Episode 216: State House Roundup: Bills, Bills, Bills

6/9/22- This week, Jenn fills us in on this weekend’s Dot Day and Dorchfest festivities while eating leftover cake. Steve counters an argument made in a recent episode of The New York Times’ podcast The Daily, that “polling on gun control gets it wrong,” explaining the key difference between issues polling and ballot question polling, and why, as he’s seen in ballot question campaigns throughout Massachusetts history, it’s difficult for ballot questions to receive broad public support.

Next, Lisa gives us a rundown of what came out of the MassDems Convention. Who’s in and who’s out. Breaking news: the closest race is for state auditor.

This week we feature another Statehouse Round-up with BFFs of the pod Katie Lannan and Chris Lisinski of the State House News Service. We talk about the state budget, gas prices, murmurs about the aid in dying bill, Baker’s “revenge porn” bill, and whether the East-West Rail will come to fruition.

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This episode of The Horse Race was brought to you by Benchmark Strategies [www.benchmark-strategies.com] Benchmark is setting a new standard as Boston's fastest-growing public affairs consulting firm. To know more, connect with Benchmark on Twitter @benchmarkBoston.

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Lisa Kashinsky: [00:00:27] Today on the Horse Race. We're looking at the results of this year's state Democratic convention. Plus, we're summiting Beacon Hill for another edition of the State House Roundup. It's Thursday, June 9th. [00:00:38][11.1]

Steve Koczela: [00:00:55] Welcome back to the Horse Race, your weekly look at politics, policy and elections in Massachusetts. I'm Steve Koczela here, as always, with Jennifer Smith and Lisa Kashinsky and there is a lot to get to this week. But before we jump into the usual dose of politics, policy and elections, which is what you've come to expect from us, we have a very special report here. And for that, we turn to the Commodore of the Dorchester Chamber of Commerce, Jennifer Smith. Jenn, it was Dot Day this weekend. [00:01:20][25.3]

Jennifer Smith: [00:01:21] It was Dot Day this weekend and if any of our listeners think, I sound like I'm in a better mood than usual, it's because I am eating for lunch the remains of the Dorchester Day cake, which my boyfriend bakes for the party every single year and this year it was a classic three-decker. He literally made a three-decker out of cake. But the entire rest of the weekend was so much fun. There was a lot of great music at Dorchfest. A few weeks ago, I loaded up on glassware at the Ashmont Hill yard sale. The parade was great, even though only one half of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates marched in it. That half being the Healey half. And yeah, good times all around. As usual. This is my plug for the neighborhood of Dorchester. [00:02:04][42.9]

Steve Koczela: [00:02:06] We count on you for nothing. Last Jenn, I did see also, it looks like Jeff Deal and Chris Doughty from the GOP side were both there marching. Yeah. Any other bit, any other major sort of headline candidate names show up? [00:02:16][10.2]

Jennifer Smith: [00:02:16] I mean, really, it was the the kind of entire AG run of things we had, auditors, we had I mean, everyone running for statewide office, most of them had a presence there. But there were also a lot of local rep races which I'm sure will kind of make mention to either later in this episode or kind of throughout the election season. So bottom line, if you want people in Dorchester to vote for you, you probably showed up at the Dot Day parade. [00:02:45][29.1]

Steve Koczela: [00:02:47] So I have to ask you, at the end of all this, would you say you have a favorable or unfavorable view of Dot Day? [00:02:54][7.2]

Jennifer Smith: [00:02:54] I would say that I feel strongly favorable toward the Dot Day parade. It was a beautiful day. Ten out of ten would recommend. Are you trying to segue into something about whether or not people feel favorably about things? [00:03:07][12.9]

Steve Koczela: [00:03:09] Well, it says here that the next thing we're supposed to talk about is issues polling. So I was just administering my sample of one issues poll on the Dorchester Day festivities there. So sounds like 100% favorable. Big, you know, big positive result. [00:03:21][11.8]

