Secretary of state race stirring
Rausch's interest in serving as the state's top elections official wouldn't be coming out of left field: The Needham Democrat is pushing several election reform bills this session, including wide-ranging legislation that would 'make several sorely needed improvements to voting access and elections infrastructure,' according to the bill summary.
Secretary of State Bill Galvin hasn't officially said whether he'll seek another term, but multiple #mapoli observers we checked in with expect him to run again next year. Galvin broke the record to become the longest-serving secretary of state in Massachusetts when he won his eighth term in 2022.
Galvin has fended off a series of primaries from younger, more progressive challengers in recent years — mostly recently from the NAACP's Tanisha Sullivan in 2022 and from then-Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim in 2018.
Raucsh has been steadily padding her campaign coffers in recent months — she had more than $113,000 on hand at the end of June. But that's likely to be far less than Galvin, who had more than $1.8 million in his campaign account at the end of last month.
GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Meanwhile in New Hampshire …
A group of prominent Democrats in the Granite State is launching a campaign to bring Democrats with national profiles to the early primary voting state with an eye toward 2026 — and 2028.
Rep. Ro Khanna will kick off the town hall-style series Aug. 31, and more meetings are in the works for the fall, organizers told Playbook. Jim Demers, a longtime Democratic strategist and former New Hampshire state representative, is leading the effort along with New Hampshire state Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, state Rep. Alexis Simpson, and Democratic National Committee members Bill Shaheen, Donna Soucy and Joanne Dowdell.
The goal isn't just to draw presidential hopefuls to New Hampshire amid a battle over the state's longtime 'first-in-the-nation' primary status, though some involved are pushing to bring the long-standing tradition back to New Hampshire.
While some of the speakers 'may see it as an audition for 2028,' Demers told Playbook, 'I think we really see it as an opportunity to make the voters aware that the Democratic Party is alive and we have leaders who are willing to stand up on the issues they care about.'
The conversations, hosted at St. Anselm College in Manchester in conjunction with the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, will have two parts: A reception where voters can meet and lob questions at the visiting politician and a traditional town hall.
TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey has no public events. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll testifies on the Mass Ready Act, Healey's infrastructure bond bill, at 1 p.m. at the State House. Sen. Ed Markey hosts a press conference announcing the reintroduction of the State-Based Universal Health Care Act at 9:30 a.m. in D.C. Rep. Ayanna Pressley hosts a press conference to launch a Community Safety Agenda at 2 p.m. in D.C. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu kicks off the third phase of a program that uses city-owned land to create homeownership opportunities at noon in Dorchester.
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Drop me a line: kgarrity@politico.com.
DATELINE BEACON HILL
CASH DASH — A group of lawyers and energy executives is hosting a 'Clean Energy Leaders for Maura' fundraiser Thursday in Boston, per the invite.
Among those listed on the host committee: Alicia Barton, the CEO of Vineyard Offshore, an offshore wind company founded by the same team that established Vineyard Wind; Dan Berwick, the CEO New Leaf Energy; and former Somerville Mayor Joe Curatone, now president of The Alliance for Climate Transition. Suggested donations range from $250 to $2,500.
— Healey cost-cutting plan gets cool treatment from Mariano by Chris Lisinski, State House News Service: 'The top House Democrat will need to 'think long and hard' about Gov. Maura Healey's request for additional cost-cutting powers over the state budget as Beacon Hill braces for potential fiscal upheaval. Ten days after Healey rolled out her budget vetoes and new legislation designed to prepare for federal funding cuts, House Speaker Ron Mariano said he and his team had not yet talked much about what kind of response they will offer.'
MORE — Gov. Healey had quasi-public agencies in mind amid push to expand budget cutting powers by Chris Van Buskirk, Boston Herald: 'As [Gov. Maura] Healey signed a $61 billion yearly spending plan earlier this month, she also filed legislation to grant her more authority to slash spending across all of state government instead of just the executive branch that she oversees. Her office argued that Massachusetts could face fiscal troubles as a result of actions taken by President Donald Trump over the past seven months. After an unrelated event at the State House Monday, Healey said the same budget-cutting rules that apply to executive branch agencies should apply to quasi-public agencies.'
