Episode 241: Tea Leaves and Oatmeal Cookies
This week on The Horse Race, we have a new state-wide poll about the challenges facing parents and students as they try to recover academically after COVID. The poll was conducted by MassINC Polling Group for EdTrust and The Barr Foundation. Then, we’ll preview the year ahead in Massachusetts politics with two local reporters; Mike Deehan from Axios Boston and Katie Lannan from GBH.
Steve Koczela [00:00:00] The horse race is brought to you by benchmark strategies. Benchmark is setting a new standard as Boston's fastest growing public affairs consulting firm. To know more. Connect with Benchmark on Twitter at Benchmark Boston.
Jennifer Smith [00:00:24] This week on the horse race, we have a new statewide poll about the challenges facing parents and students as they try to recover academically after coated. Then we'll preview the year ahead in Massachusetts politics. It's Thursday, January 12, 2023.
Steve Koczela [00:00:54] Welcome back to the horse race and Happy New Year. This is, of course, your weekly look at politics, policy and elections in Massachusetts. I'm Steve Koczela, here today with Jen Smith. Happy 2023. Lisa Kashinsky will be back next week. So the questions we're asking ourselves are, will the new year bring us another increase in horse puns on this here podcast? Bring us a fully functioning MBTA. Will we be replaced by A.I. chat bots by year's end? All that and more on this, our first episode of the New Year.
Jennifer Smith [00:01:24] I think, Steve, that we can combine all three of those. I think the chat bots might be the new GM of the meta and I believe the meta might now be horse powered literal horses and buggies with a robot conductor. What do you think?
Steve Koczela [00:01:43] That is a very tidy, if disturbing conversion, some say, but no, seriously. Great. It's great to be back. Great to see you, Jen. It'll be great to see Lisa next week. One thing that the New Year has brought us already is a new producer. Our former producer, Elena Eberwein took a job at GBH. Very exciting for her. Very exciting for us. We now have former producers who have gone both the WB Ah, and GBH. And that means we have a new producer, Adam Boyajy. So we'll be hearing from him next week about why some of you probably recognize his name and all the parts of the Marple universe he's already been involved in. So looking forward to that.
Jennifer Smith [00:02:19] Well, I mean, we are very excited to hear from Adam in person. But, Steve, while I have you here, I don't know if you poll for a living or if you might be interested in polling. We have to start the year off with polls. I don't know how we made it emitted into the intro without without talking about one because there is a new poll from you lovely folks at Mass Inc and the Education Trust of Massachusetts, of parents who are talking about their students and kind of their their COVID academic recovery. Can you break it down for me?
Steve Koczela [00:02:52] Sure. Yes, I am, in fact, interested in polling. It's an interest I'm starting to get more and more into a.
Jennifer Smith [00:02:57] New hobby.
Steve Koczela [00:02:58] We have as it as it happens, released a poll just today. This is the latest in a series of polls that many listeners of the horse race will remember is the K-12 parent polls that we've been doing. So basically what we do each time as we go out and we talk to about 1500 parents across Massachusetts and we oversample black, Latino and Asian parents so that we can sort of look with more nuance at exactly what different groups of parents think. So that's the poll that came out this morning. Basically, what the the big story the poll is, is sort of a disconnect between parents in terms of where they think kids are now in terms of their grade level or their academic achievement and how many more kids are either ahead or behind now compared to before COVID. So basically, both here in Massachusetts and nationwide, based on other polls, parents don't really fully grasp the situation as far as how bad the impacts of COVID have actually been. And that's kind of what the poll shows at the highest level.
Jennifer Smith [00:04:00] So what's going on with that? What do you mean when you say there's this disconnect between how badly they think the students are doing and how badly they're actually doing? Because we talk to people all the time and they're saying we're concerned or is the implication they're not, you know, concerned enough?
