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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS.
THE NEW MASSGOP — The MassGOP has been out in force this week, criticizing a bill that would ease some restrictions on abortions after 24 weeks — party chairman Jim Lyons has dubbed it an "infanticide bill." The state Republican Party's anti-abortion push comes as the organization ramps up its visibility, even launching Facebook ads targeting state lawmakers who signed onto the abortion bill, known as the ROE Act, according to the Boston Globe.
When asked about the bill and Lyons' use of the word "infanticide" earlier this week, Gov. Charlie Baker criticized the "inflated language" that exists in politics. The governor also told reporters he prefers current state law over expanding access to late-term abortions, shortly after signing legislation to protect family planning centers from a new Trump administration policy that targets Title X funding.
Under Lyons, the MassGOP has moved further to the right , more in line with President Donald Trump and has put pressure on the moderate Baker to answer for his party's messaging. But Lyons' party reboot is leaving some political watchers wondering what the end game will ultimately be.
"This message doesn't sell with Massachusetts Republicans outside of a very small percentage of very, very conservative people who can't win elections. It's as simple as that," Republican consultant Patrick Griffin of Merrimack Potomac + Charles told me yesterday.
But as a high-turnout election year approaches, Lyons' strategy will soon be put to the test. The legislature's already anemic Republican caucus lost seats in the 2018 midterm, and another Republican seat in the Senate could be in jeopardy if state Sen. Don Humason wins the Westfield mayoral race.
"No matter what anyone thinks of Charlie Baker — and most people like him a lot — he is a money machine, and the state party under Baker has been a money machine. So now it's up to the new regime to show they can raise money, recruit candidates and win elections, and they're going to have an opportunity to do that in 2020," Griffin said.
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: smurray@politico.com.
TODAY — Gov. Charlie Baker shaves his head as part of the "Saving By Shaving" event in support of The Cancer Research Fund at Boston Children's Hospital with Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, Jim Braude, Ray Bourque and others. Baker attends a MassEcon corporate welcome reception. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders participate in Kick Butts Day to prevent tobacco use among teenagers.
State Sen. Barry Finegold and MassINC's Juana Matias attend an education policy luncheon hosted by Democrats for Education reform affiliate ERNA. The Gaming Commission hearing into Wynn Resorts continues. Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at Northeastern. The National Association of Social Workers and Progressive Massachusetts host lobby days at the State House.
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 | DATELINE BEACON HILL |
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- "Report cites significant, repetitive 'failures' at Wynn Resorts, by Andy Metzger, CommonWealth Magazine: "WYNN RESORTS maintained a culture of cover-up when it came to allegations of sexual misconduct against the company's founder, according to an extensive report compiled by Massachusetts gambling regulators. The report, which was provided to the news media on Tuesday ahead of a multi-day hearing into the company's actions, provides a window into Steve Wynn's response to allegations of rape and of how company executives handled those and other charges. The result of the adjudicatory hearing before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will determine whether Wynn Resorts is suitable and can open its nearly completed Everett casino in June as planned."
- "Top business groups take different roads to solve transportation troubles," by Gintautas Dumcius, Boston Business Journal: "When House Speaker Robert DeLeo spoke at a recent Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast, he noted that many of the people in the room were working on various studies, sitting on working groups and participating in projects aimed at fixing the region's transportation woes. "We want to make sure, however, that the business community clearly articulates the transportation policies that it can unite behind," DeLeo said in asking for input. Business groups are working on answering the call from DeLeo and other Beacon Hill lawmakers, but whether they're united yet remains to be answered: Business community leaders appear to be sitting at different tables, with some organizations, such as A Better City Inc. and the Newton-Needham Regional Chamber, shuttling between."
- "BAKER, LEGIS LEADERS URGE FDA TO CHANGE OPIOID LABELING, PACKAGING," by Katie Lannan, State House News Service: "As Massachusetts continues to seek ways to combat opioid addiction and reduce overdose deaths, Gov. Charlie Baker and other top state officials are asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for help. Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka on Tuesday wrote to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, requesting the agency's 'immediate assistance in stemming the tide of opioid prescriptions which have fueled this epidemic.'"
- "Lawmakers want public alerts of sewage spills," by Christian M. Wade, The Salem News: "Lawmakers are pressing for new rules to keep the public informed about sewage discharges into the Merrimack River from aging sewer systems. On Tuesday, the Legislature's Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture heard testimony on several bills that seek to improve notification about the discharges. Designed long before the Clean Water Act was written into law in the early '70s, the systems along the river collect stormwater in the same pipes as sewage, and are designed to overflow when they become inundated, usually because of heavy rain."
- "Gender pay gap hits Latina women hard," by Sarah Betancourt, CommonWealth Magazine: "Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what white men earned in the previous year. Today's marking of that ignoble milestone means women must work an extra three months - all of last year plus the first three months of 2019 - to catch up with last year's earnings for white men. But even more glaring gaps exist by race. The largest such chasm in the state is for Latina women, who must work until November 1 to reach the earnings level of white men, according to the state's Office of Economic Empowerment."