TRAVEL LOG — After her office declined to share details while she was away, Gov. Maura Healey told reporters Monday that she spent the last week in France with her family and returned Saturday. More from the Boston Herald.
— Drought management not included in Healey's $3 billion environmental bond bill by Bhaamati Borkhetaria, CommonWealth Beacon.
WHAT'S ON CAMPBELL'S DOCKET
— Campbell, state AGs sue Trump over $6.8B in frozen school funds by John L. Micek, MassLive: 'Democratic attorneys general and two governors from two dozen states sued the Trump administration on Monday, arguing the Republican White House unconstitutionally froze more than $6 billion in public school funding. The loss of the cash, previously approved by Congress, threw a wrench into summer and after-school programs across the country, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell and several of her colleagues said during a news conference. The Bay State's share came out to $108 million, according to the Healey administration.'
THE RACE FOR CITY HALL
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll are endorsing Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne for reelection, according to her campaign. Ballantyne is 'the proven leader we need at the local level to support our administration's efforts to reduce the cost of housing, grow our economy, tackle climate change and increase opportunities for all,' Healey and Driscoll said in a statement.
— Longtime New Bedford City Councilor Linda Morad to retire by Colin Hogan, The New Bedford Light:.
— Bike lanes are a hot topic in the race for Boston's top office by Andrea Perdomo-Hernandez, WBUR.
PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES
— Study shows MBTA costs way up since spending control board disbanded by Matthew Medsgar, Boston Herald: 'The cost of running the MBTA has climbed dramatically since the phase out of the agency's Fiscal and Management Control Board, according to a new study by the Pioneer Institute. While the study acknowledges that there have been notable improvements to the reliability of subway service and that many of the MBTA's notorious 'slow zones' have been repaired and removed, the system's operating costs have nevertheless grown by leaps and bounds since the control board was eliminated four years ago.'
FROM THE DELEGATION
— Moulton calls on Democrats to reboot ahead of midterms by Christian M. Wade, The Eagle-Tribune: 'U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton said Democrats need to rebrand their message to focus on the economy, immigration reform and other issues that matter to voters, if they hope to regain control of Congress in next year's midterm elections. Speaking to a gathering of business leaders Monday at the New England Council's 'Capitol Hill Report,' the Salem Democrat said the party's brand is damaged and needs to be rebuilt if it hopes to win control of Congress to push back against President Donald Trump's second-term actions.'
FROM THE 413
— Will SBA reopen office in WMass? Lawmakers have questions by Daniel Jackson, The Springfield Republican: 'The head of the U.S. Small Business Administration told lawmakers last month that the agency is looking to reopen an office in Western Massachusetts after cuts in March closed the office in Springfield. The lawmakers, however, remain skeptical. Last week, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told fellow senators the fate of the Springfield SBA office was one of several matters where he could not get full answers from the agency. U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, said in a statement Monday the agency lacked a concrete plan to reopen the office.'
— Candidates emerge for town election in Amherst by Scott Merzbach, Daily Hampshire Gazette: 'A week after nomination forms for the Nov. 4 election became available at the town clerk's office, and as of Tuesday, eight residents have pulled papers to run for Town Council, which has three at-large seats as well as two seats in each of five districts. For councilor-at-large, incumbent Mandi Jo Hanneke of Foxglove Lane, has gotten nomination papers. Also getting papers are current District 2 Councilor Lynn Griesemer, of Flat Hills Road, Andy Churchill, of Pomeroy Lane, who chaired the Charter Review Committee and previously served on the School Committee, and Dillon Maxfield, of North Pleasant Street, who ran for a council seat seven years ago and has been on the town's Board of License Commissioners.'
— Pittsfield narrows its open container law and sets limits on flag displays on city property by Maryjane Williams, The Berkshire Eagle.