Jennifer Smith: [00:03:21] Yeah. Lisa, could you feel the enthusiasm all the way from the home of Porchfest, Somerville? [00:03:25][4.2]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:03:28] You know what, while we have been talking about Dot Day, my cat has climbed in a suitcase and has wedged herself in there and this is like a half zipped suitcase. So I don't know how she's getting out, but I take that as a very clear sign that she wants to make the trek from Somerville to Dorchester ASAP. [00:03:45][17.3]

Jennifer Smith: [00:03:46] All right. So not only people, also ten out of ten cats recommend Dorchester. Steve, why on earth were we trying to segue way over to talking about favorability issue polling, right? Other podcasts that aren't ours? [00:04:01][14.5]

Steve Koczela: [00:04:02] Jenn, from what I can tell from my extensive Internet research, there actually are other podcasts other than the Horse Race. This is something that I've learned. I can see you shaking your head vigorously, but best I can tell, there are other podcasts. One of them is called The Daily and on The Daily this week they did a whole thing on issues polling and the context that they approached it from was polling about guns, which of course is very much of the moment with, you know, questions about what Congress can pass in response to the just horrific and at seemingly never ending series of shootings that have been going on for a long time. But it seems to have escalated just kind of in the last couple of weeks. And the conversation actually turned out to be more nuanced than I was expecting, but that the promotion of it and the title that they gave it, I think was very misleading. So basically, they it appears to be if you don't listen to it or kind of look at it at the surface level, why the polling is wrong about guns or what the polling gets wrong. And they look at it from the perspective of background checks specifically. That's one issue that they dig in on a lot. There's lots of national polling going back years and state level polling basically saying that support for expanded background checks as a concept is near universal. But then they look at the results of ballot questions and say, well, you know, when that actually was put to the test in places like Maine and California, the results were very different than that and looked more like perhaps a partisan election. So then were the polls just wrong? And I think that that is that, you know, Nate Cohn, I think, actually does a decent job of kind of digging into some of the reasons why that's not the right answer. But I think it still leaves the impression that, you know, there was something flawed about the initial polling rather than just when you ask an abstract question on a poll and then there's an entire ballot question campaign about a specific question and a specific set of rule changes, you should expect the results of those to be quite different. That's kind of to summarize, I think, some of what he said and also kind of my response to when people ask, well, why can't we get anything done? You know, 90% of people say that they support background checks. [00:06:16][133.8]

Jennifer Smith: [00:06:17] So can you kind of help us apply the way you're talking about this to an issue right now, maybe in front of Massachusetts voters? Are you thinking about like the Fair Share Amendment? [00:06:26][9.1]

Steve Koczela: [00:06:27] Sure. So, I mean, we see it we've seen this a lot in Massachusetts where there's support for a concept of some kind, say, charter schools, you know, or expanding the bottle bill to name a couple of recent examples and support early on in the campaign or before it even becomes a ballot question might be 65 or 70%. But the people who are supporting that or now supporting fair share know that they expect the no side to grow. That's the expectation for any ballot question is if there's a campaign, if there's any coordinated opposition whatsoever, then no side's going to grow. And basically, the way that they that a lot of know campaigns try to do that is they introduce all these doubts. So, for example, you know, on Fair Share, right now you're seeing talk about the impact on family farms. You're seeing the talk about the impact of, you know, wealthier people potentially leaving the state. Or maybe that's why Raytheon chose Virginia instead of Massachusetts for their headquarters, you know, basically trying to introduce enough doubt to give somebody a reason to vote no, because all you really need is, you know, someone to feel uncertain. Uncertain tends to be no, because no on a ballot question means status quo. We're going to keep things the same way they are. Maybe it would be a good idea if this thing changed, but I don't quite understand it. And there are all these doubts about it. You know, there's these doubts about, you know, whether the bottle bill is effective. There's these doubts about like how fast charter schools would expand. You know, there's these doubts about whether it's privatizing education. And if you can introduce just enough to push just enough people to the no side, then that's how you change it from this 90% support for going, taking it all the way back to guns for universal background checks to where maybe only 60 or 50%, you know, end up voting yes in the end. [00:08:16][108.6]

