About five years ago this blog urged residents of our city, Springfield, to vote with their whole hearts, their whole minds, and their whole souls on the casino subject. Our preferred outcome lost, but the point was to call our fellow residents to speak at
There are only a handful of legislative races with general elections this year in the Pioneer Valley. There are so few it hardly feels unfortunate that we were unable cobble together our election guide for the general. Most of what races there are feel uncompetitive
Many states lay claim to inventing America. Few get as close to that being true as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Not every pivotal event in American history happened in our state, but it is not an overstatement to suggest that revolutions—political, cultural, technological—common start here.
We face a critical moment in our country and our commonwealth has a role to play in it. As pervasive as the daily national news grind can seem, it can also seem distant and irrelevant. That could not be any less true. Here in the
The ballot questions on Bay Staters’ ballots this cycle are somewhat unlike those of previous years. They are technical, complex, but also critical. They could decide how healthcare is delivered, but these questions could also come to define whether Massachusetts has truly evolved into an
From the moment of her first election, Elizabeth Warren was to stand astride history. By beating incumbent Republican Scott Brown in that bruising 2012 campaign, she became the first woman to represent the commonwealth in the Senate. Yet, Warren did so in spectacular fashion, replacing
To some, the race for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of the Commonwealth could be the most hotly contested statewide race on the primary. Certainly, this blog thinks so. It pits the current Secretary, William Galvin, who has served since 1995, against Josh Zakim, a
On March 3, 1925, Frederick Gillett stepped down as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives to become Massachusetts’s Junior Senator. Arguably, the district centered on Hampden County has not enjoyed such influence since. That could change next year if Democrats take the House.
GOVERNOR Democrats in Massachusetts are at an odd crossroads. The national moment should have made the party and Massachusetts ascendant along with progressive alternatives to the taint in Washington. Instead, among elected Democrats here, there seems little more than limp opposition to the milquetoast, if
On August 24 an undeniably transformative event will occur in the City of Springfield. After nearly six years of negotiation, debate, votes, wrangling, construction, renegotiation, and a disappointment here or there, MGM Springfield will open. Those who read this blog know we have been consistently