THE LOCAL ANGLE
— Lax oversight of assisted living facilities may have left Gabriel House vulnerable by Marin Wolf, Jason Laughlin and Ava Berger, The Boston Globe: 'The Gabriel House assisted living facility did not perform fire drills or train workers in evacuation procedures and was also understaffed and poorly maintained, according to a current and former employee interviewed in the aftermath of the fatal fire there that killed nine residents. … Advocates for the state's seniors said there are longstanding concerns about lax oversight of assisted living facilities, which offer some personal assistance but not the type of intensive medical care provided at nursing homes.'
RELATED — Fall River mayor on fatal fire at assisted living facility by Lisa Mullins, WBUR.
— Newton mayor defends yellow line decision ahead of Italian festival by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: 'It wasn't a full 'mi scusi' from Newton's mayor in the wake of LineGate, but she did admit that the city 'missed the mark in communicating' about the decision to remove the red, white, and green street lines ahead of this week's Italian festival. Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller has been facing heat from residents after the city in the middle of the night ordered workers to paint the road lines on Nonantum's Adams Street yellow. … Before the city painted the reflective yellow center lines, Fuller said the city gave the OK for Festa volunteers to repaint the tricolors on Adams Street — moved over by 12″ or 18″ next to the double yellow center lines. The mayor stressed that the decision for yellow lines on the two-way street was for public safety.'
— 7 police officers placed on leave after Haverhill man's death by Jill Harmacinski, The Eagle-Tribune: 'Seven city police officers are now on paid leave amid the continuing investigation into the death of Francis Gigliotti, 43, who died while being restrained by police Friday evening. The seven officers were not identified by Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker, who confirmed they were placed on leave after speaking with Haverhill police Chief Robert Pistone early Monday evening.'
— A city-owned grocery store in Worcester? Councilor wants to look into it by Afton Pratt, Telegram & Gazette.
— Brockton settles whistleblower lawsuit with schools assistant CFO by Chris Helms and Jacob Posner, The Brockton Enterprise.
HEARD 'ROUND THE BUBBLAH
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Associated Press
26 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Democrats and advocates criticize Trump's executive order on homelessness
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Leading Democrats and advocates for the homeless are criticizing an executive order President Donald Trump signed this week aimed at removing homeless people from the streets, possibly by committing them for mental health or drug treatment without their consent. Trump directed some of his Cabinet heads to prioritize funding to cities that crack down on open drug use and street camping, with the goal of making people feel safer. It's not compassionate to do nothing, the order states. 'Shifting these individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment is the most proven way to restore public order,' the order reads. Homelessness has become a bigger problem in recent years as the cost of housing increased, especially in states such as California where there aren't enough homes to meet demand. At the same time, drug addiction and overdoses have soared with the availability of cheap and potent fentanyl. The president's order might be aimed at liberal cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, which Trump views as too lax about conditions on their streets. But many of the concepts have already been proposed or tested in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic mayors have worked for years to get people off the streets and into treatment. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court made it easier for cities to clear encampments even if the people living in them have nowhere else to go. Still, advocates say Trump's new order is vague, punitive and won't effectively end homelessness. Newsom has directed cities to clean up homeless encampments and he's funneled more money into programs to treat addiction and mental health disorders. His office said Friday that Trump's order relies on harmful stereotypes and focuses more on 'creating distracting headlines and settling old scores.' 'But, his imitation (even poorly executed) is the highest form of flattery,' spokesperson Tara Gallegos said in a statement, referring to the president calling for strategies already in use in California. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has also emphasized the importance of clean and orderly streets in banning homeless people from living in RVs and urging people to accept the city's offers of shelter. In Silicon Valley, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan recently pushed a policy change that makes a person eligible for jail if they reject three offers of shelter. Trump's executive order tasks Attorney General Pam Bondi and the secretaries for health, housing and transportation to prioritize grants to states and local governments that enforce bans on open drug use and street camping. Devon Kurtz, the public safety policy director at the Cicero Institute, a conservative policy group that has advocated for several of the provisions of the executive order, said the organization is 'delighted' by the order. He acknowledged that California has already been moving to ban encampments since the Supreme Court's decision. But he said Trump's order adds teeth to that shift, Kurtz said. 