Tuesday, October 1, 2019

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: MAYORS back ROE ACT — VAPING illnesses multiply — NEAL weighs next move






MAYORS back ROE ACT — VAPING illnesses multiply — NEAL weighs next move





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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: MAYORS BACK ABORTION BILL — Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and more than a dozen mayors from around the state will declare their support for the ROE Act at the State House today. The mayors signed on to a letter, which was shared with POLITICO, in support of the bill that would expand abortion access.
"Even in Massachusetts, the right to safe, legal abortion does not translate into equitable access for all people. The ROE Act will ensure that our laws reflect our values, treat pregnant people with compassion when they discover late in pregnancy that the fetus cannot survive, and enable young people to access care without being forced to plead their case in court," the letter says.
Mayors who signed the letter include Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera, Framingham Mayor Yvonne Spicer, Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse. The letter.
ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S PLEDGE — While Sen. Ed Markey waits for Rep. Joe Kennedy III to accept his climate debate invitation , Kennedy is waiting on an invitation of his own. Kennedy has called on his fellow candidates in the Senate race to take the People's Pledge, which is a pact to limit outside spending in the race.
Candidates Steve Pemberton and Shannon Liss-Riordan weren't exactly enthused by the idea; Kennedy's campaign disagrees with criticism that his move is self-serving. Markey's camp says the senator is still considering the pledge. The campaigns plan to meet tomorrow to hash out a debate framework for the year ahead.
But the last time he had a Senate race, Markey was the one encouraging his opponent to take a People's Pledge. During his 2013 Senate campaign, Markey pushed Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez to agree to limit outside spending. Markey even released a campaign video quoting Republican former Sen. Scott Brown, who took the pledge with Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the 2012 race.
Gomez rejected the pledge and accused Markey of playing partisan politics that year. Markey and his Democratic primary opponent Rep. Stephen Lynch had agreed to People's Pledge that cycle. Markey's campaign manager, John Walsh, was chair of the state Democratic Party that year. He was also an outspoken advocate for the People's Pledge.
HAPPENING TONIGHT — I'm moderating a forum for Boston City Council at-large candidates in Dorchester tonight. We'll get started at 7 p.m. at Florian Hall. Join us! Details here.
FOR YOUR RADAR — The Environmental League of Massachusetts is holding a forum on energy and the environment for the Boston City Council at-large candidates tomorrow. I'm moderating! Join us at the Boston Public Library on Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. Details here.
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: smurray@politico.com.
TODAY — Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito makes a grant announcement to LabCentral in Cambridge. Rep. Katherine Clark speaks with the Boston Globe's Linda Pizzuti Henry at HUBweek 2019. Clark appears on CNN's "New Day" and MSNBC's "Live with Stephanie Ruhle."
Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy III attend a roundtable on refugee admissions with Oxfam America and the MIRA Coalition. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and mayors from around the state declare support for the ROE Act at the State House. Rep. Seth Moulton introduces a new bill outside the RMV in Danvers. Rep. Ayanna Pressley attends a ribbon cutting for the Everett Art Walk.


