Before reading my analysis below, go HERE and read the Globe’s endorsement of Question One. Done yet? If so, read on. I was quite pleased when the Boston Globe editorial board invited me to meet with them to explain why voters should reject or pass on Question One on the 2024 state ballot. The measure…
Category: ballot questions
Attorney General Campbell got the legislative audit question exactly right.
Click HERE for the CommonWealth Beacon story about Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s rejection of Auditor DiZoglio’s claim that her office has the legal authority to audit the legislature, with or without the legislature’s consent. Campbell’s analysis is entirely consistent with my earlier conclusion that DiZoglio’s push for legislative audit authority is a “well-intentioned bad idea.”…
Possible Criminality in Ballot Question Signature Gathering? I Am Shocked, Shocked.
Jon Chesto of the Boston Globe just posted a remarkable piece on the ballot question process in Massachusetts, Norfolk DA probing signature fraud on business-backed Uber/Lyft referendum. It helps illustrate how the ballot measure process, trumpeted as a means for the citizens to pass policy over the objections of the legislature, has become a plaything…
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…
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…
Mass Politics After the 2018 Elections: Still “Safe Harbor for Old School Pols & Politics”
Last spring I wrote a piece called “MASSPOLI#: Safe Harbor for Old School Pols & Politics” that began as follows: “American politics in 2018 is a hot mess. The Age of Trump will almost certainly be understood as a chaotic and terribly destructive time in American politics when our institutions were strained to the limit…
Naming Rights: How Should the Media Describe Dark Money Groups?
One coverage issue the local media should be reconsidering is how to describe dark and gray money political advocacy groups – operations like Democrats for Education Reform, Massachusetts Parents United, Stand for Children, and the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. The number one issue citizens should know in considering the positions of such groups is, who is…
Yes on Three
Coming out of the grocery store yesterday afternoon, I was miffed to see that there was a flyer stuck under my windshield wipers. For those of you who don’t know me, this is one of my pet peeves, most likely because I rarely notice them until I am driving down the road and they start…