Today: Snow day
It largely promises to be a whiteout in Massachusetts politics with as much as a foot of snow falling in the Boston area today. New Hampshire will get hit less hard, with 3-5 inches expected to fall in the Manchester area beginning in the early afternoon. Snow is expected to stop in New Hampshire before Primary Day on Tuesday.
Political and policy event cancellations started pouring in yesterday. Gov. Baker announced state office closures in nine counties -- Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, and Suffolk -- last night.
With only one day to go, pressure builds
A strong contingent of Massachusetts politicians are working hard through primary day, but none harder than Attorney General Maura Healey, a New Hampshire native. She led a Hillary Clinton canvassing effort Saturday, and will appear tonight on "Greater Boston" with Jim Braude, 7:00 pm on WGBH-TV.
The political obituaries are beginning to be written for Jeb Bush, whose Republican establishment credentials became a liability, and whose lackluster debate performances also kept him from breaking out of the pack. "I could drop my pants," he told the Globe's Matt Viser. "Moon the whole crowd. Everybody would be aghast, except the press guys would never notice."
Women helping women, and one woman not officially supporting the campaign of Hillary Clinton, is the theme of Joan Vennochi's column in the Globe. "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at a Clinton rally. The pressure is building on Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but Vennochi notes that Sanders "speaks forcefully, without hedging, about issues of concern to young men and women." http://bit.ly/1UXQAA0
More on gender politics from the New York Times' Alan Rappeport yesterday: "Hillary Clinton's older feminist supporters have a message for young women who are not backing her candidacy: Shame on you." http://bit.ly/1W6azN4
Gov. Baker's endorsement Chris Christie inspired this response from the MassDems spokesman Pat Beaudry: "Just which part of Chris Christie's campaign platform does Charlie Baker support? Defunding Planned Parenthood? Rejecting common-sense gun control? Eliminating the Department of Education? Denying the climate change crisis? Repealing Wall Street reform?" With the tenor of the Republican race, it's easy to understand why Baker stayed away from it as long as politically possible.
The Suffolk U. deal: Dissatisfying outcome
The public drama between Suffolk University President Margaret McKenna and a disgrunted faction of the Suffolk Board of Trustees ended with a disappointing outcome Friday. McKenna agreed to leave Suffolk by no later than the end of the next academic year, while the board chairman Andrew Meyer will depart this May. It amounts to a bad deal for the students, faculty and alumni of Suffolk, who will lose yet another president and throw the university into more uncertainty as the board searches for a new leader.
The group, the Alumni for the Integrity of Suffolk University, tried to look at the bright side of the resolution. "While we are disappointed in today's decision, we believe that some progress has been made towards ensuring the stability that this group seeks for Suffolk. Let us be clear, however: some of the changes we sought and achieved through this decision -- including the removal of Andrew Meyer and the revision of the Board's by-laws -- should be accomplished sooner than May of 2016."
The role of public relations executive George Regan in the Suffolk controversy was explored in Globe reporter Laura Krantz's story. One of his employees, Julie Kahn, is on the board, and Regan has business relationships with several other board members. One of his employees works in the Suffolk communications office and he has a $294,000 PR contract with the university. http://bit.ly/1PJYxc0
City of Boston salaries: The reign of OT
This line from the Boston Business Journal's report on 2015 City of Boston compensation says it all: "10 city workers earned more in non-salary pay, including overtime and detail work, than the total compensation paid to Mayor Walsh in 2015." 242 Police Department employees had compensation over $200,000. You can search the BBJ database here by employee or department: http://bit.ly/1Rhw6Dn
The overtime numbers at the Boston Police Department continue to balloon, totaling $61.6 million last year. That's up 34 percent since the 2013 fiscal year. The Herald's Jack Encarnacao reports that an audit by the Pubic Safety Strategies Group stated the BPD "does not use a process that has a high degree of accountability regarding the issuance of general overtime." The report said there a "practice of generating unnecessary overtime that meets the hours allocated rather than requiring justification of need for the overtime prior to scheduling." The individual numbers are staggering. One police lieutenant earned $162,000 in OT in 2015.http://bit.ly/1TNQOv1
MGM to reopen community office
Five months after it closed a downtown office where it conducted community outreach, MGM says it will open a new community office next month, MassLIve's Dan Glaun reports. The new office will be located with the local MGM corporate offices, which the casino company says will offer better access to key decision-makers. http://bit.ly/1W5TfYI
Rumor-spreading alleged in Mendon
The small town of Mendon has a big mess on its hands, the Telegram's Brad Petrishen reports. The town's assistant fire chief has been accused of spreading a rumor about a sexual relationship between the chairman of the board of selectmen and the town administrator, who was recently awarded a contract extension and substantial raise. The firefighter says he simply inquired about the rumor that was already in existence and the town's police and fire chief is upset about how the entire situation is being handled. http://bit.ly/1TNRgtr
Race for South Shore senate seat heats up
It will be a busy two months of campaigning on the South Shore, with two Democrats, one Republican and one independent all vying for the state senate seat recently vacated by now Weymouth Mayor Robert Hedlund, Christian Schiavone of the Patriot Ledger reports. Gov. Baker has already endorsed Republican Patrick O'Connor. A primary election is scheduled for April 12 and the general May 10. http://bit.ly/1SDPV9p
Drilling down on DePaola
The Enterprise's Marc Larocque profiles at length Brockton native and MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola, who talks about the task of turning the T around, dealing with the Green Line Extension fallout and the prospects of the long-dormant SouthCoast Rail line. DePaola says he takes the commuter rail to work about half the time. http://bit.ly/20ECevj
Movie firms worry about film credit cut
The state's movie-making industry, including the studios clustered at Devens, say Gov. Baker's proposed changes to the Massachusetts film tax credit will have far-reaching implications, Amelia Pak-Harvey of the Lowell Sun reports."It'd be a devastating blow to the local film industry ," says a spokesperson for New England Studios. http://bit.ly/1PJS0Oo
For Baker, here come the judge candidates
Some are urging Gov. Charlie Baker to look beyond judges to fill two Supreme Judicial Court seats with the upcoming retirements of Francis X. Spina and Robert J. Cordy. "He needs to make sure he looks at all possible applicants," said retired SJC Associate Justice John Greaney to the Boston Herald. "There are academics and outstanding lawyers. It's important that he looks at everyone. He is going to select people who will be on for an awfully long time." Baker said he takes this responsibility seriously. "It's going to be incredibly important for us to work very hard to promote the idea that we want to appoint terrific people, very strong legal minds, people who are incredibly well-respected by the legal community, folks who have a track record of being ready and willing to do the work," Baker said. "And it's a big workload associated with serving on the SJC." http://bit.ly/20EzVZ0
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