Weekly round-up: You can't win if you don't play
The week sports became politics
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Sometimes politics in Massachusetts are compared to sports. And sometimes, like this week, sports actually become the politics.
The speedy ascent in the public consciousness of fantasy sports betting may have "came out of really nowhere," as Treasurer Deborah Goldberg contends, but it's impossible to ignore now. Draft Kings and Fan Duel, the two leading fantasy sports gaming sites, have come under increasing scrutiny from public officials who are struggling to fully understand the business.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo said that even though he watches "a lot of football," he's not quite sure whether to think fantasy sports betting is akin to running a sports book online, or offering players a game of skill that happens to be based on real life on-field performances.
And then there's Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, who is not, shall we say, a sport aficionado. The Amherst Democrat said his staff has piled a heap of information about Draft Kings on his desk, but he has yet to read through it all.
Luckily for politicians, you don't need to know that the Cowboys will be relying on a backup quarterback this weekend when the New England Patriots arrive in Dallas to understand that fantasy sports are big business, big enough for Goldberg to begin wondering whether the Lottery should be thinking about getting a piece of the action.
Attorney General Maura Healey, to whom many state officials have been looking for guidance, declared this week that nothing in Massachusetts or federal law prohibits the type of the wagering going on with sites like Draft Kings. What she is worried about, however, is whether the sites are adequately prepared to protect the public's personal information and money and provide a fair playing field - both topics potentially ripe for regulation.
If lawmakers are late to the game when it comes to fantasy sports, Congressman Joseph Kennedy III came to the State House on Tuesday to tell them Massachusetts continues to be conspicuously absent from the list of 17 states and the District of Columbia that protect access to public accommodations for transgender individuals.
Kennedy, in the somewhat rare occurrence of a federal official testifying on a state issue, came before the Judiciary Committee to urge action.
"The importance of being able to show a strong coalition state by state across the country is absolutely essential and when a state like Massachusetts that has a reputation for being at the forefront of these issues- particularly on equality, on health care - to have Massachusetts off that list says something," Kennedy said.
DeLeo continues to be the wild card in this arena. While Rosenberg wants to pass a transgender bill and Gov. Charlie Baker appears to want to see the issue go away, the speaker insists he's still hearing people out. Rep. John Fernandes, the House chair of the Judiciary Committee, told the News Service he would like to get a bill done this session to protect against discrimination in public accommodations, but knows that House membership might need a little more time to get there.
As far as the Republican governor is concerned, Baker has repeatedly said no one should be discriminated against. He's also not necessarily in favor of going beyond the current law that prohibits discrimination against transgender people in housing and employment but does not necessarily allow them access to public accommodations based on their gender identity.
The transgender issue, along with the questions of whether to expand access to charter schools, could become the first real tests for the young Republican administration.
The Boston Globe's timeless Frank Phillips penned an advice column of sorts this Friday with suggestions for how Baker might prepare for and insulate himself from the attacks that will inevitably come when his sky-high poll numbers start to fall and he does something, anything really, that isn't a slam dunk win.
So far, Baker's focus on fixing the T, reducing energy costs and combating opioid abuse has drawn little resistance from the Democratic establishment on Beacon Hill. But consider how the tides could turn if the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate whisk a transgender rights bill to his desk, or if charter schools remains bogged down in philosophical differences over education.
Baker, finally, put a marker down on charter schools this week by filing legislation that mirrors a proposed ballot question for 2016 to allow state education officials to license up to 12 charter schools a year above the cap in low-performing districts.
Unlike the ballot question, Baker's bill also proposed ways to more closely integrate charters schools within traditional public school districts by allowing for streamline enrollment processes and for school districts to hand over underperforming schools to successful charter operators to help with a turnaround.
It could not go unmentioned that Baker rolled out his charter school bill on the steps of the Brooke Charter School in Mattapan, which also happens to be in the district of Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz. Chang-Diaz recoils from the suggestion that she became the roadblock last session to a charter cap lift, but her real concerns over House-backed legislation helped galvanize opposition in the Senate where charter school legislation ultimately died.
At the present time, however, it seems like Baker will have some time before he has to confront lawmakers over any of these issues.
In the meantime, the House this week passed a bill that would make trafficking the potent opiate fentanyl, which drug dealers are reportedly mixing with heroin, a specific crime carrying a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. Republican Rep. Tim Whelan tried to attach mandatory minimum sentences to the trafficking bill, and some of his GOP colleagues were appalled when their attempts were rebuffed.
But Rep. Fernandes, who successfully beat back the amendment, said he is leery of putting new mandatory minimums on the books at a time when House and Senate leaders are working with Gov. Charlie Baker and the Council on State Governments to review the state's criminal justice system. The outsourcing of criminal justice policy development is likely to come up again next week when lawmakers hold a hearing on other sentencing reform proposals.
The Senate, meanwhile, passed a $342 million spending bill to close out accounts from fiscal 2015, but after loading it up with new policy initiatives, including competing proposals to change the date of the 2016 state primary election, that bill appears headed for a conference committee.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Baker puts himself out there on charter schools, closely following the lead of ballot proponents who could provide a safety net for the Republican's effort to expand charters statewide.
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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