Chronicling Dem dysfunction and infighting seems to have become a regular Hub Blog feature. And because there’s been so much of it on display lately, I thought I might as well dump it all into one blog post – along with other political tidbits.
— Is Mayor Wu part Irish? It sure seems like it with her growing list of grudges. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy. Sen. Nick Collins. The Boston Municipal Research Bureau. The Globe’s Shirley Leung, prompted by this Globe editorial, has the full list of recent mayoral grudges and score settlings. And, judging by Shirley’s recent excellent columns on the lack of development in Boston, she might soon have to put her own name on the mayoral grudge/score-settling list.
— This is yet another score-settling incident involving the mayor, but it’s so much more. It’s also a Mayor vs Gov fight. From the Herald: “Governor Healey backs Boston senator who helped to kill Mayor Wu’s tax shift bill.”
— Gov. Healey hasn’t even won reelection yet and we’re already talking about her successors? Yes, at Contrarian Boston, and Auditor Diana DiZoglio and Attorney General Andrea Campbell do seem to be jostling for position.
— I admit it: I immediately thought of Dukakis in the tank when I first saw the recent photo of Gov. Healey taking aim at an imaginary Bambi. The Dukakis connection dates me, I know. But I also thought of something else: Elmer Fudd. Which really dates me. Anyway, Joe Battenfeld and Joan Vennochi have more on Healey lifting the Sunday hunting ban in Massachusetts.
— A Rachael Rollins comeback? Really? Anyway, there’s a lot of talk out there about potential challengers to Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden due to his decision to charge a Boston cop with manslaughter in connection with an on-duty fatal shooting, as the Herald reports. The Globe’s Adrian Walker has more on the Hayden controversy.
— Did you know a New York road paving firm and DraftKings care deeply about the housing crisis in Massachusetts? Apparently so. Or maybe not. WBUR reports on the political “dark money” flowing into non-transparent nonprofits in Massachusetts.
— Yes, there is a Republican Party in Massachusetts, and there’s actual news to report on our cuddly little Bay State GOP: one of the Republican candidates running for governor has picked a little-known and little-experienced (to put it mildly) New Bedford city councilor to be his running mate. It’s a head scratcher, needless to say.
— And there’s more from the Mass. GOP! Long-time House Minority Leader Brad Jones is retiring, after nearly a quarter-century of managing near irrelevancy on Beacon Hill.
— Finally, I couldn’t resist, via Karl Rove at the WSJ: “Republicans’ Biggest Asset: Democrats.”