Jennifer Smith: [00:08:16] Okay. Well thank you for our every so often download on breaking down nuances of polling. This is why we turn to you as our resident expert. Lisa, we're about to turn to you as our resident expert on some other things, one of which is maybe what are we even doing here today? [00:08:33][16.6]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:08:34] Convention recaps and going through every statewide race and everything you've ever wanted to know about it. No, we're not going that far, don't worry. But we are going to recap the convention and then catch up with our great friends from Statehouse News for another edition of State House Roundup. [00:08:51][17.2]

Jennifer Smith: [00:08:59] This weekend, Democrats came together from across the state to endorse candidates for statewide office. Of course, I caught up after the fact because Dot Day. But one of us was, I assume, absolutely glued to the action. Lisa has been covering it for Politico, Massachusetts Playbook, and also for Politico's National pages. So what were the highlights for you, starting just from the top of the ticket? [00:09:22][22.6]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:09:22] So top of the ticket, you have, of course, the governor's race where you had State Attorney General Maura Healey win the convention, as expected, with 71% support from delegates, State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz got 29%. And the first thing that stuck out to me with that is that it's the exact same split as the Republican convention for governor. And there's a few pretty key reasons why. One is, of course, Sonia Chang-Diaz has a core of progressive activists, supporters who were at the convention. So that makes up part of it. But then you saw some folks and this is where it gets similar to the GOP convention who some of them just want to see a primary. They're either not sure who they are going to vote for in the September primary. They may change their vote once they get to the ballot box that day, but they know that they want to see some competition and have a real vetting of ideas. So you have some people voting for Sonia Chang-Diaz because of that. And then you also have people who and this came a little bit from my colleague Madison Fernandez, who was in the convention hall that day. I was not because I was actually in a wedding. I was just listening with one earbud in while I was getting my hair and makeup done. And what she found is that there were people who wanted to reward Sonia Chang-Diaz. Maybe they thought that she wasn't going to win in the end. But she's been she's a veteran of Beacon Hill. She was a pioneer when she was first elected as the first Latina, an Asian-American state senator. And people wanted to give her her props for that by putting her on the ballot. [00:10:54][91.6]

Jennifer Smith: [00:10:55] And you also wrote, you and Madison, in an article about kind of what Healey's endorsement means here. You noted this sort of protective, almost anti-Trump move in the gesture to endorse Healey, not just to keep Sonia Chang-Diaz on the ballot. But can you walk me through a bit of that logic? You know, they would presumably be running against Jeff Deal if he also succeeds in the Republican primary. And Jeff Deal couldn't unseat Elizabeth Warren, who's a kind of unabashed progressive. So what's the math that people are doing right now when they say we're supporting Healey because we think she can win? And also she has a strong track record as attorney general, even when they're saying they like Sonia Chang-Diaz's specific progressive policies, maybe a bit better. [00:11:41][46.0]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:11:43] Yeah. So the thing that and this is largely, again, coming from Madison's reporting, talking to delegates on the floor, is that Democrats have the best chance in about a decade to retake the governor's office. And they just don't want to take any chances of screwing that up. They are really tired and wary and weary of Republican rule from the executive office, whether that's the Republicans who have controlled the state for the better part of 30 years in the corner office or the Donald Trump years. And this is a little bit less about Jeff Deal himself. Obviously, as you said, Jenn, given his track record in Massachusetts elections and more just they just want to make sure that they are going to take this governor's office and they're not going to put anything at risk. So people do like these activists. And again, we do have to note that this was a gathering of a few thousand very involved party activists. But at least among that crowd, they did like what Sonia Chang-Diaz was selling, even if they did vote for Healey. And they just really overwhelmingly this year just seem to want someone who can win. [00:12:50][66.3]

