Monday, November 12, 2012
If appointed, a special election would be held to fill Kerry's seat.
President Obama is considering appointing Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry as the Secretary of Defense, according to the Washington Post. Cabinet changeups are standard fare at the start of a second presidential term. Kerry, who is believed to want the Secretary of State job, would replace current Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, according to the Post. If appointed, Kerry would have to resign from the Senate and a special statewide election would have to be held to fill his seat. However, appointing Kerry to either seat could have political implications — it could mean the risk of losing Kerry's Senate seat in Massachusetts to Republicans, according to the New York Times. Obama not only would have to decide whether to risk Kerry's …
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
U.S. Senator Scott Brown will leave office in January. What should he do next?
U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, was defeated Tuesday by first time candidate Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat. Warren will take office as the state's junior senator in January. She'll replace Brown, who was elected in a special election in January 2010 when he defeated Democrat Martha Coakley. In his concession speech on Tuesday night, Brown told his supporters that "defeat is only temporary." As soon as the race was called, analysts began suggesting Brown may run for Massachusetts governor in 2014 or would seek the state's other U.S. Senate seat if Senator John Kerry is named Secretary of State under President Barack Obama in his second term. What should Brown do next? Tell us in the comments.
Lexington Democrat Mike Barrett defeats Chelmsford Republican Sandi Martinez to claim seat long held by retiring state Sen. Susan Fargo.
While they’re saying goodbye to Susan Fargo, the Democrats aren’t ready to let go of her seat in the state Senate. Lexington Democrat Mike Barrett, after outlasting four challengers from his own party in the primary, has defeated Sandi Martinez, a Republican from Chelmsford, to claim the Third Middlesex District seat Fargo, a Lincoln Democrat, held tightly for eight terms before deciding to retire. “I’m excited about returning to the Senate,” said Barrett, who was a state Senator from Cambridge from 1987 until a failed bid for governor in 1994. “Eighteen years older, probably not 18 years wiser, but I think smarter and I’m looking forward to it.” The Third Middlesex District represents Bedford, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Lincoln, …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voters made decisions on car repairs, assisted suicide and medical marijuana in the statewide election.
Question 1: Right to Repair Voters approved the “Right to Repair” ballot question, which would give consumers more choices when fixing a car in today's election. According to numbers on boston.com, 85 percent of voters approved the question, with 51 percent of the state reporting at 10:15 p.m. The initiative requires automakers to make computer software codes for repairs more accessible to independent repair shops and car owners by 2015. But in July, state legislators devised a compromise that would give carmakers until 2018 to comply with the new law, according to a Boston Globe report. By approving Question 1, voters trumped that compromise and enacted the “Right to Repair” act as written on the ballot. “Voters sent a clear message to …
Marilyn Pettito Devaney won with 75 percent of the vote in the district that covers more than 30 communities.
[Results updated at 9:35 a.m. on Nov. 7] Voters returned Watertown’s Marilyn Pettito Devaney to an eighth term on the Governor’s Council, Tuesday, supporting her by a wide margin in the race against Newton’s Thomas Sheff. With 95 percent of the 270 precincts counted, Pettito Devaney received nearly 74percent of the votes, according to results collected by Patch and Boston.com. Pettito Devaney, a former Watertown Town Councilor, received 230,222 votes, and Sheff, who had run for mayor in Newton in 2005, received 80,891 votes. Pettito Devaney defeated two challengers in the Democratic primary in September before facing Sheff, who ran as an un-enrolled candidate. The Third District of the Governor’s Council includes 32 communities, from …
Democrat Elizabeth Warren beat incumbent candidate Scott Brown in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race.
Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren has beaten incumbent Republican candidate Scott Brown for a seat on the U.S. Senate, according to the Associated Press. Warren is won by a margin of eight percentage points, 54 percent to 46 percent, making her the first female senator elected in Massachusetts. An estatic Warren addressed a crowd of hundreds of excited supporters at the Copley Fairmont Plaza hotel in Boston on Tuesday night. "We did what everyone thought was impossible," she said. "We taught a scrappy, first-time candidate how to win." "You took on the powerful Wall Street banks and let them know that you want a Senator out there fighting for the middle class all of the time," she said. "And despite the odds, you elected the first …
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Vote in our poll by sharing your thoughts in the comments field below.
A Washington Post/ABC poll released this week showed that 80 percent of voters feel President Obama has done a good job dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – a staunch supporter of Mitt Romney – praised Obama's response to the storm, which devastated parts of New Jersey and New York and caused serious damage in many other states, including Massachusetts. Obama also received the endorsement of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday, with Bloomberg citing Obama's handling of Hurricane Sandy as one of the main reasons he decided to support the president. Meanwhile, Romney's previous pledge to abolish FEMA hasn't helped him in the wake of the storm. What do you think? Will Hurricane …
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Who do you think has the momentum coming into these final days of the election campaign?
Democrat Elizabeth Warren is up by five points over incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown in the latest WBUR/MassINC poll of the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts. That's a near-total reversal of the last WBUR poll, which on Oct. 9 (right after the first presidential debate) had Brown up by four points. In fact, Warren has been trending upward in most recent polling. The New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog has Warren up by four in an average of recent polls. The blog, which uses advanced statistical modeling akin to baseball sabermetrics (think Moneyball) gives Warren an 89 percent chance of winning the election. But Brown's got some significant energy on his side as well. He's been barnstorming the state with political luminaries like …
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney squared off last night in the final presidential debate. Here's how Massachusetts Republicans and Democrats reacted.
Massachusetts Republicans and Democrats both expressed confidence in their candidates after the final presidential debate, with Republicans citing Gov. Mitt Romney projecting an image of a "capable Commander-in-Chief" and Democrats citing President Barack Obama's line about the military having "fewer horses and bayonets" as standout moments: that's the major finding of the Red and Blue Commonwealth flash polls sent out to local politicos immediately after the debate ended on Monday night. Obama and Romney faced off Monday night at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., with CBS's Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer moderating a debate that focused on foreign policy, but regularly delved back into domestic policy differences between the …
Monday, October 22, 2012
Foreign policy was the topic at this last debate between Obama and Romney. Which candidate's views resonated with you?
The US economy managed to be a dominant presence in the final presidential debate Monday night, even in a debate focused on foreign policy. The tone of the debate between Pres. Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney was calmer than the last meeting, as topics included the impact of a soaring US budget deficit on American strength and security as well as Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and more. Both men were articulate about their stands. But whose views spoke the most to you? Who do you trust with 'getting the 3 a.m. phone call'? Who won this final debate? Tell us in the comments below.
M C Stringfellow
7:16 pm on Wednesday, November 14, 2012
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