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DATELINE BEACON HILL
- "Mass. State Police is plagued with scandal. Lawmakers' response? Crickets," by Matt Rocheleau, Boston Globe: "The Massachusetts State Police force has weathered a widespread fraud probe, was found to have discriminated in its hiring, and has faced repeated allegations of systemic corruption and coverups over the past two years. Yet even as new cases of misconduct emerge, including the indictment on Sept. 18 of a trooper who allegedly fired a rifle at an unarmed ATV rider on a Boston highway, the response on Beacon Hill has been roughly the same: crickets. "I don't get it," said Kevin M. Burke, a former legislator, prosecutor, and state public safety chief who the State Police hired to investigate one such scandal. While lawmakers have wielded their bully pulpits to publicly bash other officials and closely scrutinize other agencies mired in controversy, the state's largest law enforcement agency has remained virtually unchallenged."
- "BAKER: STATE EMPLOYEE LEAVE CONTRIBUTIONS 'ONLY FAIR,'" by Chris Lisinski, State House News Service: "With a new tax to fund the state's paid family and medical leave program set to take effect Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Baker rejected calls by the state's largest public union to relieve state employees of the obligation to pay into the system. The National Association of Government Employees, which has more than 22,000 members in Massachusetts government, slammed the Baker administration this month for not covering employees' share of the new payroll tax as other public employers, including both the House and Senate, reportedly did. Baker said Monday that he disagrees with their criticism and believes all state employees should contribute to the program."
FROM THE HUB
- "4 Takeaways From Mapping The Boston City Council At-Large Preliminary," by Rich Parr, WBUR: "Eight candidates — four incumbents and four challengers — will be on November's ballot in Boston, seeking four at-large seats on the City Council. The eight were determined last week in Boston's preliminary municipal election. Here are four takeaways from mapping Tuesday's results."
- "Franklin Institute moving to Dudley," by Andy Metzger, CommonWealth Magazine: "THE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, a fast-growing school serving mostly students of color, is selling its South End location and moving to a brand new campus in Roxbury's Dudley Square neighborhood with hopes to begin holding classes there in two years. "What we're really looking at is how do we take everything we've learned and catapult ourselves into the 21st century," said Tony Benoit, the president of the technical college. With plans for 85,000 gross square feet of new construction, the development should freshen up the lot at the corner of Eustis Street and Harrison Avenue, the former site of Harrison Supply Co."
PRIMARY SOURCES
- "Climate activists are furious over Kennedy's challenge to Markey," by Victoria McGrane, Boston Globe: "Two days after he learned for certain that Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III was coming for his Senate seat, Edward J. Markey was greeted like a rock star by thousands of cheering young people during Boston's Climate Strike. The moment captured the intensity of feeling for Markey among climate activists. Young and old, in Massachusetts and around the country, they view Markey as a steadfast champion — the steadfast champion — of the most urgent issue facing not just the country but all humanity. And they are furious that Kennedy is trying to end their guy's congressional career ."
- "I have seen the future of real, decent politics. Its name is Jake Auchincloss," by Kevin Cullen, Boston Globe: "On any other weekend, watching the Sunday morning shows would have sent me into a deep funk, but luckily I had just had breakfast with a young, idealistic, smart politician from Newton. I have seen the future of real, decent politics, and its name is Jake Auchincloss. Most politicians have ambition. Auchincloss has a story, a family story, of persecution, immigration, assimilation, achievement, and giving back. So it is an American story."
- "DATE OF 2020 STATE PRIMARIES UP IN THE AIR," by Michael P. Norton, State House News Service: "Massachusetts politics are all aflutter because Congressman Joe Kennedy III is primarying Sen. Ed Markey. And voters will decide that race, and all the other state primaries ... when? No one knows for sure. While voters in other states already know when their primary elections will be held, Beacon Hill is slowly coming around to face another round of one of its biennial games. Just call it Let's Set the Primary Date. Under current state law, the primary date next year falls on Sept. 15 but lawmakers have become accustomed to altering that date every two years to ensure that general election ballots make it to overseas voters on time and in compliance with a federal law, and to avoid conflicts with Jewish holidays."
THE VAPING SALES BAN
- "Vape shops sue to block state's ban," by Christian M. Wade, Gloucester Daily Times: "Business owners took their legal challenge against Gov. Charlie Baker's vaping ban to federal court on Monday, asking a U.S. District Court judge to overturn the restrictions. The lawsuit filed on behalf of three Boston-area vape store owners names Baker as a defendant and says the temporary ban on sales of e-cigarettes and vaping products is unconstitutional, violates interstate commerce laws and takes private property without providing business owners with adequate notice or compensation. It seeks a federal injunction against the ban."
- "5 New Cases Of Vaping-Related Illnesses In Mass. Reported To CDC," by Matt Murphy, State House News Service: "State health officials reported five new cases of vaping-related lung injury to the Centers for Disease Control on Monday, doubling the total number of case reported to the federal agency from Massachusetts as Gov. Charlie Baker's administration works to respond to the danger. Baker last week declared a public health emergency and banned the sale of all vaping products for four months. The actions came on the heels of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel mandating that Massachusetts health providers report any unexplained vaping-associated lung injury."
- WAPO WEIGHS IN: "Giving smokers more options is not worth endangering a generation," Washington Post Editorial Board: "EVERY YEAR, the number has gone up — from 11 percent in 2017 to 21 percent in 2018 to 25 percent this year. That is the share of high school seniors who admit to having used e-cigarettes in the past month. And it's not just almost-18-year-olds who are vaping: A fifth of 10th-graders report doing so in the past month. E-cigarettes vaporize a nicotine-rich — or, increasingly, a THC-laced — liquid, and when they first came on the market, all that many people saw was their upside."
WARREN REPORT
- "Elizabeth Warren is surging in early primary states. The exception is South Carolina." by Laura Krantz, Boston Globe: "Senator Elizabeth Warren seems to have a detailed plan for everything. But her strategy so far in South Carolina, which holds a crucial early presidential primary, is a work in progress. She's taken the polling lead or is running neck-and-neck with former vice president Joe Biden in the states with the first three nominating contests: Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. But Warren trails Biden by more than 20 percentage points in South Carolina, which goes fourth next February and will award more Democratic delegates than any of the early states."
