Middleboro Review et al

‘Vote her in next, Massachusetts’ — $15 minimum wage, paid family leave ballot questions to be dropped — KENNEDY joins hunger strike 06/27/2018 07:17 AM EDT By Lauren Dezenski  (ldezenski@politico.com; @LaurenDezenski) with Brent D. Griffiths (bgriffiths@politico.com; @BrentGriffiths) GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. NY-14'S MASSACHUSETTS CONNECTION —  A progressive woman of color, facing institutional opposition and a significant fundraising gap, wages a long-shot bid against a 10-term, scandal-free white male incumbent. Sounds a lot like Boston City Councilor  Ayanna Pressley 's campaign to unseat Rep.  Michael Capuano  in Massachusetts' 7th District, right? But those were the contours in New York's 14th District, where 28-year-old  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez  decisively defeated Rep.  Joe Crowley  in the Democratic primary last night. There's even a Massachusetts connection to the winning campaign — Pressley sent her field dire...

BALLOT QUESTION wrangling — STATIE pay troubles — New arrivals on the GREEN LINE 03/27/2018 06:53 AM EDT By Lauren Dezenski  ( ldezenski@politico.com ; @LaurenDezenski) with Brent D. Griffiths ( bgriffiths@politico.com ; @BrentGriffiths) GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. BALLOT QUESTION LIMBO -  There's consistently strong public support for ballot questions poised to reshape the state's tax code this fall, though proponents of multiple questions say they're still open to some sort of legislative compromise that could see the issues resolved by Beacon Hill. Seventy-eight percent of respondents say they support a ballot question that would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2022 in a  new WBUR/MassINC poll  - though it's not necessarily a done deal on the ballot. Proponents of the $15 minimum wage question, Raise Up Massachusetts, says they're still open to - and even optimistic - that the legislature will pass a bill this session, rather than through the u...

01/25/2018 06:54 AM EDT By Lauren Dezenski  ( ldezenski@politico.com ; @LaurenDezenski) with Brent D. Griffiths ( bgriffiths@politico.com ; @BrentGriffiths) GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES, ACA EDITION -  Governor  Charlie Baker 's team is banking on a key certainty from Washington as they craft his latest budget proposal: That the Affordable Care Act remains essentially untouched over the next year. While last year's concerns around changes to  -  or dissolution of  -  the Affordable Care Act prompted the state to  gird itself  from what could have been a multi-billion dollar hit to its coffers, this year, the consideration has largely vanished. "We're working on the assumption that at least for this fiscal year, there does not seem to be a significant amount of focus on changes in health care," Baker told reporters as he rolled out his $40.9 billion budget proposal yesterday. Baker said he anticip...