Episode 236: Turkey, Twitter, and the Wu Train

11/17/2022-- This week on The Horse Race, we start off the show with a rundown of the latest Thanksgiving trends before diving into your weekly dose of MA politics.

Sean Philip Cotter of the Boston Herald joins the pod to run through Mayor Wu's first year in office. Then later the team discusses the future of the Mass GOP.

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Full Show Transcript Below:

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:00:25] This week on The Horse Race. We're checking in a year after Mayor Michael Wu took office in Boston. Then we're diving into the state of the GOP. It's Thursday, November 17th. [00:00:38][12.7]

Steve Koczela: [00:00:47] Welcome back to The Horse Race, your weekly look at politics, policy and elections in Massachusetts. I'm Steve Koczela here this week with Lisa Kashinsky. Jenn Smith is off this week. But also here with us this week is the vice president of our research department, also the producer of The Horse Race, Elena Eberwein who has been doing hard hitting research all week on food trends for Thanksgiving in 2022, trying to get all of our horse race listeners out there prepared for the holiday next week. Elena, what have you learned? [00:01:14][26.8]

Elena Eberwein: [00:01:15] Very excited to make my on air debut with some some really hard hitting news over here. So there's this thing where we really love to make everything into a board these days, charcuterie boards. You see all different varieties of them. [00:01:32][17.4]

Steve Koczela: [00:01:33] Butter boards. Butter boards is the thing this year. Butter boards is another thing that we're supposed to be eating now. [00:01:37][3.9]

Elena Eberwein: [00:01:39] So apparently they're saying that maybe turkey boards will be a thing serving your turkey as a sort of charcuterie board esque item because we like to graze. [00:01:49][10.0]

Steve Koczela: [00:01:50] What does that mean by cutting it up into like different sized pieces or like curing some of it, or what are we actually talking about? [00:01:55][4.9]

Elena Eberwein: [00:01:56] Yeah, I think it's just like more of like a bite size way to get your turkey and maybe sprinkle a few little, little things on it. I think in the photo on this article I found there's some cranberry sauce sprinkled on top so you can get everything you need in one bite. [00:02:11][15.4]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:02:12] So this is for two reasons I'm going to surprise. One, because turkeys are smaller this year. I've been reading because of, I don't know, shortages, bird flu. Steve is nodding. My my pals here are nodding like I'm on to something. And too, because people don't actually like Turkey. I don't like Turkey. So like if you put it into smaller pieces on a charcuterie board that's supposed to entice you to eat it, because that's the trendy thing to do, right? [00:02:41][28.6]

Steve Koczela: [00:02:42] I think people like to have turkey for Thanksgiving. They don't in many cases like to eat turkey. Like it's really I think it's partially also because most people just like stick it in the oven and bake it, like rub some herbs on the outside and then just throw it in the oven. But that's like the worst way to make a gigantic piece of meat. Like, there's no big piece of meat, right? You just, like, stick it in the oven and warm it up. Will it come out? Well, you have to brine it. You have to roast it, you have to make it crispy, and then it will be good. But I think that's why people don't like turkeys just because the way that we make it. But I will say that a poll that we've looked at in the past does find Turkey to be the most popular Thanksgiving dish. So although people may not like to eat it, they may want to cut it up into a charcuterie board. They still want to have it on the table that I'm sorry. [00:03:27][45.0]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:03:28] I just need to go back to that for a second. Turkey is more popular than the most delicious foods on the planet, like stuffing. [00:03:37][8.4]

Steve Koczela: [00:03:38] This is they matched up. They did an exclusive matchup of all possible Thanksgiving foods and found Turkey won 83% of the matchups, besting even mashed potatoes, which won 78%, stuffing 77. So, yes, turkey is actually the most popular the least popular tofu, plantains, black eyed peas and lamb. Turnip greens also is down there. Anyway, we get off track. Elena you also uncovered a wild Thanksgiving tradition, one that is going to set you back over $100 and combines two things which are good, which are pecan pie and pizza into one glorious new creation. [00:04:15][37.1]