Steve Koczela [00:04:17] Yeah. I mean, basically what we're what we're comparing is when you see all these news articles about about sort of official statistics. So national test scores, the NAACP is one that came out a few weeks ago, state test scores. Marcus, of course, is the one that everybody knows about. And all of them show these very large historic even drops in terms of what students were scoring back in 2019 and early 2020 compared to what they're scoring today. But when you ask parents, okay, you know, how many of you think that more students are ahead of where they were in before COVID behind or about the same? Only 46% of parents realize that more students are now behind, whereas the rest either say things are about the same. They say, I don't know. Or they say more are actually ahead now than were pre-COVID. So that's the disconnect that we're talking about there.
Jennifer Smith [00:05:11] And then even thinking about how do you catch up in general, How do these students make up that difference in learning loss here? Do parents think that the schools have the resources or the ability to help with that adequately?
Steve Koczela [00:05:24] Right. And that's one of the big policy questions that state education leaders are struggling with is like, what even are the right targets? You know, what is the right timeline to catch up? What is the right target? You know, 2019 wasn't exactly a panacea when it comes to student achievement. So should we be just trying to get back to there? You know, these are all the questions that are kind of in the headlines. What we do see is that parents mostly think that their kids. Schools have enough resources to help students catch up if they need it. So 73% of parents say, yes, my my child's school does have that. The one where we see things, we see that number looking different is among parents who do think that their child is currently behind. Among that group, we see only 56% think their school has enough resources to help their own child. And that group of parents is kind of worth zeroing in on a little just because that's one major difference. Others are on questions, even like safety. Know parents who think their children are behind in school feel like their children are less safe at school. They're more concerned about their mental health. They give the schools lower grades on a whole range of issues. So there is this this slice of parents that are very concerned about that kind of a trend in their own children's education. And you kind of lay that alongside the fact that overall parents think, you know, more students are ahead or at least not more are behind. But among that one slice, there are a lot of concerns that are kind of interrelated.
Jennifer Smith [00:06:47] And I think the last thing that really grabbed me was related to that, Steve, which is those intangibles. They're thinking about mental health, thinking about safety, thinking about the social dynamic loss of, you know, going in and out of a physical school, being on Zoom school. Has there been an evolution that's been particularly gripping to you over the past few years, or is it kind of just been a bad situation for almost three years now?
Steve Koczela [00:07:14] One of the things that our polling has been looking at over time is mental health. And that's something that, you know, we're not unique in that that's an issue that a lot of polls have been looking at and have largely been documenting very sharp rises in all sorts of different mental health concerns compared to pre-COVID. Now that we're a bit further into it, we can even look at the evolution within the period of COVID. And there is some possible good news in that, which is that there's fewer parents now compared to kind of early 2021 who are concerned about their children's mental health. So that's good news. But that's another one where, you know, even if you go back to before COVID, we were already seeing a major increase in concerns about children's mental health. So, you know, this isn't something where we just have to get back to how things were. And then the other part of that challenge is that only half of the parents who say that they are concerned think that that the school has enough resources to help their child, you know, deal with whatever the concerns are. So certainly mental health remains a huge issue that schools are grappling with.
Jennifer Smith [00:08:16] Well, pivoting away from where things have been to where things are going, not with, you know, the vulnerable groups that we actually care about, which is children trying to make up learning loss. But us vulnerable people who I hope everyone thinks are doing perfectly fine, trying to figure out what year it is when we write it on checks. Steve, why are we here?
Steve Koczela [00:08:38] Well, that's a good question and we can figure out what year it is because fortunately our producers are kind enough to put it in the script. So we're pretty sure that it's now 2023. So what we're doing here today is we have two very long term friends of the pod experts and all things mapoli, Katie Lannan and Mike Deehan, and they're going to be looking ahead with us to tell us where things might be headed in 2023. So giddy up.
Jennifer Smith [00:08:58] Let's get into it. A new era of democratic rule on Beacon Hill began last week when Maura Healey was sworn in, as you guessed it, governor of Massachusetts. Well, what have we learned about her administration so far? Less than a week in and what can we expect in the months ahead? Here to help us answer those questions are two local reporters our audience knows well. We welcome BFF of the POD, president of the state House press corps and statehouse reporter for GBH, Katie Lannan and Horse Race, Lifetime Achievement Award winner and reporter with Axios, Boston Mike Deehan. Katie and Mike, Hello.
