Blue Mass Group

Rep. Mike Festa (D-Melrose) will announce tomorrow (Wednesday) that he is endorsing Gerry Leone for Middlesex County District Attorney, according to a source close to the Leone campaign.  The source reports that Festa’s announcement is set for 3:00 pm on the steps of the State House. Festa was a candidate for Middlesex DA before leaving the race in mid-February, and he had picked up support from progressive legislators and citizens.  Leone’s opponent, Jarrett Barrios, has the backing of some progressives, but Festa’s endorsement of Leone seems likely to burnish Leone’s credentials with as-yet uncommitted progressives.  Some Festa backers had already announced that they would back Leone after Festa withdrew from the race; Festa’s formal endorsement of Leone seems likely to accelerate that trend, and therefore doesn’t seem like good news for Barrios. After interviewing Leone, I wrote that I thought there was a lot more to Leone than just his undeniably impressive resume as a prosecutor.  It would appear that Mike Festa thinks so too.  I’ll be interested to see what Festa has to say tomorrow afternoon. UPDATE: The Leone campaign has just put out a media advisory confirming the event for 3 pm in front of the State House.

Just to be on the record as saying that Russ Feingold is totally, absolutely right about the cool reception his censure resolution has gotten from Senate Dems: I’m amazed at Democrats, cowering with this president’s numbers so low. Let’s think about this: The President breaks the law; admits it, and essentially dares Congress to do something about it. Is this OK with you, Senate Democrats? Many Senators (e.g. Joementum) are talking about post hoc legalizing the stuff the President did. Nutty. Russ Feingold has called the Senate’s bluff. About time.

I seem to remember a Deval Patrick supporter, and I can’t remember who, so I’m not going to try and guess, saying that “one poll was a fluke, and two is a trend” … so I’m left wondering, what is three polls in the same direction?  It’s certainly not a fluke, certainly more than a trend … I’ll leave the labels up to others, but Merrimack College has a new poll out with AG Reilly trouncing Kerry Healey and Christy Mihos in the general, and with a double digit lead over Mr. Patrick in the primary.  Making it the 3rd such poll in recent weeks to do so.

When I flip through the Globe (or click, as it were) I tend to focus only on the “National”, “City and Region” and “Opinion” sections. I sometimes forget how much important news is covered in the “Business” section of the Globe. Aside from mergers and aquisitions, the Globe business team tends to get a lot of the growth and development stories. Take for instance today’s article about a successful bid to block box stores in Somerville. The Mystic View Task force filed to block development of box stores because of the community impact the development would create. I don’t know the fine details of the case, but I do know this hits at zoning and growth issues Massachusetts continues to struggle with. We’re concerned with housing costs and quality of life in our communities — this is a story from the front lines. One of the many things which makes Blue Mass Group and other blogs great is their ability to dig past the media echo chamber to articles which might not get the coverage they deserve (like David’s post about Kerry Romney’s proposal to demolish the separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches.) Do you read through [...]

Today’s Herald reports that Republican Gov candidate Kerry Healey has called for a new “review board” that would have the power to recommend the removal of judges from office.  A constitutional amendment would be required to give this board the authority she wants it to have. Under Healey’s proposal, every judge in the state would be reviewed every seven years by this supposedly “independent” board.  (And who names the members of this board?  Why, the Governor, of course.)  The board could recommend that any judge be removed from office.  Removal would require approval of the Governor and the concurrence of the eight-member Governor’s Council (a body not noted for its independence). This is a terrible idea for a couple of reasons.  First: it demolishes the separation of powers and the notion of an independent judiciary by placing the fate of judges entirely in the hands of the executive branch – the board that could recommend removal would consist of gubernatorial appointees, and the final decision would belong to the Governor and the Council.  Tom DeLay, who has urged the destruction of the separation of powers in a different way with respect to judges, would be proud. Second: it’s unnecessary.  The [...]

First of all, having been Jill Stein’s running mate in 2002, our vote total would NOT have been enough to change the outcome of the election. Shanon O’Brien blew that election all on her own. Second, the “spoiler” argument assumes that votes “belong” to Democrats, when in reality votes belong to voters and to cast a vote for the candidate one thinks is the best candidate is the essence of democracy. Third, bills introducing Instant Run Off or rank choice voting, have been introduced in the last two legistlative sessions on Beacon Hill. If Democrats are AFRAID of real democracy, all they have to do is pass real election reform, ask John Bonifaz about it, he’s one of you (I don’t know why). You have over an 80% control of the legislature, we can have IRV next week and for the next election cylce (if not this one), so any fear of “spoilers” is your own fault. Fourth, in 2002 most of our (the Stein-Lorenzen ticket) supporters were not people who would have otherwise voted for O’Brien, they were people, who had we not been running, would have otherwise not voted, because there were no other candidates running to vote [...]