Elena Eberwein: [00:04:17] Yeah. And it's exactly what it sounds like. Pecans. Pecans, however you say it. I know we're going to have that great debate as well. On a pizza. Why is it $99.95? I don't know. Maybe we need to try it. Or maybe not. [00:04:33][16.6]

Steve Koczela: [00:04:34] The Horse Race friends giving tries pecan pie or pecan pie, depending on where you come from. We will do that. [00:04:43][9.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:04:43] I know. I actually I actually alternate how I say it every time I say it. Like sometimes I say pecan pie, sometimes I say pecan. I do the same thing with caramel and caramel calm. [00:04:53][10.6]

Steve Koczela: [00:04:54] We'll do a poll. We settled once and for all the question of how to say happily so. I feel like we should do a Horse Race listener poll and just settle how Massachusetts says Pecan versus Pecan. Anyway, thank you so much to our food correspondent, Elena, for that exclusive report. But the question that we like to ask Lisa and have never once answered satisfactorily is why are we here today? [00:05:14][19.9]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:05:15] Pivoting back to politics, we are looking at Boston Mayor Michel Wu's first year in office and then what we can expect next out of the GOP. [00:05:25][9.9]

Steve Koczela: [00:05:26] All right, shall we? [00:05:27][0.9]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:05:28] Let's giddy up. [00:05:28][0.5]

Steve Koczela: [00:05:36] Michelle Wu was sworn in as mayor of Boston a year ago this week after becoming the first woman and person of color elected to the position. Today, we're looking at how year one has gone for Mayor Wu and what we can expect from her administration moving forward. Lisa and our next guest, Sean Philip Cotter of The Boston Herald, have both interviewed Mayor Wu as her one year anniversary approaches. Welcome to the horse race, Sean. [00:05:58][22.7]

Sean Cotter: [00:05:59] Thank you very much, Steve. [00:06:00][0.8]

Steve Koczela: [00:06:01] So Michelle Wu being elected was a big milestone for Boston in a few ways. I mentioned a couple up top and also, of course, she ushered in sort of this promise of an era of progressivism that the city hasn't seen, at least for a while. So to each of you during your interview. Anything concrete to point to at this one year, mark? [00:06:19][17.8]

Sean Cotter: [00:06:20] So I believe that both Mayor Wu and her team and city hall writ large viewed a portion of this year at least as a ramp up period. And so when I spoke with her, one of the things that she said of this year is that she felt like it was very internal facing on her part, that trying to get through hiring for both high level and middle and lower level positions in her administration and trying to make sure that everything is all the processes and whatnot are working the way she wants them to. And that sort of thing. And so now we're starting to be in rubber hits the road time now where I think she would say that there are several initiatives that she feels like are getting to that sort of progressive vision that she pitched on the campaign trail. But this next year, I think, will be more of that sort of will coming out front and trying to pitch her vision as mayor to the city. And what happens from there will happen from there. [00:07:40][79.7]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:07:41] Yeah. We saw her in this first year kind of focusing on reshaping city government in her image, remaking the cabinet with her people. And during that, she also faced, you know, a potential state takeover of Boston Public Schools, which she managed to avert, but that, you know, they're on an improvement plan that's going to take years. And, you know, she's made strides toward kind of cleaning up the Mass and Cass area and connecting the people who are homeless and struggling with addiction there to services and shelter. But in her interview with me, she said that that's you know, that's kind of just the beginning of what she's really trying to do there. And all of these things are going to spill into her second year. And now that she has the team in place that she wants to lead all of this stuff, as Sean said, she's really, I think, looking to take it to the next level. [00:08:36][54.3]

Sean Cotter: [00:08:37] I think that's an interesting point by you, Lisa, that the city is in the midst of dealing with some very long standing and intractable problems that it just still has to keep dealing with, one of which is the state of Boston Public Schools, as you mentioned. And that's something that she pointed out to me as as especially on the capital side, like in terms of school buildings, that that's a big challenge for this year going forward. And as you said, Mass and Cass these are problems that aren't going to get fixed this year. They weren't going to get fixed last year. And they're something the city just has to keep working on. [00:09:19][42.2]