Mike Deehan [00:09:38] Thank you for that dubious honor.
Katie Lannan [00:09:40] Yeah, I got to get myself one of those lifetime achievement awards.
Mike Deehan [00:09:44] Yeah, a few more years.
Jennifer Smith [00:09:46] You two can brawl over whichever of the titles is a higher honor later. Katie, let's start with you. It is Healey's first week. It's the start of legislative term. You all hit the inaugural and the first leadership meeting of the year. So let's start there. How specific are the governor, Senate, president, and speaker about their priorities so far?
Katie Lannan [00:10:06] Well, one thing we did see in the governor's inaugural address is she laid out some specific timelines for when she is going to do things like file a reorganization plan to name a housing secretary that will be in her first 100 days. She said that she wants to also on the housing theme, have her and A&F secretary, her budget chief, identify land and buildings that are owned by the state that can be turned into housing within a year. So she did make a point after a campaign that offered, you know, broad, ambitious goals, but few concrete details to outline some real specifics on where she's going from here. The speaker and Senate president in their speeches talked in in broader strokes. We did hear from the Senate president that she wants to make community college free for all students and return to prescription drug pricing as a Senate priority. We heard from the speaker that he wants to tackle gun laws in response to the Supreme Court ruling from last year that he is again interested in protecting community hospitals from expansion by larger health systems. But, you know, we haven't seen specific bills yet. So, thats ahh, there's a lot to still be worked out.
Steve Koczela [00:11:26] And Mike, of course, as Katie mentioned, there was a lot of ambiguity during Healey's campaign as far as what she might want to do and when. Also, in her inaugural speech, she had a whole bunch of different issues and kind of touched on a lot of them, some with specifics, some without specifics. Where does what she wants to work on overlap and where does it differ from what the House and Senate might be taking up in the first part of the year?
Mike Deehan [00:11:50] Well, a lot of the ambiguity is that we don't quite know where those overlaps are going to come, because Healey's agenda is so broad and really not that well defined at this point. I think Katie was spot on. We're going have to see what kind of bills come out. I think the governor's budget recommendation that should come up by the end of March is really going to be the first key indicator of what she sees as priorities, because right now, there's not too much more than, you know, a campaign website with a whole plethora of agenda items that the new governor wants to get to. We don't know what order those are going to come in. I think that budget bill is really going to give us an indication of what is first and foremost. Katie mentioned the community college plan, where she seems to be on the same page as Karen Spilka, the Senate president. That's definitely a dynamic that I think we're going to see more and more where this governor may be more aligned with the slightly more progressive leanings of the state Senate versus the a little bit more moderate to conservative ish vibe of the House of Representatives under Speaker Ron Mariano. That's kind of a flip from what we've seen with the Republican administration under Charlie Baker, who was a bit more in line with the House with that kind of fiscal caution that they're kind of more known for. The Senate has more ambitious plans. Spilka and her top deputies have ambitious plans when it comes to, as mentioned, prescription health care. Mental health care is always something they're going to be revisiting. That's something Healey has, you know, on the campaign trail said that she wanted to revisit. So it really remains to be seen. It's up in the air. To answer your question more directly, Steve, it could be anything. Where the overlap is.
Jennifer Smith [00:13:28] And I'm so glad you touched as well on the dynamics between the branches, because we have a Democratic governor here. And one of the things that I think plenty of people have wondered about is how legitimate the claim was over the course of the Baker administration that voters had a real kind of vested interest in having different parties in charge of different branches of government, as you know, kind of a way to develop and push on each other to make sure that no one is really running roughshod. Has it seemed like, given that Maura Healey ran a more moderate tack, didn't say anything really terrible about Baker. During the course of the campaign that she's looking for a kind of congenial tone with the legislature, or that she'd like to retain some element of distance. Katie, did you get a chance to get a vibe on that while Rob Mariano was munching on an oatmeal cookie?