Steve Koczela: [00:12:50] Yeah. I mean, it's not a crazy instinct. I mean, the polling shows either Democrat potentially leading that gubernatorial election. Obviously a long way to go in that one. And, you know, two candidates on both sides. So we'll see how that one shakes out. But it has been a while and a lot of years with Democrats losing what they feel like they could potentially win. So definitely it'll be interesting to keep an eye on in terms of the more crowded race, the next one down the ballot, lieutenant governor, that one came into the convention with five candidates looking to punch their ticket for September. Where did it end up? [00:13:21][30.6]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:13:22] It ended up with just three. Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, State Representative Tami Gouveia and State Senator Eric Lesser punched their tickets onto the September primary. State Senator Adam Hinds and businessman Brett Bero have bowed out. They did not reach the 15% threshold. And of course, there's arguments still always about whether that should stick. The 50% delegates support you have to get at the convention on top of your 10,000 signatures to make the primary ballot. But that's a whole other discussion. [00:13:50][28.5]

Steve Koczela: [00:13:51] And of course, there was push by the Bero campaign to try to change that 15% threshold, wasn't there, Lisa? [00:13:55][4.6]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:13:56] There was. His supporters had tried to make a motion from the floor to do away with the 15% rule and and leave it up to the voters to decide in September. That didn't work. But the fight to get rid of the 15% rule isn't actually over. Representative Smitty Pignatelli from out in Lenox. He's Lenox, Democrat. He has sent a letter to Chair Gus Bickford to try and change this for the next convention. So the fight definitely continues. [00:14:22][26.4]

Steve Koczela: [00:14:24] It does have the impact of, you know, disqualifying some, you know, inarguably qualified candidates in the last couple of cycles. So it'll be interesting to see how that one how that one plays out. Continuing our journey down the ballot secretary of state, there were some kind of major fireworks there. Lisa, what happened? [00:14:40][16.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:14:41] Basically, a lot of people went into this convention actually not knowing how this vote was going to go. This is one of the races that had kind of flown under the radar. And, of course, there's history of the incumbent secretary of state, Bill Galvin, not getting the party's nod at the convention. And that's exactly what happened this year. Political newcomer, the NAACP, Boston branch president Tanisha Sullivan won the convention pretty resoundingly with just over 62% of the vote. So she now has the party's endorsement for secretary of state. And now we have to see how that translates beyond the convention, because convention is not necessarily real life. It's just a select group of voters. And the last time Galvin lost a convention, he won his primary. So now the real fight's on. [00:15:28][47.5]

Steve Koczela: [00:15:29] That's right. Of course, that was Josh Zakim, who won 55% at the convention, but then managed only 32% in his match up with Bill Galvin. So Galvin winning that one handily. Okay, attorney general. Another one with a lot of interest, three candidates, where did that one end up? [00:15:46][16.2]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:15:46] So this one was the only one that went through multiple ballots and while Andrea Campbell won the first ballot, it was Quentin Palfrey who won the second one and therefore the party's endorsement for attorney general. So, Quentin had come into this convention trailing in polling and fundraising, but he had a lot of support. He was the 2018 lieutenant governor nominee, has been around for a while, had a lot of support statewide. So it's not very surprising that he actually came out on top. And this is another one of those races where now that we see now that it's getting kicked to voters, we could see a different result. [00:16:22][35.4]

