In 2011 Stand for Children CEO Jonah Edelman boasted to the Aspen Ideas Festival of a legislative win over unions in Chicago, crowing that Stand had been able to “jam this proposal down their throats.” He won’t be invited back to brag on Boston. Last Friday Edelman announced that Stand for Children would abandon Massachusetts….
Can Alex Morse Do What Ayanna Pressley Did?
Alex Morse, the 30 year old Mayor of Holyoke, will challenge Congressman Richie Neal in a Democratic primary next year. Observers are asking the same question about this race as they did about the 2018 challenges to Congressman Neal and Congressman Capuano. Is it about progressive insurgency or generational change in the Bay State’s establishment-friendly…
The Boston Globe’s Latest “Bold Types.” Or, How New England Aquarium Learned to Love Koch Industries
The Boston Globe’s latest “Bold Types” entry sponsored by Koch Industries is out and the phrase “jumped the shark” may need to be retired. The climate denying Koch Brothers paying for a puff piece with the ocean hugging CEO of New England Aquarium? On Tuesday afternoon I scrolled down my phone onto the home page…
How Will GreenWorks Fare in the Senate?
Roughly two months after its introduction, GreenWorks (H. 3987) passed the Massachusetts House with a unanimous vote on Wednesday. Although the bill makes a number of important investments in clean energy programs, it places special emphasis on climate adaptation and resilience. To achieve these goals, it authorizes the state to borrow $1.3 billion, which will…
Answering that DFER Candidate Questionnaire: Are You for Dark Money, or Are You for Democracy?
Municipal candidates are busy filling out questionnaires from interest groups including one from Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts. I can help with that one because there’s only one real question: do you stand for dark money in politics, or will you fight for democracy? Dark money is vast sums poured into a front organization from…
The Boston Globe-Barr Foundation Marriage and the Rise of Philanthro-Interest Group Journalism
The announcement last week of the $600,000 grant from the Barr Foundation to the Boston Globe was presented as a public spirited philanthropy offering the Globe the means to research our education system’s failures and report back on how to fix them. It is not. It is the dawn of philanthro-interest group journalism. That’s a…
Globe Editors Phone It In on OML Proposal
The recent Boston Globe editorial endorsing the repeal of the state legislature’s statutory exemption from the requirements of the Open Meeting Law is, to put it mildly, neither well-argued nor persuasive. It was interesting to me that the least reasonable claims in the editorial were offered via quotes from Mary Connaughton, the “director of government…
Masslive Misfires on Editorial on Massachusetts Parents United of Arkansas
Back on June 10 Masslive.com ran an editorial titled Meet the Newest Education Union: Parents which turned out not to be about education or unions at all but about the WalMart-heir front Massachusetts Parents United of Arkansas. Helpful as always I sent an op-ed to Masslive setting the record straight but they paid no attention….
This Week in Philanthropies as Interest Groups
One thing we don’t see often enough in political coverage is the forthright identification of philanthropic non-profits as interest groups. There were some positive signs this week. First, the Boston Globe’s Rhode Island coverage featured Dan McGowan’s story The Providence Mayor Raised Thousands of Dollars for a Nonprofit with Ties to His Campaign, Then he…
Don’t Pay Interns, Can’t Have Interns
It is almost summer. For many organizations in Boston, that means intern season. I direct the internship program in the Political Science Department at UMass Boston and have a message: if you don’t pay your interns, you can’t have interns. I know what some of you are thinking: our budgets are too tight! We want…