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BOSTON (CBS) – Be trustworthy – are you attempting to keep away from year-in-review tales because of the dumpster-fire that was 2020?
I really feel your ache. However there’s no denying this was a monumental 12 months for landmark information occasions, no extra so than on this planet of Massachusetts politics. So right here, should you can stand it, are my picks for the highest 4 native political tales of the 12 months from H-E-double hockey sticks:
#4: Massachusetts presidential candidates flop
Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a flip on the prime of the polls within the fall of 2019. However she faltered badly in Iowa and New Hampshire, and was swept away by the sudden Joe Biden tsunami on Tremendous Tuesday, ending a surprising third in her residence state. Much more dismal – the failure of Rep. Seth Moulton and former Gov. Deval Patrick to ever qualify for a presidential debate, not to mention draw flies on the polls. And on the GOP aspect, former Gov. Invoice Weld was unsurprisingly bulldozed by the Trump machine.
Ethical of the story: being a next-door neighbor to New Hampshire didn’t depend for a lot this cycle, even because the New Hampshire major itself proved a non-factor within the consequence. May this mark the top of the raging Potomac Fever that has so many Massachusetts pols because the 1960s?
#3: New traction for tax hikes on Beacon Hill
For years, it’s been a given – main tax hike proposals verify into the Massachusetts Home, however don’t try. However that modified final March when the Home authorised $600 million price of gasoline and ride-share taxes to assist fund transportation enhancements. The pandemic crashed the economic system earlier than the usually-pro-tax Senate may signal on and the tax bundle stalled, however search for new revenues to be entrance and heart as soon as restoration arrives, and for tax coverage to be a key problem within the 2022 governor’s race.
#2: Unprecedented police reform involves Massachusetts
Police unions have been a significant lobbying drive on Beacon Hill for so long as I’ve been protecting it. However they acquired their lunch eaten this 12 months within the wake of the George Floyd homicide and the following wave of anger and calls for for change. The road protests light away together with summer season, however with the governor, Senate president and Home speaker all on board, a considerable reform invoice made it by way of.
It didn’t assist their trigger that police union leaders argued police brutality and lack of accountability wasn’t a problem right here, as if the depredations of unhealthy cops stopped on the state border. Nobody purchased that, and whereas the ultimate invoice didn’t embrace all the pieces reform advocates needed, they acquired so much, and absolutely might be again for extra.
#1: How we dealt with the pandemic
Swiftly in mid-March, politicians preferring to be related to excellent news had been delivering the other each day – college closures, harsh enterprise restrictions, cancellation of prized civic occasions. They’ve been vilified and sued for it – by some. However public assist for the excruciating selections made by Gov. Charlie Baker and others stays amazingly excessive, because the Massachusetts public took the battle in opposition to COVID-19 critically, masked up and hunkered down.
This story will proceed to evolve throughout 2021, and who is aware of what the last word fallout might be after we go to the polls over the subsequent couple of years. However for now, the pols have the general public’s sympathy.
Completely happy New 12 months! We’d like it to be.
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