Jennifer Smith: [00:16:23] It's also just kind of interesting as well, because Shannon Liss-Riordan, who didn't have the endorsement of progressive mass but obviously is is very strongly backed by the unions, got up to 22% in the initial round of of ballots. And it seems like most of her voters broke toward Quentin. Rather than on drama. So I think as we kind of head down the stretch here, if they're still kind of both running in their own lanes, there's a lot of potential in the primary to basically keep both of them with their share of voters who might otherwise prefer both of them rather than Campbell. So keeping an eye on that one. And of course, the auditors race was extremely close. Chris Dempsey came out on top with 52% to Diana DiZoglio with 47%. So it was close going in. It's close coming out. So enjoy everyone. The most contested race is for auditor. So, Lisa, I guess what we kind of want to end with here is what's the trend we were seeing across the board here? Is there a particular type of candidate the Democrats have leaned toward in this convention? [00:17:34][71.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:17:35] All of these candidates are pretty progressive. There's not terribly much daylight in any of these races between any of these candidates on the issues. I will say this seems to be the year of the women given who came out on top of these races and who got the party's endorsement. So cheers to that. [00:17:50][14.9]

Jennifer Smith: [00:17:50] All right. Well, so it is on to September for all those statewide candidates. At a different point, we will talk about people who are not running for statewide office. But for now, that's all the time we have. And we can watch the money start to be spent. We can watch the ads magically appear in front of your eyes. We can watch debates, take up all of our evenings and all of that glorious, glorious stuff. Yes, I feel pain even thinking about it. But Lisa, thank you so much for walking us through the convention. [00:18:16][25.3]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:18:16] I don't know why you feel pain. Because I'm excited. Bring it on. [00:18:19][2.6]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:18:24] So now, as we do each month, we're headed over for our State House Roundup, where we catch you up on what's going on under the sparkling golden dome. For that, we're joined for a roundup of all things Beacon Hill with BFFs of the Pod, Katie Lannan and Chris Lisinski of Statehouse News Service. It's great to have you both on again. [00:18:44][20.8]

Chris Lisinski: [00:18:45] I am doing this this state house round roundup from the state house in a magical turn of events. [00:18:51][5.7]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:18:51] It's incredible. It's like it was meant to be. So let's keep the good times rolling and start with a point of deep merriment for all. As always, the state budget. Katie, you had the question of the week this week, which is, will this budget actually be done by July 1st? So give us a quick glimpse of how that's going. [00:19:13][21.2]

Katie Lannan: [00:19:13] Yeah, you might want to call it the question of the week, but I don't know if we got the answer of the week for that one. So the new fiscal year starts on July 1st and the team of six negotiators who are supposed to produce a final budget so that we can have one by then started meeting today, June 8th, which is a pretty tight timeline. But the way it typically goes is that it's very unusual for Massachusetts to have a budget in place by July 1st, partially because the governor gets ten days to review it. So when we do see a last minute, June 30th, fiscal New Year's Eve accord. He's not just going to sign it right away. So we usually work off of interim 1/12 in state House wonk parlance budgets that fund state government through the month of July. And we might see the governor put forward one of those later this month. On Monday, I asked Speaker Mariano and Senate President Spilka if they expected a budget to be in place for July 1st and got a long pause, a shrug from the speaker. And an I don't know, but if I had to guess, it's not practice on Beacon Hill for a budget to be in place, so I wouldn't be expecting it. [00:20:34][80.8]

Jennifer Smith: [00:20:35] And speaking of money and Beacon Hill, are the electeds fighting about the sales tax holiday again Chris. [00:20:42][7.2]

Chris Lisinski: [00:20:44] I don't think the fight has really kicked off yet. Oddly enough, the clock is certainly ticking. I think that they have only a few days left to decide when that sales tax holiday would fall this year. Before authority to decide it automatically bounces over to the administration. This could be something that comes out of left field, and past years we've seen that suddenly pop up without warning, even in an informal session. So expect that to happen in the coming days and also expect that to be really the only kind of tax relief that lawmakers are talking about, at least at this exact moment in time. [00:21:19][35.0]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:21:20] You teed me up perfectly here because I was going to say, speaking of tax relief gas is, what, over $5 a gallon on average now and there's no gas tax holiday in sight. What is the status of talks of any sort of tax relief proposal? [00:21:37][17.2]

