Today the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled for Governor Charlie Baker in a lawsuit underwritten by Charles Koch and sponsored by Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance/Fiscal Alliance Foundation in which MFA sought to undo the governor’s emergency public health powers—just as Covid-19 is raging across the land. It wasn’t close. This was really a case about conflicting ideologies….
Author: Maurice Cunningham
Professor Cunningham Ph.D., J.D., is author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization. He retired in 2021 as associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston but he continues his research into dark money in politics. His two reports on the dark money threat to public education are available on the Network for Public Education website: Merchants of Deception: Parent Props and their Funders, and “A Citizen’s Guide to the School Privatization Movement” (forthcoming). His work has been distributed through the Independent Media Institute and has appeared in The Bucks County Beacon (PA), Shepherd Express (WI), Alternet, Tampa Bay Times, The Daily Progress (VA), Idaho Education News, New Hampshire Bulletin, The Detroit Free Press, and The Portland Press-Herald (ME), and at Diane Ravitch’s Blog, dianeravitch.net.. His work on dark money in Massachusetts has earned him the 2017 Distinguished Public Service Award from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and the 2018 MTA President’s Award from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Education historian Diane Ravitch has named Professor Cunningham to her "Honor Roll" on her education blog. He can be reached at maurice.cunningham153@gmail.com.
Publications that focus upon Massachusetts Politics include two co-written chapters in the edited volume The Politics of Massachusetts Exceptionalism: Reputation Meets Reality. He has also written “Defeating ‘Death with Dignity’: Morality and Message in a Massachusetts Referendum” in American Catholic Studies (2014); “Massachusetts Politics 2012” in New England Journal of Political Science (2012); “A Christian Coalition for Catholics?: The Massachusetts Model,” Review of Religious Research (2009); and “Massachusetts Republicans: the 2004 Challenge to Democratic Legislative Hegemony,” in New England Journal of Political Science (2008).
The Billionaire Backers of Ranked Choice: To Save the Village, We Must Destroy the Village
Lucky you, Massachusetts! Texas billionaire John Arnold is going to save democracy in the Bay State! Unfortunately he is helping to destroy democracy in the process. That is the upshot of today’s outstanding Matt Stout story in The Boston Globe, Who Are The Out-of-State Billionaires Backing Ranked Choice Voting in Massachusetts? According to the story…
I apologize to Sen. Mike Lee. He’s Right, America’s isn’t a Democracy.
I apologize to Republican Senator Mike Lee. Yesterday Sen. Lee tweeted out that America isn’t a democracy at all, and I made fun of him. I’m embarrassed because Sen. Lee is right. American is not a democracy. It’s an oligarchy. Here’s the tweet from Sen. Lee (R-Quarantine) that set off Twitter: True Sen…
GOP: The Party of Property Sovereignty, Not the Party of Lincoln
In 1859 Abraham Lincoln was invited to Boston for a speaking engagement, but could not come. Instead, he wrote a Letter to H.L. Pierce and the Boston Republicans in which he mused upon how the political parties had switched positions over the years on the questions of liberty and property. The Democrats had been the…
Abraham Lincoln, 1864: “this administration will not be reelected’
In the summer of 1864, during the crisis of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was facing a reelection campaign. The political and military conditions of the Union were dire. Lincoln did not think he would win reelection. He wrote out the following and sealed it in an envelope, asking his Cabinet members to sign…
UnKoch Tufts
Massachusetts has a new Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University to provide analysis of pending legislation and that’s good news. The center is being funded by Charles Koch and that’s bad news. The basics of the new center are laid out in CommonwealthMagazine in New Tufts Center to Offer Independent Analysis of Legislation,…
One of #Mapoli’s Biggest Influencers is John Arnold of Texas
Here’s a little something from Matt Stout’s story in today’s Boston Globe, After Centuries of Picking One Candidate per Office, Should Voters Rank their Preference Instead? Concerning the fundraising of The Ranked Choice Voting 2020 Committee: John Arnold has pumped some of his billions into Massachusetts policy and politics in recent years. John…
Charles Koch Buys into National Parents Union
There’s millions of dollars sloshing around Massachusetts Parents United and National Parents Union these days. Some of it is from Charles Koch. That’s the takeaway from a recent story in the Walton-funded online publication The74: The Koch connection was apparent when Charles Koch put a proxy on the board of National Parents Union….
Abraham Lincoln: “We can not have free government without elections”
This morning the president of the United States threatened to delay (cancel) an election he is obviously losing. I’m not going to comment, but Abraham Lincoln already has, in his post-election Response to a Serenade of November 10, 1964: It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong…
Gov. Baker’s School Reopening Panel–Waltons Win Again?
With the national coronavirus situation grim Massachusetts is doing better and is preparing to reopen—including schools. Governor Charlie Baker’s reopening panels (No Place for Heroes) have been long on C-suite types (Zoom!) and short on front line workers. In the case of the school reopening panels, a solid five of the five “parent” members are…