Steve Koczela: [00:09:20] Listen, you touched on another one, of course, which is that that Boston Public Schools are now on an improvement plan. And there was sort of a very tense moment with the Baker administration determining the fate of the school system. And one of the things that will have a big impact there, of course, is the new school superintendent. That was only one of several positions that the administration had to fill when she came into office. So how does she feel like all of that went? Does she feel like she now has the team that she really wants in place for the second year? [00:09:49][29.3]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:09:50] I would say yes. And she expressed to me that, you know, this didn't happen necessarily as quickly as she would have liked. If we all remember, she had a two week transition period last November between when she was elected and when she took office. And it took her most of her first year to really bring that team together. Ending with the new school superintendent and before that, a new police commissioner. [00:10:14][24.5]

Sean Cotter: [00:10:16] She certainly has pretty much all of those high ranking positions filled. There still is an outstanding issue and a fairly serious one of understaffing in City Hall. The city's had a hard time hiring both sort of line level employees for a lot of different departments and this sort of middle management for those departments. The hire, like the cabinet members, her senior staff, the commissioners of the police and fire departments and the superintendent school district are all now her people. But there's still that issue of City Hall having to continue to actually get other bodies in there, in the rungs below them to actually get anything done. [00:11:05][49.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:11:06] And Sean, there's also been an issue with contracts and settling, though. She's the mayor has had to, you know, work out contracts with pretty much every major union in her first year in office. And there's currently an impasse with one of them, right? [00:11:20][13.9]

Sean Cotter: [00:11:21] Yeah, there's I mean, the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, which is the largest police union in the city, says that they are at an impasse with the mayor. There are other contracts outstanding. I know that the mayor and city hall would point to several big ones that were closed out, like the teachers union. But yeah, the various police association, the various police unions, the fire union and a few others throughout the city that account for a pretty significant amount of city employees are all still open. And as the city is going back and forth, they they were all open to start the new administration. And again, some have been closed. But yeah, I mean, the the labor issues are still ongoing. [00:12:14][53.4]

Steve Koczela: [00:12:16] Of course, she's also had back and forths with the city council over key issues. That's one of the become a more and more important relationship as the city council has asserted its own power over the last few years and kind of taken on a more prominent role in policymaking. So how does she see that relationship going forward? [00:12:32][16.2]

Sean Cotter: [00:12:33] The Council has its own problems as well with it's very sort of fractionally divided both politically and to some extent racially. And the council is just coming off of a really contentious redistricting process. And so I think it bears watching how effective the council is as a body in general. But the council also has had tensions with Wu or she had to I guess she chose to veto elements of the city budget they passed of the ARPA federal relief dollar funding if they passed raises that for themselves and her that they passed. And each time there was somewhat contentious back and forth over what to do about all that. And especially during the summer, there was almost like like a horse shoe politics effect going on on the council where the sort of more conservative wing of the council and the more progressive wing of the council both had a lot of frustrations with Will and voted together on some of the ARPA funding be sort of in opposition to will that then that sort of the interesting alliance I guess then broke apart during the redistricting process and among some other issues. But the council has a lot going on right now, and I know that. I mean, Will says that she has a good relationship with the council as a body and the individual councilors. But I think that there's watching. [00:14:22][108.4]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:14:23] And the mayor has had to deal with another group of people, you know, in her first year in office. And by that, I'm talking about protesters who she has faced basically since the beginning, you know, from her originally over her COVID vaccine mandates and now over everything from, you know, massing cars to, you know, the outdoor dining fees in the north end. So, Sean, what started these protests and how have they evolved over the past year? You know, what is the mayor still dealing with and who's behind them? [00:14:58][35.0]

