BOSTON—Days before Eric Lesser gave his last speech as a state senator from Western Massachusetts, the commonwealth, jointly with Amtrak, applied for a $108 million federal grant. In the twilight of his Senate tenure, the project took one of its greatest leaps toward reality.
Pittsfield State Senator Adam Hinds is leaving his job in Boston for another one…in Boston. On Tuesday, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate, based in the Hub’s Dorchester neighborhood, announced it had hired the third-term Democrat to become its CEO and executive director.
EAST LONGMEADOW—Given how she envisioned the arc of her life, Sydney Levin-Epstein doubts she would have sought public office if things went differently. Now she is locked in a heated race with Ludlow State Representative Jake Oliveira for one of region’s coveted State Senate seats.
EAST LONGMEADOW—When asked about being in the fight of his political life, Jake Oliveira projects anything but panic. In fact, he argues, it is not nothing new, pointing to the close races and chicanery he faced since first running for School Committee in his native Ludlow over a decade ago.
After months of speculation, Longmeadow Senator Eric Lesser has taken the plunge and will pursue statewide office. On Tuesday, he announced he was running for lieutenant governor becoming the fourth Democratic candidate in a race that could become yet more crowded.
Peru State Representative Paul Mark made official Monday what many expected with the release of new legislative district maps. The Berkshire rep will run for Senate.
With the much-delayed Census figures in hand, the Massachusetts legislature set to drawing new maps for the state House and Senate. On Tuesday, the Joint Committee on Redistricting released its drafts. The new lines are not wholly without controversy. The Committee will hear from the public Friday even as a constitutional deadline begins to bear down. In the 413, the process may have delivered as well as it could.
LONGMEADOW—Some months ago, a stone-faced Senator Eric Lesser appeared on a split screen with Governor Charlie Baker during a committee hearing on the early vaccine campaign. Lesser laid into Baker, for a botched website rollout among other errors. His Excellency expressed visible frustration.
On the heels of a devastating Boston Globe report about Governor Charlie Baker and Health & Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders and the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, a legislative panel is weighing in. Like previous investigators, the Special Joint Oversight Committee on the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke COVID-19 Outbreak lays into former Superintendent Bennett Walsh. Beyond him, the target of blame is oblique on an individual level.
In a windowless State House room on March 4th, State Senator Jo Comerford chaired a Joint Committee on Public Health hearing on COVID-19 preparedness. Diligent but never overwrought, she grilled health officials including Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel. Unbeknownst to participants, the prior week’s Biogen