Window Into The State House

By
South Boston Today Staff
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Change arrives: Pressley stuns Capuano, easily defeats long-time Seventh incumbent
 
This one is getting a lot of national press (such as at the NYT and the Washington Post): Ayanna Pressley, the 44-year-old Boston city councilor, didn’t just defeat long-time incumbent Michael Capuano in the Democratic Seventh Congressional District primary yesterrday. She handily beat Capuano, 59 percent to 41 percent, confirming that voters really did want change. CommonWealth’s Jack Sullivan and Michael Jonas have the details on Pressley’s highly impressive win. The Boston Herald — which blazed its front page with the headline “Change Didn’t Wait!” — also has more.

In an editorial, the Boston Globe rightly describes the outcome as a “political earthquake” in Boston, with Pressley poised to become the first African-American female to be elected to Congress from Massachusetts. The Globe’s Adrian Walkerhas more on the historic night that changed Boston’s political landscape. The Globe’s Joan Vennochi writes that Mayor Marty Walsh was on the wrong side of history for backing Capuano.
 
 
More change: Rollins comes out on top in crowded Suffolk DA race
 
This was another big win for minorities last night, in yet another example of the changing political landscape in Boston. From Brooks Sutherland at the Herald: “Rachael Rollins is one step closer to becoming Suffolk County’s next district attorney — and possibly the first female DA of color — after winning last night’s Democratic primary. Rollins, the chief legal counsel of the MBTA and MassDOT, topped four other Democrats in the primary and will now face Independent Mike Maloney on Nov. 6. Maloney ran unopposed yesterday.” Michael Jonas at CommonWealth magazine has more on the impressive win by Rollins. He also has more about the big DA race in Berkshire County (see below).
 
 
DeLeo’s bad night: Elugardo upsets Sanchez, Santiago knocks off Rushing
 
Yet more change. Bruce Mohl at CommonWealth magazine reports how two of House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s leadership team took it on the chin last night. Nika Elugardo, who calls herself a member of the ‘super left,’ upset state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and Jonathan Santiago, an emergency room doctor, knocked off state Rep. Byron Rushing, the assistant majority leader. Not a good night for DeLeo.

CommonWealth
 
 
Third Congressional: Trahan declares victory but race still too close to call
 
In the crowded Third District race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, Lori Trahan early this morning declared victory in the Democratic primary election, but Dan Koh was refusing to concede, reports the Lowell Sun and the Boston Globe. The most updated numbers at the Globe and at WCVB show Koh actually clinging to a narrow lead.

 

 

First Congressional: Neal demolishes Amatul-Wadad
 
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal has fended off a challenge from Democratic attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadad in the state’s First Congressional District, extending an already 30-year run in Congress for Neal and setting him up to become chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee should the Democrats retake the House in November. Dusty Christensen has more at the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
 
 
U.S. Senate: It’s Diehl versus Warren
 
State Rep. Geoff Diehl, a die-hard Trump supporter, easily won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, earning the right to take on the popular incumbent Elizabeth Warren in November, reports the Associated Press at WCVB. John Kingston came in a distant second with 27 percent of the vote and Beth Lindstrom managed to get only 18 percent of the vote. We thought she would have gotten more, considering she was the lone woman in the three-way race. So much for conventional wisdom.

Fyi: The Herald’s Howie Carr is urging Diehl to go all conservative, all Massachusetts against the progressive Warren, who is heavily favored to win in November and who has her eye on a possible 2020 presidential bid. Expect outside money to flow into this race, especially from conservative groups trying to ding and dent Warren’s image as much as possible in anticipation of 2020.
 
 
Governor’s race: It’s Baker versus Gonzalez
 
The AP’s Bob Salsberg at CBS Boston has the details on the easy wins by Republican incumbent Charlie Baker over conservative challenger Scott Lively in the GOP gubernatorial primary and Jay Gonzalez over Bob Massie in the Democratic primary for governor.

The Herald’s Joe Battenfeld writes that Baker won with “only” two-thirds of the vote over the far-right Lively, an outcome, combined with Geoff Diehl’s big win in the GOP primary race for U.S. Senate, that Battenfeld says shows Trump supports in Massachusetts are alive and kicking. Actually, we thought Lively’s performance wasn’t all that surprising.

