The Horse Race

3/24/2022--This week on The Horse Race, a new development in the Republican primary race for governor. Candidate Geoff Diehl announced his running mate, Leah Cole Allen. Allen served briefly as a state representative in YEAR before becoming a nurse. "She keeps Diehl's ticket firmly in conservative territory," Lisa explains. Allen is anti-abortion, anti-mask and vaccine mandates, isn't vaccinated herself, and and told reporters she thinks there’s “enough evidence” to support the possibility of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

The race for Secretary of the Commonwealth also saw some developments this week. Candidate Tanisha Sullivan enjoyed a suite of endorsements from state Reps. Russell Holmes, Nika Elugardo and Liz Miranda; and Boston City Councilors Julia Mejia, Ruthzee Louijeune, Ricardo Arroyo, Kendra Lara and Tania Fernandes Anderson.

Last month, Senate President Karen Spilka appointed a new Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation -- Brendan Crighton. Sen. Crighton drops by The Horse Race to talk about leading on transportation in a time when congestion on the roads is as bad as it ever was and T ridership is a fraction of pre-pandemic levels.

Finally, Lisa delivers a recap of Wednesday's virtual event hosted by State House News wherein House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka provided insight into the priorities for the rest of this legislative session. Also, in a surprising turn of events. Mariano disclosed his endorsement for the Massachusetts governor's race in candidate and current state Attorney General Maura Healey.

3/17/2022-- Happy St. Patrick's Day from all of us at The Horse Race! Steve and Jennifer discuss the return of the in-person St. Patrick's Day breakfast, happening this Sunday. It's an almost annual tradition of Massachusetts politicians gathering and making jokes at one another's expense for what Jennifer describes as "basically a big Irish roast."

Plus, big news coming out of the U.S. Senate-- a bill passed that would make Daylight Saving permanent, ending the ritual of turning the clocks forward and backward and gracing us all with an extra hour of daylight in the winter. The development has Sen. Ed Markey who proposed the bill "walkin' on sunshine."

The Census undercount also made headlines this week. So far the U.S. Census Bureau has only released the national numbers, but if the nationwide undercount scales down proportionately to the state level, what could that mean for Massachusetts? Boston Indicators' Luc Schuster drops by The Horse Race to answer that question and more. For one thing, Luc says, "It would mean we missed almost 47,000 Latinos living in Massachusetts."

Finally, Matt Murphy of the State House News Service explains the proposed changes to our liquor license laws, brought to lawmakers by the Massachusetts Package Stores Association. It would effectively double the number of allowable licenses any one retailer can hold to 18 by 2031, but also reduce the cap on licenses for the sale of all alcoholic beverages from nine to seven. But it faces severe opposition from many food industry groups.

3/10/11-- This week, while certain industries are seeing patrons come back in droves amid the bottoming out of COVID cases -- arts and culture venues, restaurants, gyms -- one space that has yet to see such an influx are corporate office. Steve wrote about the risk this phenomenon poses to downtowns like Boston in CommonWealth.

And later, it's caucus season in Massachusetts. Yawu Miller, reporter for The Bay State Banner covered the ins and outs of the 2022 Massachusetts season. He stops by to share his insights about the importance of Ward 18, drastic changes to the caucus landscape since the 90s and even the 2010s, and what it all means for the electorate writ large.

3/3/2022--This week on The Horse Race, Jennifer, Steve, and Lisa discuss the growing field of candidates in two major statewide races: attorney general and lieutenant governor. Republican Jay McMahon, who’s run for political office in Massachusetts before, stepped into the race for state attorney general. Anthony Amore, the 2018 secretary of state candidate is now running for state auditor. And former state rep Kate Campanele joined as Chris Doughty’s running mate, making her the first Republican to enter the race for lieutenant governor.

Later, state Senator Diana DiZoglio drops by The Horse Race to talk aout her bid for state auditor. She explains her goal of bringing more transparency and accountability to how taxpayer money is spent, shares the details of her social justice plan, and, as Republican Anthony Amore makes his entrance into the race, discusses whether there is a partisan angle to the office.

2/24/2022--This week, the hosts are off for February school vacation. Please enjoy the 2022 edition of Horse Race outtakes, and we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week.