'It's a clear message to these communities that were still sort of uncomfortable because it was such a big change in policy,' Kurtz said. But Steve Berg, chief policy officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, called parts of the order vague. He said the U.S. abandoned forced institutionalization decades ago because it was too expensive and raised moral and legal concerns. 'What is problematic about this executive order is not so much that law enforcement is involved — it's what it calls on law enforcement to do, which is to forcibly lock people up,' Berg said. 'That's not the right approach to dealing with homelessness.' The mayor of California's most populous city, Los Angeles, is at odds with the Newsom and Trump administrations on homelessness. Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, opposes punishing sweeps and says the city has reduced street homelessness by working with homeless people to get them into shelter or housing. 'Moving people from one street to the next or from the street to jail and back again will not solve this problem,' she said in a statement. ___ Kramon reported from Atlanta. She is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Politico
28 minutes ago
- Politico
The red state broadcaster bracing for funding cuts
Presented by Chevron Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben President DONALD TRUMP on Thursday signed legislation making sharp cuts to public broadcasting. Now, small, rural radio and TV stations across the country are bracing for the worst. One of those outlets is KEDT-TV/FM, a public radio and TV station in Corpus Christi, Texas. It's the only radio station in the region that has a news department, said station president and general manager DON DUNLAP, and covers a rural service area with a primarily Republican, low-income and Spanish-speaking audience. 'There are 10 public TV stations in Texas, and we're thinking probably six of them will close down within a year,' Dunlap predicted in an interview with West Wing Playbook. The White House maintains that the cuts — included in a rescissions package clawing back about $9 billion in previously approved federal funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid — would limit the taxpayer dollars going to NPR and PBS, the independent but publicly funded news outlets Republicans have long accused of peddling a leftwing bias. 'Democratic paper-pushers masquerading as reporters don't deserve taxpayer subsidies, and NPR and PBS will have to learn to survive on their own,' said White House principal deputy press secretary HARRISON FIELDS. 'Unfortunately for them, their only lifeline was taxpayer dollars, and that ended when President Trump was sworn in.' But critics, including four Congressional Republicans, have maintained that the rescissions would imperil dozens of local newsrooms with little connection to the national organizations — many in rural, deep-red areas. 'I think [lawmakers'] decisions were not informed,' Dunlap said. 'We're there to help people.' This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How will the passage of the rescissions package affect your stations? We would have to make a decision whether we're going to shut down the television service or we have to shut down the radio service. Both of them provide unique services in these communities that are not going to be picked up by commercial media, because the content is not commercially viable. There are other secondary impacts that we don't have any data on right now. What is it going to do to our programming costs? We buy about $600,000 worth of programming from NPR and PBS, and obviously their programming model is going to have to change if there are fewer stations involved. All these different unknowns make this scenario planning very, very difficult. Republicans say they're defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because NPR and PBS propagate left-wing positions. You're in a red district in a red state — how do you respond to that? That's said by a lot of people who don't listen or watch what we're doing here. On the TV side, there's just no way that we could even have two sides to something. What's the political side of bald eagles or nature programs about hurricanes or volcanoes, or classical music programming to play on the radio? There's no political side to that. We have a program on the radio called 'All Things Considered.' I think the nature of that program is what these people don't like. Some people don't like things to be talked about or covered. They want their information limited. So then they have to come up with a name for it, call it 'woke' or something. Both of Texas's senators supported the rescissions, as did your congressman, Rep. MICHAEL CLOUD (R-Texas). Have you spoken to any of them? Michael has been over here to the station, actually. We do an academic quiz show for high school kids that just finished season 20 … and we had him ask some questions about government. What I have found — watching the Congressional testimony and during our visits to the Hill — is that these members and senators have so much information coming to them. The only ones that really know anything in depth about it are their staff, and they're just boiled down to a couple of talking points. A spokesperson for Cloud did not respond to a request for comment. It's likely that many of your listeners are Republicans, too. What do they think about the cuts? We've had a ton of phone calls about all this. I haven't heard from anybody who supports cuts to public broadcasting. We have a big service with the schools down here. We work with over 100 school districts in South Texas, which we provide with PBS LearningMedia — over 120,000 educational videos. It's highly used in the schools, but nobody mentions that as one of the services that we do. MESSAGE US — West Wing Playbook is obsessively covering the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government. Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at westwingtips@ Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe! POTUS PUZZLER Under which president was the Fine Arts Committee for the White House created? (Answer at bottom.) 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Energy Secretary CHRIS WRIGHT has been a major proponent of the labs, calling them important for implementing the administration's energy priorities. Even as the administration builds additional data centers throughout the country, the president's proposed budget for fiscal 2026 would slash funding for many lab programs, including Lawrence Berkeley. What We're Reading Inside Trump's plan to keep control of Congress in 2026 (POLITICO's Jake Traylor and Adam Wren) ChatGPT Gave Instructions for Murder, Self-Mutilation, and Devil Worship (The Atlantic's Lila Shroff) What the Timeline Reveals About Trump and the Epstein files (POLITICO's Ankush Khardori) Trump bump drives D.C. demand for house managers and private chefs (Axios' Mimi Montgomery) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER During the JOHN F. KENNEDY administration, first lady JACQUELINE KENNEDY created the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, made up of specialists in the field, and hired LORRAINE WAXMAN PEARCE as the first curator of the White House, according to the White House Historical Association. To learn more about the presidents and first ladies and how to draw them, check out How to Draw the Presidents and First Ladies.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
The ‘woke right' free-trade critics are only fooling themselves
Capitalism gets a lot of hate. I expect it from the left. They blame free markets for racism, 'horrifying inequality' and even, according to economist Joseph Stiglitz, 'accelerating climate change.' People on the right generally defend capitalism, but today, a growing number agree with the left. Advertisement Author James Lindsay says, 'They make the exact same arguments that we've heard for decades: 'capitalism has made everything about the dollar. Everything's about GDP . . . you lose everything that really matters, like kinship and nation and identity.' ' Tucker Carlson, who Lindsay calls 'woke right,' praises Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's economic programs, saying they 'make obvious sense.' 'Astonishing!' says Lindsay. Advertisement 'Warren put forth something called the 'Accountable Capitalism Act,' which was going to restrain the way that corporations are able to behave under the brand name of 'accountability'.' Even Vice President JD Vance attacks free trade. 'While the government shouldn't be controlling the American economy,' Vance said, 'we should . . . put a little bit of a thumb on the scale . . . protect nascent industries from foreign competition.' That is 'just another way of saying, 'your company got too big, so we need to take some of your property and distribute it further down the chain,'' says Lindsay. Advertisement The veep is 'very against large multinational corporations and the things that they do and wants to limit them.' But why? Large companies get large mostly by doing things right. Businesses don't make profits unless they please their customers. Look at places that mostly embrace free markets — the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand and Hong Kong (until China's government clamped down). Advertisement These are good places to live. People prosper when markets are free. 'It works!' says Lindsay. 'When you have free people who can engage freely with one another and trade . . . you actually have a rising of all ships. Because what you have is a people who are free to do with their things as they will. 'They, therefore, can implement their stuff, their money, their resources, their talents, whatever they happen to be, to solve problems for other people. And when you solve a problem for other people, even if it's a kind of silly thing, like entertaining them with a silly game on their phone, when you solve a problem for other people, they'll give you money for it in exchange.' Exactly: Trade is win-win. Otherwise, we wouldn't engage in it. So it puzzles me that as markets continue to lift more people out of poverty, capitalism faces more attacks — even from the right. 'The problem,' says Lindsay, is 'it requires people to be free . . . You can't control people who are free. 'So we need to have a government system to tell them to do the right thing in the name of the common good. That's the mentality.' Advertisement Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Lindsay once hoaxed a conservative magazine, American Reformer, into publishing part of the 'Communist Manifesto,' merely by substituting Christian nationalist language for words like 'proletariat.' When the editors learned that they'd been tricked, they left the article up, saying it was 'a reasonable aggregation of some New Right ideas.' Advertisement Yikes. Government-managed trade, protection for politically connected industries, state promotion of Christianity, speech restrictions, morality laws, state-owned industry, cronyism — these are bad ideas, no matter which side sells them. John Stossel is the author of 'Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.'