Katie Lannan: [00:21:38] I guess I would say the status is like the status of so many things that are still on the legislative agenda as we head into the waning weeks of the legislative session, which is a shrug. It really we haven't seen a lot of details or really any details from the legislature on what type of tax relief or broader tax plan, if it will be more than just relief measures, if there'll be other changes that they're interested in pursuing. Again, we've got that July 31 deadline, so something would probably need to emerge soon in order to get done. But the only real concrete plan we've seen is the one the governor put forward and that Republicans in the House and Senate tried without success to add into each branch's budget. [00:22:27][48.2]

Chris Lisinski: [00:22:28] I'll note too that top Democrats really haven't said where they stand on Baker's package as a whole. I think the most they've said about it is, yeah, we want to make sure that any relief we do focuses on those who are most vulnerable, but they haven't ruled out reforming the capital gains tax or the estate tax, and they haven't embraced reforming the capital gains tax and the estate tax. So, you know, unfortunately for onlookers, this is yet another situation where it's just all in the dark until suddenly it's not. [00:22:55][27.2]

Jennifer Smith: [00:22:56] Now I get to thank you for the segue because we're going to move toward things that might have slightly more concrete material for you to work with. We're going to look at some of the things that the legislature is actually possibly dealing with here. Katie, you wrote earlier this week about continued conversations around the aid in dying bill. So kind of start us off. What is aid in dying mean and what's the history of this kind of discussion in Massachusetts? [00:23:20][23.3]

Katie Lannan: [00:23:21] So the concept of aid in dying is really a perennial issue that comes up each session on Beacon Hill. It refers to the concept of allowing terminally ill patients to request and receive a dose of medication from their doctor that would allow them to end their lives. And this is something that's been filed every session since 2008. It was a version of it was narrowly defeated at the ballot in 2012 after supporters of that policy put it before voters when they were frustrated of legislative inaction. And, you know, here we are. And it's a long time after that. It's ten years after that ballot question and the backers say they have significant support in the legislature. But support among the rank and file members of the House and Senate doesn't always translate into action. And the speaker and the Senate president were asked about it this week. Senate President Spilka said she's been having conversations with senators, trying to get a sense of where they are on the issue. And in the House, Speaker Mariano indicated there's still a lot of division and we often don't see bills hit the floor in Massachusetts without a broad consensus behind them. So how you want to interpret those divisions with six weeks left to go is up to you. [00:24:53][91.3]

Jennifer Smith: [00:24:54] So you mentioned the pretty extensive public support and, you know, general support from the legislature that that has been coming up. There was a Suffolk poll that found, you know, 77% of Massachusetts residents believe in the underlying principle behind this bill, is it significantly different than the question from 12 years ago to an extent that that might impact its likelihood of passing now? [00:25:20][25.7]

Katie Lannan: [00:25:21] One thing I think you hear from the supporters and the lawmakers who have been trying to get this through is that they've really worked over the years to refine the language. They've heard the concerns that critics or opponents raise and have tried to address them so that that means maybe more safeguards requiring certification from multiple physicians that a patient has a life expectancy of six months or less. Evaluation from a mental health professional. And measures that really look to make sure it's not being abused. Now, people still have concerns that there's potential for abuse, particularly pressures on marginalized communities, people who are disabled, communities of color or people of color. So there's there's still a debate there about whether it is goes far enough to address those concerns. [00:26:18][57.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:26:19] So pivoting to another piece of legislation, one of Governor Charlie Baker's biggest pushes for his final legislative agenda beyond taxes is criminalizing revenge porn. And he's been holding these emotional roundtables with survivors of sexual and domestic abuse. The House actually recently approved a bill that would do this. So where do we go from here and why is there so much pressure to get this done? [00:26:44][25.0]