Sean Cotter: [00:14:59] The mayor started facing protests over vaccine rules last winter, sort of late December, early January, as she began requiring COVID 19 vaccines for city employees. Ultimately, that's actually on pause right now amid ongoing, largest ongoing lawsuits. And but the some of the groups that opposed that. Have sort of continued to dog her throughout her first year. The mayor has had several sort of clash points with different people in especially in the early days of her administration. Think the north end dining fees as I think you mentioned and then other issues around the school district and Mass and Cass and it's sort of been sort of the same people who originally were frustrated about the vaccine mandates who have continued to show up. [00:16:14][74.5]

Steve Koczela: [00:16:15] One of the things that Michelle Wu was looking at doing a lot on, of course, was the MBTA and transit in general. Fare free transit, of course, was a big part of her campaign, and there were other things that she wanted to do related to changing how the T and how transit in general works in Boston. So one year and how is that all going? [00:16:33][17.9]

Sean Cotter: [00:16:34] So it's sort of unclear. This mayor is one who has long associated herself with public transit. Her Twitter handles the will train back in, I think, 2019. Her campaign gave out train whistles that said Wu on them and also made the noise will when you blew into them. And but the reality is that the mayor of Boston doesn't have a ton of input into how the T works. And that's actually something one of the rare things that she and Marty Walsh and Lisa Savage work and sort of everybody who's been mayor run for mayor in Boston has agreed on is that they're frustrated by the lack of input into the state agency, MBTA operations that Boston has. I know she would like to have the power to appoint a seat to the T board, but she doesn't right now, although there's discussion of that potentially at some point. But so right now, the T's, the T and there what she did tout some what she claimed successes earlier this year with the pilot to make some of the bus lines free. But I don't think we've seen a lot more data on that in recent months. [00:18:00][86.3]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:18:02] What we will see coming up is kind of more of a concerted push around transit issues on Beacon Hill from the mayor. She is readying, she told me, a legislative package for the next session that kicks off in January and intends to work with the next governor on issues related to the team's oversight. Finally, as well, you know, that includes the continued push for fare free transit. She noted in her interview with me that the governor lacked more. Healey said in her platform that she supports at least, you know, a pathway to fair free busses and discounted fares for low income residents. So that's a step in the direction of what the mayor is hoping for. She also mentioned equity in the commuter rail pricing system. You know, is something that she might be looking to push for on Beacon Hill. So I think we might see more movement on some of these issues, or at least attempts by Mayor Wu to push some of these issues up on Beacon Hill in the next year. [00:19:04][61.4]

Steve Koczela: [00:19:05] All right, then, Sean Philip Cotter of The Boston Herald and our very own Lisa Kashinsky, thank you so much for giving us the one year update. [00:19:10][5.7]

Sean Cotter: [00:19:11] Thank you. [00:19:12][0.3]

Steve Koczela: [00:19:14] The mass GOP and the Republican Party in general had a tough election cycle this year, underperforming expectations pretty much up and down the ballot. So how bad was it and where do we go from here? Will the party chart a new course either in Massachusetts or nationally? Lisa, let's start with what's newest. Are we looking at a new direction for the GOP? [00:19:33][19.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:19:34] Maybe, which is about the best answer I can give right now. So the day after the election, you saw the vice chair of the House GOP step up and say that he was running for chair. You've heard interest from a few other people since then. More of them will, you know, possibly fully commit in the weeks to come as it gets a bit closer to the chairmanship election in January. And on top of that, we still don't know if the current chair, Jim Lyons, is actually planning to seek reelection. Or maybe if one of his allies will step up in his place. He has not responded to media requests. Mine and I'm assuming others from what I've read since the election. So yeah. Remains up in the air. I mean, Republicans are. Some Republicans are, because this Republican Party is still very deeply divided. And Jim Lyons has a lot of people who are loyal to him on the state committee and just in Republican circles. Some people are really disappointed by, you know, yet another year of losses for the Republican Party. You know, another year of a shrinking minority on Beacon Hill. No statewide candidates any more statewide electeds anymore, I should say. And no congressional candidates making it through. They've used, you know, words like swamped and disastrous to describe what happened. But not everyone feels that way. And so that brings me back to my original answer. [00:21:08][93.6]