- "Should Massachusetts Bring Back Rent Control?" by Deborah Becker and Jamie Bologna, WBUR: "If passed, a bill on Beacon Hill would give cities and towns the option to implement rent control. It wouldn't be a first for the state; a state ballot question ended it in the Commonwealth in 1994. Now, state Rep. Mike Connolly, a Democrat from Cambridge, is one of the bill's co-sponsors and said the region is facing an 'emergency of displacement, of homelessness, of rising costs.'"
- FRESHMAN LAWMAKER LOOKING TO MAKE CONSTITUTION'S VERBIAGE MORE 'INCLUSIVE,'" by Katie Lannan, State House News Service: "Explaining to her colleagues how she came to propose two amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution in her first 15 days as a lawmaker, Rep. Mindy Domb on Tuesday said filing legislation "can sometimes be like pulling a string on a sweater." Domb testified before the Judiciary Committee on two amendments she's filed, including one dealing with lawmakers' oaths of office and another that would replace the word "he" with the gender-neutral pronoun "they" in instances where the constitution is not specifically referring to men."
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| FROM THE HUB |
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- "'Changing the game for young people;' Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announces $15M investment in universal pre-K," by Jacqueline Tempera, MassLive.com: "Mayor Marty Walsh announced a $15 million investment that will expand access to free pre-K classrooms for all 4-year-olds in Boston at a press conference in Dorchester Tuesday morning. "This is about really changing the game for young people in education," Walsh said. The investment, which will be drawn from the budget for 2020 fiscal year, will create 750 seats in pre-K programs in the Boston Public Schools and community-based organizations, like the ABCD Walnut Grove Head Start school where the mayor spoke Tuesday."
- "Is New York showing up 'progressive' Mass.?" by Michael Jonas, CommonWealth Magazine: "START SPREADING THE NEWS: Not only are the Yankees a game and a half in front of the faltering Red Sox, New York has taken a big lead over Boston in dealing boldly with the carmageddon of traffic gridlock that is choking lots of American cities. A budget deal reached between New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers there will make New York City the first in the US to adopt a congestion pricing plan. Under the agreement, by 2021 a system will be established to charge motorists a fee to enter the most traffic-clogged areas of Manhattan."
- "Amazon will do Alexa work in Medford as company grows rapidly in Boston area," by Tim Logan, Boston Globe: "Amazon is continuing its rapid growth in Greater Boston, this time with a tech office in a new part of the region. The e-commerce giant has signed a lease for approximately 50,000 square feet at One Cabot Road in Medford, an office building off Rivers Edge Road near the MBTA's Wellington Station on the Orange Line. The office, which will house about 200 staffers working mainly on Amazon's Alexa voice-operated systems, is set to open later this spring."
- "Mass. prisons start offering medication to treat addiction," by Felice J. Freyer, Boston Globe: "For the first time, Massachusetts prisons are providing a medication to treat opioid addiction to newly arriving inmates, as the state launches a groundbreaking program established by legislation passed last year. For now, the Department of Correction is providing just one of the two medications required under the law, which took effect Monday. Still, the change puts Massachusetts ahead of most prisons and jails in the country, where the medications are usually denied."
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| THE OPINION PAGES |
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- "Corporate executives must face jail time for overseeing massive scams," by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Washington Post:"Opening unauthorized bank accounts. Cheating customers on mortgages and car loans. Mistreating service members. If you can dream up a financial scam, there's a good chance that Wells Fargo ran it on its customers in recent years. Last week, after years of pressure, the company finally parted ways with its second chief executive in three years. But that's not nearly enough accountability. It's time to reform our laws to make sure that corporate executives face jail time for overseeing massive scams."
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| DAY IN COURT |
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- "Family Behind OxyContin Calls Opioid Suit False, Misleading," by Geoff Mulvihill and Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press:"Massachusetts authorities created a false picture of the Sackler family's role in promoting OxyContin, the Sacklers said Tuesday in their first court response to allegations that individual family members — not just their company, Purdue Pharma — helped fuel the deadly opioid epidemic. The Sackler family says a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey that accuses Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma and the family of hiding the risks of opioids from doctors and patients is riddled with inaccurate and misleading statements. The Sacklers are accusing Healey of cherry picking from hundreds of internal documents in an attempt to wrongly vilify the family for the public health crisis."
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| WARREN REPORT |
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- "Elizabeth Warren Leads By Example On Staffers' Equal Pay," by Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez, Refinery29: "Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is walking the walk when it comes to pay equity in her Senate offices. The current average women-to-men earnings ratio in her office is 1.08, which means staffers are being paid equally regardless of their gender, Refinery29 can exclusively report By contrast, as we've often reported, women in the United States currently earn on average about 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. (The wage gap is even worse for most women of color.)"