Chris Lisinski: [00:26:45] The first step we're going to go from here, obviously, is to the Senate, which has not done this yet. This session has not indicated exactly how it's going to go about addressing this. But you're right. Lisa, this is something the governor has been pushing for and Lieutenant Governor Karen Polito, who's really been kind of a leading public figure on this. The two of them have been pushing unsuccessfully for years. And it suddenly seems like there is new willingness to do this in the legislature. This is something that cleared the House unanimously. We heard both Democrats and Republicans speak in favor of this, of closing a loophole in state law that has left Massachusetts, I think, as either the only state or one of only two states in the country that does not actually have something clear on the books to crack down on anyone who shares, you know, explicit images or videos of someone that might have been provided consensually, first off, but was never given with the the agreement to distribute those more widely. So like so many other things, we're still waiting to see when it will come up in the other branch. But, you know, it's pretty rare for something to stall out for multiple sessions, get a unanimous vote in one branch and then not get across the finish line in the other one. [00:27:59][73.7]

Jennifer Smith: [00:27:59] And pivoting away from legislation to kind of the consistent back and forth over investments and transit. Chris, you wrote about discussions in the Senate around expanding the East West Rail Project, so give us the debrief on that. Can we take trains anywhere, anytime soon and will there be money for them. [00:28:19][19.2]

Chris Lisinski: [00:28:19] Any time soon is a real a real slippery slope there. It did seem like we had a breakthrough back end in April. Governor Baker joined with Congressman Neal, a Springfield native who has long been a vocal champion of extending passenger rail, which right now you can only take the Tcommuter rail to Worcester. You can't go further west on the T. And they said that they had an agreement on a path forward to bring passenger rail regularly to Springfield and to Pittsfield. And since then we've gotten basically no more information. At the time, Congressman Neal said that the legislature would need to create a new rail authority to oversee this in a pending infrastructure bond bill. That bond bill is still in the legislative process, has cleared one hurdle is set to clear another one and still no mention of East West Rail in it. I've spoken to a couple of lawmakers who kind of have the reins in their hands right now. And their answer, like so often it is, is basically a shrug. They say there's a lot of interest in doing this, but they're just not sure how to go about it. So we're definitely moving toward it. I think getting the governor on board and getting the governor to signal that he's agreed with the congressional delegation is a really big step. But there's still a lot of work to be done at the legislative level to get this project up and off the ground. [00:29:37][77.8]

Katie Lannan: [00:29:39] If I could just wildly speculate for a second, I think even if we do see those bond bills hit the floor without East West Rail Authority language in there, that's the kind of thing that lawmakers might be pretty enthusiastic to add in as an amendment. There's a handful of very vocal supporters of that project in the legislature. And it could it could present an opportunity for them to champion the issue that way. [00:30:07][27.9]

Chris Lisinski: [00:30:08] Or the governor himself could send it back with that amended language. Now, it is worth noting that the infrastructure bond bill, he filed it something like a month before announcing the East West rail agreement. So if lawmakers don't do what he had hoped they would do, he can always add that in himself and try and get them to sign off. [00:30:26][18.0]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:30:27] And so we can't let you go without touching on current events and the climate on Beacon Hill around gun control. Katie, we saw that you wrote about representatives from Massachusetts offering to serve as a resource for other states. Tell us more about that. [00:30:41][14.5]

Katie Lannan: [00:30:43] Yeah, there's been a letter that was circulated among House lawmakers this week, an open letter to legislatures and other in other states, encouraging them to to look toward what Massachusetts has done on guns as they pursue potential reforms in their own state in the wake of mass shootings like the one in ones in Texas, in New York. Speaker Mariano is among the lawmakers who signed on to that. And, you know, it highlights measures like the the bump stock ban that Massachusetts passed after the Las Vegas shooting, the red flag law that lets people petition the courts to suspend someone's gun rights if it's a family member or someone they're close to that they believe poses a danger. And, you know, the state's assault weapon ban, which we've had for on the books for many years now, there's. Massachusetts hasn't been shy about passing gun laws and manages to find some measures that go through a little easier than others might. You know, the things like the bump stock ban was pretty quick to get passed. So as other states are looking for, things like red flag laws have been part of the national conversation. There's a people in the house. It was Marjorie Decker, Cambridge representative, who led this letter. She's been a really key player in some of the recent gun legislation here in Massachusetts and might have some tips for lawmakers and other states if they want to pursue a similar route. [00:32:19][96.0]