Steve Koczela: [00:21:09] Maybe you're right. We don't know, as Jim Lyons himself will run again. Of course, he's been an ally of former President Donald Trump for a very long time. But what we do know is that he's definitely not backing away from that. He was actually at Donald Trump's announcement of his 2024 run for president this week. So definitely sort of charting a course that will keep him in the Trump wing of the party. So to the extent that there is interest in moving in a new direction, Jim Lyons himself is not showing any evidence of a movement in any other direction. [00:21:41][31.9]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:21:42] Yeah, that's important to remind people here that Trump is deeply unpopular in this state in both of the general elections, that he was a candidate in 16. In 2020, he failed to crack even 34% of the vote in the state either time. And it's that's something that some Republicans continue to push back on, including people who voted for Trump. I mean, Amy Carnevale, a state committeewoman who is considering running for state party chair, has voted for both Charlie Baker and Donald Trump in the past. But she and other Republicans say the party needs to move on if they're going to win back seats in the state. [00:22:23][41.3]

Steve Koczela: [00:22:24] It is interesting, though, because in a way, things really aren't that much worse now. They're about in most ways like the mass GOP where they have been. You know, this was the course that they charted in this got them about where they have been. They haven't had any state elected offices other than governor in a while. They haven't had. And Scott Brown, very briefly, they've had very, very small minorities in the state legislature that really, really the only thing that changed this time was Charlie Baker. You know, and it's ironic in a way, because he was one that the wing of the party that did chart this current course and did, you know, recommend Trumpism as kind of the main way to go. Didn't really care for Charlie Baker. You know, they were at open war with Charlie Baker's people in many cases. So just interesting that now, you know, this is the election that that made them realize that their boat had been sinking for some time just to kind of go through a couple of numbers. Out of the 40 state senators after this election, we'll have three Republicans out of the 160 members of the House will have 25 Republicans. So very, very small minorities. Democrats now with the help of a Democratic governor, can pretty much do whatever they want. [00:23:34][69.8]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:23:35] And as we're recording this, it's interesting to note, too, that there are still two representative races that are uncalled in seats. One is a Republican held seat currently Lenny Mirra's up on the North Shore and Andrew Shepard in one of the Middlesex County seats. And those could be heading to recounts. And either of those will change the fact that Republicans have, as you just went through, a very small minority on Beacon Hill, this will not dent Democrats supermajorities, even if the Republicans kind of pull this out. But it is just interesting to note that, you know, Lenny Mira could be, I think, possibly the only incumbent to lose in a general election this cycle if that race doesn't go his way. There was one Democrat who lost in a primary. [00:24:24][48.3]

Steve Koczela: [00:24:25] You make a good point that the numbers still could change and certainly an important note. So those furiously Googling us and Googling and trying to beat us in the trivia contest, we acknowledge the numbers could change. But looking ahead, there are, of course, some voices that are interested in charting a new course. So who are the names? Who are the people we should be paying attention to as far as looking at whether or not the Republican Party will chart a new course, whose ascendance should we look to if a new direction is is where we're headed? [00:24:55][30.0]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:24:56] So as I mentioned before, the vice chair of the party, Jeff Lightman, who was just elected, I think last year to take over from someone else. He's run for Congress a few times. He's out in western mass. He is the first and right now only candidate who is officially running for party chair. State Committeewoman Amy Carnevale, who we also mentioned a bit earlier, is, I would say at this point, strongly considering and I know she's fielded calls from a lot of people who are interested in having her run. She sent kind of a dear colleague letter earlier this week to state committee members, kind of outlining her prescription for the party and formally letting them know that she's at least interested in considering the chairmanship, which is kind of like, I guess, the equivalent of an exploratory committee in a presidential race and gave a colleague over at the Boston Herald, you know, kind of floated out some other names. John Fetherston, who is a former Ashland town Republican committee chair and a host of All Politics, is local podcast is kind of I guess has said that he's looking at it. Other names that have come up include now outgoing Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson and Dean Tran, the former state senator who just lost to Lori Trahan in the third Congressional District. [00:26:16][80.0]

