Weekly roundup - Somewhere in the Blue Hills
Hunters head to the Blue Hills, island alpacas head to the State House
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One last toga party, anyone?
It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the State House this week as deer hunters fanned out across the Blue Hills and ballot campaigns held their breath waiting for a thumbs up from Bill Galvin.
Poinsettia and wreaths cropped up, the Senate President's office doors were swung open to showcase the annual ornate decorations and Gov. Charlie Baker helped light the capitol tree on the front lawn with a festive celebration that included island alpacas from the Vineyard.
But as holiday music filled the marbled halls of the building, gun violence - and not what was happening under protest in the Blue Hills - once again gripped the country and funneled down to Massachusetts where Gov. Charlie Baker and Rep. Lori Ehrlich became unwitting partners in anti-crime.
Ehrlich, a Marblehead Democrat, seized on the national drumbeat from Congressional Democrats after the attacks in Paris and the latest mass shooting in San Bernardino, California and filed legislation here in Massachusetts that would prohibit anyone on the F.B.I. terrorist watch list or the federal no-fly list from purchasing a gun.
The next day, Baker told a room full of newspaper executives that if it's true that those on a terrorism watch list are able to pass background checks to buy guns, the policy needs to be "fixed, period." Ehrlich, needless to say, welcomed support from the Republican governor, perhaps giving her effort the push needed to make it onto the 2016 agenda.
Speaking of agendas, Rosenberg said the Senate would be ready in early January when it returns from recess to take up public records reform legislation and a safe driving bill that could take phones out of the hands of drivers once and for all.
But before he gets there, the Amherst Democrat had to absorb the jarring news that he's losing one of his key leadership team members. Ten senators, including Rosenberg, boarded a plane for Israel on Thursday, but before they jetted off on the international trade mission Rosenberg got a call few saw coming.
Sen. Anthony Petruccelli, an East Boston Democrat who started his career on Beacon Hill in the House, was on the other end of the line telling his boss that he planned to resign to join the downtown lobbying firm Kearney, Donovan and McGee.
While Petruccelli, the Senate majority whip, is certainly not the first to follow this path, his departure from the Senate and Rosenberg's leadership team caught many off guard. He may have been fifth on the depth chart behind Rosenberg, but he was widely considered to have the potential to one day lead the Senate if he stuck around long enough.
Lobbyists had also come to view Petruccelli as a dealmaker in an increasingly ideological Senate. In addition to having a knack, according to some who worked with him, for being able to see his way through the policy and the politics of issues swirling on Beacon Hill, Petruccelli had the respect of many House members, whose position toward the Senate has become fraught with tension.
"Holy s#@$!," one senator exclaimed when told Petruccelli would be announcing his resignation.
Petruccelli's departure will remove a likely vote in favor of charter school expansion from the Senate at a time when the chamber's leaders are considering whether the support exists to pursue charter legislation.
If Senate leaders think the votes aren't there by early next year, they may decide to simply let the voters decide in 2016, which made it all the more important that ballot petitioners got their signatures in on time.
The coalition behind the ballot initiative to expand charters was one of six groups that Secretary of State William Galvin said he thought submitted sufficient signatures by Wednesday's deadline to move forward in the ballot petition process. Supporters of a constitutional amendment to impose a higher income tax on earnings over $1 million appear to have cleared the threshold.
The other ballot questions on track for November 2016 include expanded gaming, Common Core education standards repeal, protection of farm animals, marijuana legalization and health care pricing controls. While one group proposing to regulate marijuana like alcohol appear to have the signatures to proceed, another group pushing a simpler legalization question without the government oversight, by their own admission, probably fell short.
Former Gov. Deval Patrick popped back into the news cycle briefly this week when Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the native Chicagoan would advise a new task force reviewing city police practices in the aftermath of the shooting of a black teenager.
Violence of a different sort in the Blue Hills also made headlines as Gov. Baker was forced to defend the first deer hunt on the state-owned land in nearly a century as the best of bad options to control the overpopulated deer in the area.
Hunters killed 41 deer over the first two days of the controlled hunt in an area where deer number close to 85 per square mile, well above the desired population of 18 per square mile.
"It's like shooting fish in a barrel here," Governor's Councilor Marylyn Devaney reported from the front lines where she had joined with protesters in support for more humane population control measures. "It's cruel."
STORY OF THE WEEK: As many as six ballot questions could appear before voters in 2016 if lawmakers don't act first, but Sen. Anthony Petruccelli won't be around to help make that decision.
About the Author »
Matt Murphy covers major media, lobbying firms, government agencies, political junkies as well as towns Statewide. He likes to cover politics and campaigns.
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