Jennifer Smith: [00:32:20] And we should also note kind of the context in which we're chatting today. Your coverage is going to have to swap quite a few names around and priorities around in the state house after this election season. We've talked about the governor's race a bit higher up in the podcast and some other statewide races, but we would be remiss if we didn't get your takes. Is there a down ballot race, anything below the governor that is particularly drawing your eyes? [00:32:46][26.3]

Chris Lisinski: [00:32:47] One that really stands out to me. And we should note there's not much competition in the legislative races, as is often the case. Check out StatehouseNews.com for some more details. But I am really interested in the Senate race for Sonia Chang-Diaz District. This is going to be a five way Democratic primary. It'll feature two sitting state reps, Liz Miranda and Nick Elugardo, as well as Dianne Wilkerson, who is back in the public sphere after she resigned from the Senate, served some prison time for accepting a bribe and is now making another bid for her, her former seat. So that one is really going to be, I think, a fascinating race to watch. [00:33:26][38.1]

Katie Lannan: [00:33:27] Starting slightly down ballot. I'm going to say I'm really curious to see how the AG's race plays out now that Quinton Palfrey has been endorsed by the Democrats at their party's convention because it was kind of him and Shannon Liss-Riordan against Andrea Campbell going into the convention and I'm wondering if that dynamic is going to change at all now and further down the ballot. I'm really curious what's going to happen in the house district up around Amesbury, where the only candidate who pulled papers is incumbent Republican Rep Jim Kelcourse, who is Governor Baker's nominee for a parole board seat and might be not interested in running after all. [00:34:11][44.6]

Jennifer Smith: [00:34:12] And this is why we ask you guys what you're watching. So Katie Lannan and Chris Lisinski of the Statehouse News Service, thank you so much for being on the Horse Race. [00:34:21][8.5]

Katie Lannan: [00:34:22] Always a pleasure. [00:34:22][0.4]

Steve Koczela: [00:34:25] And that brings us to our final segment this week, which is our favorite and based on the millions of tweets that you sent us just this week alone, your favorite segment too. And that, of course, is trivia. So, Lisa, what was the question last week? [00:34:36][11.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:34:37] We asked you, which lieutenant governor of Massachusetts went on to become president of the United States? Jenn, who got it right? [00:34:45][7.2]

Jennifer Smith: [00:34:45] Yes, we got a DM from Russ Weiss Irwin, who correctly noted that the answer is Silent Cal, former Lieutenant Governor Calvin Coolidge. So congratulations, Russ, I assume you get all of the remaining trivia points from last week when we were sadly let down by everybody. [00:35:00][15.5]

Steve Koczela: [00:35:01] We also, of course, got a correct answer, as we usually do from perennial trivia, professional Horse Race trivia respondent Ari Ofsevit but I think Russ was first, so we're giving him all the points. Okay, Jan, what do we have for a question for this week? [00:35:13][12.2]

Jennifer Smith: [00:35:14] This week, yet another question about this very exciting and important role. What percentage of lieutenant governors of Massachusetts then went on to become governors of that very same state? We are waiting eagerly for your responses, but that is all the time we have for today. I'm Jennifer Smith, signing off with Steve Koczela and Lisa Kashinsky. Our producer is Libby Gormley. Our intern is Elena Eberwein. Don't forget to give the Horse Race a review wherever you're hearing us now, subscribe to the Massachusetts Politico Playbook and reach out to the MassINC Polling Group if you need any polls done. Thank you all for listening. We'll see you next week. [00:35:14][0.0]