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| FROM THE DELEGATION |
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- "Moulton, Trahan make case for stronger pipeline safety measures," by Lisa Kashinsky, Boston Herald: "U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Lori Trahan are continuing their push for stronger pipeline safety measures in the wake of the Merrimack Valley gas disaster, invoking the deadly blasts during a congressional hearing Tuesday to call for greater federal oversight. Moulton described the explosions of Sept. 13 as "carnage I thought I left behind in Iraq." Leonel Rondon, 18, of Lawrence was killed and nearly a dozen others were injured, while more than 100 homes were damaged or destroyed."
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| DATELINE D.C. |
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- "Why Ed Markey, the Co-Sponsor of the Green New Deal, May Be Hopeful For Its Chances," by James Carroll, The New Yorker:"The Green New Deal is generally treated as a wild-eyed scheme of the Congressional Democrats' liberal youth caucus, most particularly of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But, if she is the fresh face behind the "aspirational" climate fix that was put on the nation's table in February, proposing significant new public works and policies to move America away from carbon, what about the seventysomething Edward Markey, who joined her to introduce the resolution in the U.S. Senate?"
- "Gov's lawyer heads to DC for showdown over Taunton tribal casino," by Ted Nesi, WPRI: "Gov. Gina Raimondo's top lawyer is heading to Washington on Wednesday to testify before Congress about an issue that pits Southeastern New England's Democratic congressmen against each other: tribal casinos. The House Natural Resources Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples will hold a hearing at 2 p.m. on a bill sponsored by Congressman Bill Keating, D-Mass., that would restore the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's right to tribal land in Taunton and Mashpee that was revoked by the U.S. Interior Department last year."
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| MARIJUANA IN MASSACHUSETTS |
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- "Brockton Diversity Commission issues rebuke over marijuana agreements," by Marc Laroque, The Enterprise: "In a strongly worded statement, the mayor-appointed Diversity Commission recently issued a rebuke to the mayor over the lack of black and Hispanic inclusion in the city's nascent state-legalized marijuana industry. While thanking Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter for appointing minorities and women to important positions at City Hall, the Diversity Commission recently released a letter that said it "decries" the lack of black and Latino recipients of host community agreements, which are crucial for obtaining licenses to participate in the state-legalized marijuana businesses."
- "Company's plans for more marijuana stores will test Mass. law," by Todd Wallack, Boston Globe: "Curaleaf, one of the biggest marijuana operators in the country, is the latest company to test Massachusetts rules designed to prevent a few large corporations from dominating the market. The company, based in Wakefield, has applied for state licenses to sell medical marijuana at three stores and recreational pot at three, the maximum a single company is permitted to own — or control — under the state's marijuana law."
- P.S. If you use medical marijuana or CBD (or if you're a health professional who has worked with it), we want to hear from you. Tell us your story and a reporter might reach out.
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| EYE ON 2020 |
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- MEANWHILE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: "3 Takeaways From A Democratic Presidential Candidate Who's Probably Not On Your Radar," by Adam Reilly, WGBH News: "Yes, it's still early in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but the field is already splitting into two distinct tiers: There are the candidates and prospective candidates who you already know by shorthand — think Kamala, or Beto, or Biden — and then there are the candidates you might struggle to name without some help. Case in point: the first Democrat in the race, who's been running since July 2017."
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| ABOVE THE FOLD |
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— Herald: "THE HOUSE ALWAYS WYNN'S" — Globe: "More testing of limits on pot shop ownership," "At Wynn Restorts, a coverup," "Coakley joins criticized maker of e-cigarettes." |
| THE LOCAL ANGLE |
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- "Massachusetts coyote hunt competitions cause controversy," by Mary Markos, Boston Herald: "Animal rights advocates are calling on the state to ban coyote-hunting competitions, where hunters are rewarded for bagging the biggest beasts with cash prizes. "This comes down to a values and an ethics issue," Liz Magner, an animal advocacy specialist at the MSPCA, told the Herald. "We think the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife should ban these contests because it's the right thing to do. It sends a message that our state can tell the difference between responsible use and wildlife management and senseless killing." The coyote contests are held annually in Granby and Hyannis, according to Magner ."
TRANSITIONS - Amanda Milad Cox joins Liberty Square Group as an associate vice president. She was previously chief of staff to Rep. Cory Atkins. (h/t Quinn Valcich)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - to Frontier Security Strategies President Ed Cash, Mayor Marty Walsh's Deputy Chief of Staff Niall Murphy; Juan Jaramillo, political coordinator for 32BJ SEIU; Greg Honan, and Molly Thomas.
DID THE HOME TEAM WIN? Yes and no! The Bruins beat the Blue Jackets 6-2. The Athletics beat the Red Sox 1-0.
Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you're promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.
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