2/17/2022--Today on The Horse Race, we look ahead to next week’s reopening of the State House. After more than 700 days of closure due to COVID, doors open on Tuesday, and legislators will return to their offices.

In this week’s installment of State House Roundup, friends of the pod Katie Lannan and Chris Lisinski of State House News Service break down the ramifications of the in-person return and highlight the major policies being tackled on Beacon Hill now— namely, voting reform, a bill to create a pathway for undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers licenses, and a drug pricing transparency bill.

This week also saw the exit of Harvard professor Danielle Allen from the governor’s race. Allen cites the caucus and nominating process as major barriers to nontraditional candidates’ access to the ballot. Her departure leaves two remaining candidates in the Democratic primary — Attorney General Maura Healey and state Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz.

Full transcript: https://www.massincpolling.com/the-topline/episode-202-state-house-roundup-back-to-beacon-hill

2/10/2022-- This week on The Horse Race, Lisa and Jenn discuss this week’s announcement out of the Governor’s office that the mask mandate for schools will end Feb. 28 and the reactions from the candidates running for Governor which, unsurprisingly, follow party lines.

In the first of a series of segments interviewing State Auditor candidates, Jenn, Steve, and Lisa speak with Chris Dempsey, who speaks about his plans to audit the State Police and create an Auditor's commission on environmental justice.

2/3/2022--- This week on the horse race, Jenn, Steve, and Lisa discuss their brushes with the 24- hour record-breaking blizzard that hit the northeast this past weekend.

Shifting to the many races of 2022, Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell announced her campaign for Attorney General. Lisa spoke with Campbell about how policing reform fits in to the Attorney General’s office.

Meanwhile, in the race for Massachusetts governor, GOP candidate Geoff Diehl made waves as he hired Corey Lewandowski as a campaign senior advisor. Trump’s old super PAC & South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem cut ties with Lewandowski last fall after allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances toward a Trump donor at an event.

Steve shares the results of a new statewide poll stacking up Democratic primary candidates. Many voters are undecided but as of now, Maura Healey has the biggest swath of likely Democratic primary voter support of all the announced candidates. The survey asked people their support of issues such as rent control and early college.

Today's guest is Tanisha Sullivan, NAACP Boston Branch President, visits The Horse Race to share why she is running for Secretary of the Commonwealth, and what she'll do to expand voting rights and increase transparency in the state government.

1/27/2022--This week brings a handful of new campaign announcements. Among them, Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin who confirmed he is seeking his eighth term in office, State Treasurer Deb Goldberg who is running for re-election, labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan who announced her bid for Attorney General, and Chris Doughty, a moderate Republican businessman from Wrentham and new entrant into the race for governor of Massachusetts.

Jenn, Steve, and Lisa discuss Governor Baker's final State of the Commonwealth address that included plans for a slew of tax breaks.

The special guest on today's show is Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. After just over two months in office, she answers questions regarding her major policies thus far, and her plans for the future.

1/20/2022--This week on The Horse Race, two big campaign announcements hit the news. First, it's the one we've been waiting on for months. Attorney General Maura Healey is running for Governor. She enters the race after much anticipation and speculation with a rate of name recognition and funding that dwarfs that of her competitors.

Tanisha Sullivan, President of the Boston NAACP, announced her candidacy for Secretary of the Commonwealth. Bill Galvin, who has been in the position for almost three decades, has not yet announced whether he’ll run again.

Vaccine mandates for indoor businesses went into effect throughout Boston this past weekend. Jenn and Lisa talk about the Twitter conversations circulating among people who’ve experienced gaps in enforcement — some businesses don’t check for vaccine proof, others do.

Also recently implemented is the state’s vaccine passport system which Massachusetts residents can use to access digital proof of their vaccination status. Issues remain with that program as well, like incomplete information for veterans and residents who received jabs out of state.

Our guest this week is State House reporter for MassLive, Alison Kuznitz. She explains the state’s decision to move away from their current test-and-stay program that allows asymptomatic students to stay in school so long as they test negative for five straight days. The plan is to replace it with a program wherein students receive at-home rapid tests on a biweekly basis.