Window Into The State House

By
South Boston Today Staff
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It’s over: Striking Marriott workers to return to work on Wednesday
 
Now if they can only resolve the National Grid lockout. From Jordan Graham at the Herald: “A 45-day hotel strike in Boston, the first in the city’s history, is over after union members overwhelmingly approved a new contract yesterday that will give workers at the seven Marriott-owned hotels in the city higher wages and better benefits, including paid parental leave.”

 

P-Day: Retail marijuana shops to open tomorrow
 
They’re expecting traffic and media jams in Leicester and Northampton tomorrow. From Jack Sullivan at CommonWealth magazine: “More than two years after voters approved legal recreational marijuana sales and use, the doors of the first retail outlets east of the Mississippi will finally swing open on Tuesday just in time for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Cultivate in Leicester and New England Treatment Access in Northampton were given the green light Friday by the Cannabis Control Commission to begin operations.”

Dave Canton at MassLive reports that the owners of the Northampton outlet are “thrilled” to be opening, while Gintautas Dumcius at MassLive has a good everything-you-need-to-know piece on the start of legal retail pot sales in Massachusetts.
 
 
Vets to the front of the line
 
By the way, we already know who the first two recreational pot customers will be on Tuesday, thanks to the Globe’s Dan Adams, who reports a pair of military veterans have been tapped to make the first buys.
 
 
Is pot the victim of an age-based town meeting disconnect?
 
One more pot-related item: At CommonWealth magazine, policy attorney Jim Smith argues that local pot shop rollouts would be more robust if not for the fact that younger voters—who overwhelmingly favor legalization of marijuana—by and large take a pass on local governmental affairs.

 

Moulton faces liberal (and gender) backlash over Pelosi coup attempt
 
The Washington Post reports that U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton is now facing both a local and national backlash for his latest coup attempt against Nancy Pelosi – and there’s more than a few hints he may yet face a Michael Capuano-like primary challenge in two years.

Here’s some particularly harsh quotes from U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.): “Is he rubbing people the wrong way with how he’s perceived in this? I would say, yeah. … Let me get this straight — 17 or 18 who aren’t happy can block the will of over 200 members of the caucus? Where does that end? … With his zeal for revolution, there’s a lot of wounded left on the battlefield.”

This is what you get when you launch a coup attempt without a having a successor in place. It comes across as personal and pointless.
 
 
She’s learning fast: Pressley’s masterful fence sitting on Pelosi
 
Speaking of the leadership fight in the U.S. House, the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld says U.S. Rep.-elect Ayanna Pressley isn’t exactly standing up to the status quo by not taking sides in the battle over Nancy Pelosi’s leadership of House Democrats.

Meanwhile, the state’s other newly minted member of Congress has moved off the fence in the speaker’s race, with Lori Trahan telling the Lowell Sun’s Chris Lisinski she will back Pelosi, citing her “experience and proven track record.”
 
 
Moderates still hold sway in blue Massachusetts
 
Massachusetts may be among the bluest of blue states, but the November elections once again showed that moderates and conservative Democrats still hold the key to statewide elections, reports the AP’s Bob Salsberg at the Sentinel & Enterprise.
 
 
Your winnings, sir: A once shocked Charlie Baker will now take the pay raise
 
He was shocked, disappointed and vowed not to accept a hefty pay hike approved last year by lawmakers for themselves and other elected officials. But that was before his re-election a few weeks ago – and now Gov. Charlie Baker will accept his $100K bump in salary to $250,000 a year, reports the Globe’s Matt Stout.

 

Howie Carr’s lawyers seek to quash $800K lawsuit by former employee
 
Boston Herald columnist and radio host Howie Carr is embroiled in a legal fight with a former radio-program employee who has filed a $800,000 breach-of-contract suit in New Hampshire – and now Carr’s lawyers are seeking to have the suit tossed, reports Paul Cuno-Booth at the Keene Sentinel. NewBostonPost.com has a good summary of the case, including allegations of account hacking and unwanted email messages from Carr.
 
 
Backyard brawl: How New Hampshire could make or break local presidential hopefuls
 
These 2020 stories should come with a trigger warning. With just over a year before the New Hampshire presidential primaries, James Pindell of the Globe delves into the importance of that race to the New England-based Democratic presidential hopefuls. A big win in the Granite State could catapult a contender to the front of the pack, while losing in one’s own backyard could also be a death knell for a nascent campaign.
 
 
Dear Liz: Don’t do it
 
Speaking of potential presidential wannabes, Thomas Gagen, a former editorial writer at the Globe, is urging U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren not to run for president in 2020. Why? Because the rest of the nation is not like Massachusetts – and there’s no way she’s going to win key swing states. He explains.
 
 
Incoming Democrats rally around Warren’s CFPB
 
As they plan to take control of the U.S. House in January, national Democrats are plotting to save and rebuild the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been the focus on an all-out assault from the Trump administration, Katy O’Donnell reports at Politico. The CFPB is, of course, the brainchild of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but is seen as a regulatory overreach by many on the right.

 

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