Btw: We almost forgot! Quentin Palfrey easily crushed Jimmy Tingle in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
 
 
Not even close: Galvin routs Zakim in Dem secretary of state race
 
It was the official rock-’em-sock-‘em primary race of 2018. But in the end, incumbent William Galvin crushed upstart Josh Zakim, nabbing an astounding 68 percent of the vote last night in the Democratic primary for secretary of state. Alexi Cohan at the Herald and Milton Valencia at the Globe have the details.

 

Herald hits the road to Braintree
There was a time, according to an ad jingle when “Boston moves to the Herald.” Now it’s the Herald doing the moving.

But soon the Herald, which has been undergoing relentless cost cutting on part of its new, venture-backed owner, Digital First, may no longer be able to honestly use Boston in its name, the Boston Business Journal’s Catherine Carlock reports.

One of the few advantages the Boston Herald enjoyed over the years as the scrappy, underdog competitor to The Boston Globe was its perch on the edge of downtown Boston. From the paper’s dingy old offices and printing plant on Harrison Avenue on the edge of Chinatown, a reporter with a good pair of legs could hustle over to the State House or City Hall in minutes while Globe reporters, stuck over on Morrissey Boulevard, were stuck trying to find parking.

Indeed, the Herald’s connections to the city are dwindling in number: The paper is now printed in Rhode Island and copy editing and page design work is done in Colorado. Truly, it’s becoming out of town news.

For its part, the Globe, after nearly six decades out on Morrissey Boulevard, last year moved into new digs in downtown Boston at 53 State St. So now it will be the few reporters left at the Herald who will be hunting for a parking space – after fighting through traffic on the Southeast Expressway – while their counterparts at the Globe waltz over to the State House or City Hall.
 
WBZ staying put
Not leaving the city: WBZ-TV. The station says it will stay put on Soldiers Field Road, where a development teams plans to move into a new building on the same Allston property it has called home for decades, Jon Chesto and Tim Logan report in the Globe.

 

 
Delta to Detroit announcement latest Worcester win
It’s Delta. MassPort and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito revealed on Tuesday that Delta will join JetBlue and American Airlines at Worcester Regional Airport, offering flights to and from Detroit. Cyrus Moulton of the Telegram reports flights will begin in about a year and notes that Delta flew out of the hilltop airport for most of the 1970s before the airport. That was before the airport began shedding carriers and fell into such disuse that it was floated as a potential casino site. And long before the current Renaissance in the city that seems to be gathering steam in the wake of the announcement earlier this month that the Pawtucket Red Sox will relocate to a $100 million stadium near downtown.

Speaking of the new PawSox stadium, the City Council began its public hearings Tuesday night and while most of the feedback from the packed crowd of about 100 was positive, some residents expressed concern about environmental impacts and the long-term financial implications for the city, Aviva Luttrell reports at MassLive.

 

Environmental lobbying group hopes new name helps advance agenda
The Mass. League of Environmental Voters says it is rebranding itself as Massachusetts Conservation Voters and plans to push back on what it says are “devastating reductions” in the budget for the state agency overseeing parks and open land, Mary Serreze reports at MassLive. Executive Director Doug Pizzi says the group wants to reverse a decade of shrinking Department of Conservation and Restriction budgets that have slashed more than 400 jobs statewide and notes that recreation is a $16 billion a year industry in the state.
 
 
Moody’s: MGM good for Springfield’s bottom line
We’re still waiting for the Mass. Gaming Commission to release some numbers to show how the MGM Springfield is doing almost a week after opening its doors, but in the meantime, credit-rating agency Moody’s says the project will be a financial boost to the city. Matt Murphy of the State House News Service reports that Moody’s predicts the city could see as much as $26 million in new revenue annually even though the casino won’t directly pay property taxes. Overall, Moody’s said, the project is “credit positive” for Springfield.
 
Are host community pot agreements headed to court?
 With the Cannabis Control Commission side-stepping the issue of whether communities are coloring outside the law when they strike lucrative community host agreements with marijuana companies, critics appear likely to take the matter to court if necessary.

Dan Adams of the Globe reports that in the wake of last week’s vote by the CCC not to take up compliance with state law on the agreements has left open the question of whether agreements that go above the 3-percent of revenue cap set in state law can stand and some observers are predicting the matter will eventually be resolved by the courts.

 

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