MOULTON MATTERS
- "Moulton proposes bill to support interstate sharing of driving records in wake of N.H. crash," by Jeremy C. Fox, Boston Globe: "In the wake of a June crash that killed seven motorcyclists and exposed the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles' failure to process thousands of out-of-state violations, US Representative Seth Moulton is proposing a bill that would support better collection and interstate sharing of driver data. Moulton's State and Federal Electronic Data Records to Improve Vehicle-operator Eligibility Reporting Systems Act — or SAFE DRIVERS Act — is intended to keep roads free of drivers like 23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskyy of West Springfield."
TRUMPACHUSETTS
- "President's windmill hatred is a worry for booming industry," by Ellen Knickmeyer and Rodrique Ngowi, The Associated Press: "The winds are blowing fair for America's wind power industry, making it one of the fastest-growing U.S. energy sources. Land-based turbines are rising by the thousands across America, from the remote Texas plains to farm towns of Iowa. And the U.S. wind boom now is expanding offshore, with big corporations planning $70 billion in investment for the country's first utility-scale offshore wind farms. "We have been blessed to have it," says Polly McMahon, a 13th-generation resident of Block Island, where a pioneering offshore wind farm replaced the island's dirty and erratic diesel-fired power plant in 2016. "I hope other people are blessed too." But there's an issue. And it's a big one. President Donald Trump hates wind turbines."
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DATELINE D.C.
- "Democrat Weighs Releasing Complaint About IRS Trump Tax Audit," by Colin Wilhelm, Bloomberg: "A key House Democrat said he's consulting lawyers about whether to make public a complaint by a federal employee about possible misconduct in the Internal Revenue Service's auditing of President Donald Trump. The complaint raises allegations about "inappropriate efforts to influence" the audit process, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in August. Neal told reporters on Friday that a decision on releasing the complaint depends on advice he receives from lawyers for the House of Representatives. The release of such a complaint could bolster Neal's lawsuit seeking to obtain six years of Trump's tax returns, which he filed in July after the Treasury Department rejected the committee's request. Neal has said he needs the returns to ensure the IRS is following its policy of annually examining the president's returns."
THE CLARK CAUCUS
- "Rep. Katherine Clark: Trump 'Did Not Leave [House Democrats] A Choice' On Impeachment Inquiry," by Amanda McGowan, WGBH News: "U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark said on Monday that President Donald Trump's conduct "did not leave [House Democrats] a choice" but to launch an impeachment inquiry. "When we have a president who clearly has put his own political gain over our national security, over the integrity of our elections, and over his oath of office, I think all of us felt — and the Speaker [Nancy Pelosi] included — that there was no other decision that could be made," Clark told Jim Braude on Greater Boston."
ABOVE THE FOLD
— Herald"SQUEEZE PLAY," — Globe"Trump asked foreign allies to aid Barr," "Legislators silent amid State Police scandals," "SHOWCASE IN THE SEAPORT."
FROM THE 413
- "Owners of historic homes wary of new Pike exits," by Larry Parnass, The Berkshire Eagle: "The year 1768 sparked frequent protests in Massachusetts, as the British government pressed taxes on colonists edging toward rebellion. That spirit carries on inside two homes that rose at that same time in Blandford in the eastern Berkshires. Today, the grievance centers on a proposed Mass Pike interchange some feel threatens rural landscapes and customs rooted in the 1700s. It was 1768 when James Baird erected the center-chimney colonial he ran as a tavern on an earlier thoroughfare: the Boston-Albany turnpike. That year, British customs officials seized statesman John Hancock's ship, believing he was concealing goods. Samuel Adams wrote a screed against new taxes on the importation of paper, paint, lead, glass and tea."
THE LOCAL ANGLE
- "Columbia Gas claims center overrun by residents, businesses," by Bill Kirk, Eagle-Tribune: "Hundreds of people spent hours waiting in line in the parking lot behind St. Patrick Church at 118 S. Broadway Monday, filing claims for lost food, wages, profit and inventory due to last week's gas main break that forced the evacuation of dozens of homes and businesses for more than two days. Meanwhile, in front of St. Patrick, dozens of employees of Columbia Gas were monitoring the air above and below the ground, using "sniffer" devices while high-pressure air hoses were being used to vent any natural gas from pipes under the streets and sidewalks. The activity was the result of a gas main leak ."
- "Seniors struggle with rising property taxes as lawmakers debate solutions," by Hannah Schoenbaum, Telegram & Gazette: "Worcester homeowner Terrie Cherry, 67, is one of many Massachusetts seniors struggling to stay afloat as property taxes soar. After Cherry's husband, Robert, became disabled in an accident and was forced into early retirement, the couple's income plummeted. They went from making "good money" to just $20,000 a year, Cherry said in an interview. And as they have depleted their savings, property taxes have risen in Worcester. When the couple bought their house in 1999, annual property taxes were about $900. But as the city expanded over the last two decades, their taxes have climbed to almost $5,000 ."
MAZEL! to Shelley White, associate professor of public health and sociology at Simmons University, who was selected to receive the Victor Sidel and Barry Levy Award for Peace from the American Public Health Association.
FOR YOUR COMMUTE: THE 100TH LAP - On this week's Horse Race, we celebrate the 100th episode of the podcast with a special episode. Congressional candidate Jamie Belsito talks about her primary challenge to Rep. Seth Moulton, and Katie Lannan of the State House News Service breaks down the big education funding bill that has emerged on Beacon Hill. And last but not least, Horse Race co-founder and former host Lauren Dezenski talks about her role at CNN and reminisces about the podcast. Subscribe and listen on iTunes and Sound Cloud.
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THE TOP 2020 ISSUE - Health care is the number one issue for many voters heading into 2020. We will bring a special edition of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter to the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit in Washington, D.C. from October 28 - 30. Dan Diamond will take you inside one of the most influential gatherings of health industry leaders and innovators as they tackle today's pressing health challenges—from rising costs to accessibility. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of the Summit.

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