.R.
Pro-pot optimism
Will Luzier sat at a desk in the Tsongas Arena hallway, dispensing candies whose wrappers read “MARY JANE”—maybe not the best way to assuage concerns about kid-friendly edibles circulating in Massachusetts if marijuana is legalized. (These were THC-free. I think.)
But Luzier, who’s running the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, was feeling confident—even though he has reason to be pessimistic. After all, opposition to legalization from the state’s power brokers is widespread, and public support seems to be dropping.
Still, Luzier insists he’s bullish on legalization’s prospects come November, when voters around the state will weigh in on a ballot question that would give adults the ability to use the drug freely.
“We haven’t gone up on the air [with campaign ads] yet—we anticipate that we’ll do that in September through the end of November,” Luzier said. “And we’re confident that we’re going to be successful.”
Luzier did acknowledge that opposition in Massachusetts is more intense than it’s been in other states.
“This is the first time that any marijuana reform initiative has had an organized effort to raise money against us,” he said, referring to the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts.
But he also argues that pushback from figures like Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh only goes so far.
“In 2008, with decriminalization, the mayor and the governor were against it,” Luzier said. “In 2012, with medical marijuana, the mayor and the governor were against it.” [At the time, Boston’s mayor was Tom Menino, and Deval Patrick was the governor of Massachusetts.]
“Both of those efforts passed by over 60 percent,” Luzier added.
The legalization push could also be undermined by the attention that’s been recently devoted, in the State House and elsewhere, to the opioid epidemic. Mayor Walsh has linked the two issues, claiming that pot is a gateway drug. But Luzier insists that voters see the issues as distinct.
“The science says that marijuana’s not a gateway drug,” he said. “The science also says that the opioid problem is not related at all to marijuana, that it’s a problem of over-prescription of painkillers. And our focus groups indicate that people don’t really believe that there’s a connection between the opioid problem and the use of marijuana.” –A.R.
