Massachusetts Politics

Charlie Baker stepped away this week from the case of the State House lawn easement for real estate developers.   To do otherwise would have been foolish.   Our governor is no fool. As Baker stepped away, with Secretary of State Bill Galvin nipping at his heels, he seemed a little perturbed at having been drawn innocently into the matter.   The easement, he noted for the benefit of The Boston Globe, “has been approved by so many entities that are supposed to worry about those things,” meaning, “How the hell did I wind up worrying about this?” Here was an instance where a small matter causes a big problem for someone in high office, illustrating how vulnerable to harm and blame the mighty ones of our political system are.   Every day when you’re governor, something you don’t see coming can blow up in your face. Let’s recap the situation… Late last week, Baker filed a supplemental budget with the legislature that included an authorization to sell an easement to a piece...

For my money, John Sasso has produced the best analytical framework for understanding who will become the next President of the United States.   “Demographics and regional electoral factors do matter in the general election. But deep and emotional judgments about candidates ultimately drive Americans’ choice of a president,” Sasso wrote in a Boston Globe op-ed piece, (“The values battle in the general election,” 5-19-16).   “The most salient variables,” he continued, “are voter perceptions of three characteristics: a candidate’s personal political strength, voters’ trust in the depth and sincerity of the candidate’s convictions, and, most importantly, whether the voters think that the candidate ‘cares’ about people like them.” In Sasso’s opinion, “The experience of recent presidential elections suggests that convincing swing voters that you possess these qualities can make all the difference in voters’ final choices of a president.”   He concluded with: “This values battl...

The Boston Globe’s State House bureau chief, Frank Phillips, wrote that Charlie Baker’s decision to sign the transgender public accommodations bill on Friday, July 8 -- behind closed doors and with no fanfare -- “was not the most adroit political move.” Baker’s “socially liberal credentials took a hit with his decision not to have a celebratory signing ceremony for the legislation,” Phillips wrote.   The closed-door signing was, in Phillips’s words, a “slight that has rippled through the very disappointed LGBT community.”    Phillips thought Baker “appeared not entirely comfortable with the transgender issue.”   Further, Phillips speculated that the governor timed the release of a proposal to prevent undocumented immigrants from obtaining Massachusetts drivers’ licenses for Thursday, July 7, in order to shore up his standing with “his party’s right flank” in advance of signing the transgender bill. I respect Frank Phillips but disagree with him on this. I thi...

One of the smartest, most perceptive persons I have ever had the good fortune to know, a gentleman from Worcester who has had a long and highly successful career in accounting and insurance, once said to me, “I’m willing to insure you for your bad luck, but I’m not so ready to insure you for your bad behavior.” I thought of my friend’s comment on Wednesday morning of this week as I was standing outside the   Social Security office in the lobby of the Tip O’Neill federal building, 10 Causeway Street, Boston.   My wife and I were in line, waiting to be called for an appointment I had set up to discuss her eligibility for Medicare.   (Yes, damn it, we’re getting to “that age.”) Against my better instincts, I fell into a conversation with an old gent standing behind me who instantly tried to learn if I was a Trump supporter.   “Which one do you like?” he pressed.   The skeptical look on his face suggested he’d pegged me as a Hillary man.   “Neither,” said I. ...

In the summer of 1968, I was fortunate to land a job as a meat packer at Bolton & Smart, one of the many wholesalers then located in Boston’s Clinton Street Market, on what is now mainly the site of Christopher Columbus Park in the North End.   Bolton & Smart hired me because a friend of mine from Revere, Ronnie Tempesta, a meat cutter there, brought me to the boss one morning and said he wanted me to have the job.   They liked Ronnie because he worked so hard you’d think he owned the company.   Also, Ronnie was born likeable: he got people laughing all the time, which is a major virtue in a group of men working all day in a gigantic refrigerator.   There were many applicants for that meat packing job because it paid a union wage, $2.67 an hour.   The minimum wage at the time was about $1.40, I think. The end of my first week, I was initiated into a custom cherished by most Bolton & Smart front-line employees: the mid-afternoon Friday drinking break....