Steve Koczela: [00:26:17] Yeah, some of those definitely would represent a break from the past, and some of them might represent pretty much a continuation of the direction the party has already been been headed in. You know, it's interesting to me and sometimes I wonder if we spend too much time on this just because the GOP has not really even been functioning as a party lately, you know, but nationally they're the other big party. So we sort of think, okay, well, we should cover them. But, you know, the thing is that, well, other than being the second biggest party, such as they are, I mean, I feel like Massachusetts voters have shown their willingness to elect Republicans. When Republicans sit sort of in the middle of the political spectrum, like Charlie Baker did, like Scott Brown did, like many governors over the last several decades, there's a very real chance that they'll get elected. And whether or not voters go back in that direction, I think is the big question. But before they can, before they will, I think the party has to show that they're something different than they've been for the last few years, you know, because the last two years just has not been a version of the party that Massachusetts voters are going to support. [00:27:16][59.2]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:27:17] And this was kind of taking off that just like a terrible cycle for anyone who is kind of in that more moderate mold and who can maybe bridge that gap between the more conservative and moderate wings of the GOP to try and run. I mean, that's part of the reason, you know, you saw Governor Charlie Baker mention when he announced last December that he wasn't going to do this again, that he wasn't going to run for a third term. He kind of hinted at the mudslinging that could come and just how nasty this could get in this kind of very partizan and siloed era of politics, you know, not just on the Republican side. And, you know, there are other names that had kind of considered it this run, this cycle, who ultimately backed down, like former U.S. attorney from Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling, Taunton Mayor Shauna O'Connell. There are people who are, you know, popular in the Republican Party and do kind of occupy that middle ground between moderates and conservatives. But they took a look at the cycle and said, nope. But that does mean that there are some other candidates who could, you know, in a cycle that wasn't as inhospitable as this one to try and reclaim some ground for Republicans, maybe statewide going forward. [00:28:33][75.8]

Steve Koczela: [00:28:34] Yeah, definitely somebody. Keep an eye on. We'll see evidence of it nationally, too. If this does become a trend of, you know, with Trump's launch, I think a lot of people are kind of being forced to take sides or at least being forced to say something about it and indicate what direction they might want to head in. So definitely the tea leaves are starting to come together. But for now, our very own Lisa Kashinsky, thanks for swinging by the pod. [00:28:54][20.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:28:55] Always happy to be here. [00:28:56][0.9]

Steve Koczela: [00:28:58] And that brings us to our final segment this week, which is the alliteration segment. Our colleague Lisa Kashinsky has discovered a once in a lifetime coincidence, which is wild alliteration as far as the top trending topics on Twitter. Lisa, what did you find? [00:29:12][13.7]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:29:13] Well, we start with Twitter itself and kind of the ongoing battle between Elon Musk versus possibly the world at this point, but definitely at least Ed Markey on top of Elizabeth Warren when it comes to kind of regulating and having control over a major social media platform. And then, of course, there was the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster meltdown. There's some extra alliteration for you right there, which is apparently still going. I have friends that are still tweeting about it. Apparently there is more drama in attempting to secure the incredibly coveted and increasingly high price with scalper Taylor Swift tickets. Congratulations to everyone who got them. Incredibly sorry to those who were still trying. And then that spilled right into Trump's 20, 24/3 run for the White House. I can't say reelection bid, so, yeah, just just a lot of T time on Twitter. [00:30:15][61.8]

Steve Koczela: [00:30:17] All right. Well, this episode of the horse race has been brought to you by the letter T, but that is all the time we have for today. I'm Steve Koczela here with Lisa Kashinsky, our producer and food reporter 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. If somehow you are not already and reach out to us here at the MassINC Polling Group if you need polls done. For now thank you all for listening and we will see you next week. [00:30:17][0.0]

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