Katie Lannan [00:14:21] Yeah, I mean, she served them cookies, which if that's not getting you in someone's good graces, I don't know what is. The oatmeal cookie that Speaker Mariano was enjoying during the leadership availability the other day certainly got rave reviews. But no, you know, Healy has a relationship already with the Democrats in the legislature from her time as attorney general. And she you know, from what we can tell, it seems like she's mindful of that. She's named a lot of people in her cabinet and her kind of inner circle, senior staff who have experience working with the legislature. Certainly our last Democratic governor, Deval Patrick, there was a lot of tension between him and the legislature at times. And I think Healey comes in knowing not only the the Baker playbook, the idea of kind of that moderate lane was well-received, but also she knows about the Deval Patrick administration and maybe what some of the challenges he faced were. So she's certainly been around. She knows this stuff. And we are in certainly the honeymoon period of a new administration. And we won't really, you know, not to not to repeat what Mike just said, but there's a lot of stuff that we're going to need to see as the details come out and the differences and the overlap or lack thereof, how that relationship really proves itself.
Steve Koczela [00:15:45] And Katie, you mentioned appointments. So a question to either of you. Have any of the appointments that she's made so far to the high profile posts, giving us a sense of things she might want to focus on or kind of stuck out to you as ones that are particularly notable in terms of the policies that they might suggest are are going to come from the administration.
Mike Deehan [00:16:03] I think the naming of now secretary Fiandaca as Transportation secretary is definitely among the more notable appointments that Healey's made so far. This is, of course, someone who ran the transportation policy for the city of Boston for a number of years under Marty Walsh. And when your top transportation priority is likely to include the MBTA, let's put it that way, having someone from Boston really take the helm of that, who is aware of what not just residents of Boston, but commuters into the city from other municipalities. What they go through and what they expect is, you know, definitely putting a focus on that agency even before we get to naming a general manager of the agency itself.
Katie Lannan [00:16:44] Yeah. And I think not so much a specific appointment of a person, but the fact that she did prioritize on her first full day in office the executive order that allowed her to name a climate chief within the governor's office, a cabinet level position, followed up by the fact that one of her, her first acts as governor was to visit UMass Dartmouth to talk about renewable energy and climate concerns really sends a signal that either that she will prioritize those issues or that she wants to be perceived at least as prioritizing them.
Jennifer Smith [00:17:19] And it wouldn't be any discussion of Massachusetts without potential city and state tension between the state and Boston. Here, a long standing relationship between former Mayor Marty Walsh and now former Governor Charlie Baker was was kind of an interesting personal point. But then there was often the question about what that actually brought in as dividends for maybe the city of Boston. Michelle Wu and Maura Healey go back a while. Is there any indication that they're trying for a chummy relationship or were we literally a week in and we have no idea. There could still be massive bad blood in three weeks if we give it time?
Mike Deehan [00:17:57] I don't think it's on anyone's in anyone's playbook to have bad blood going into an operation like this. I think Healey has shown that she does want to work with anyone and everyone. Maybe that doesn't quite include the minority leaders in the House and Senate, but it's certainly as far as the stakeholders as they are on Beacon Hill. Healey apparently has an open door. What that means to the city of Boston, what it means to Michelle Wu, who has her own agenda. And maybe we should be taking a closer look what the overlap or not overlap of those two agendas are. I'm not really sure we can say at this point just because we haven't seen, again, that budget document which is going to be well, where the rubber hits the road. A campaign is one thing, an inaugural address and a giant inaugural party is another thing. Actual bills when she files House one, that budget plan, that's going to be the statement of priorities. And it's going to take another two months before we see that for the most part. One thing we also have to keep in mind is that she has seen kind of the falters of the Patrick administration in their second term where things did go a little sour with the legislature. And and she's going to try to push through some things like tax cuts that is popular in the legislature right now. They were on the precipice of passing it last time and they almost saved it for her. If you want to look at it in a certain way. But she definitely needs to remain friendly with them when she gets to the big, big things. If she's serious about things like making Massachusetts, you know, the center of the clean energy community, and economy in the United States, she's going to need massive buy in from lawmakers to make that happen. That's something that she's been comparing to a success of Patrick from his first his first term when he was on good terms with the legislature. So, yeah, there's no reason to come in swinging elbows, whether it be against Michelle Wu or against the speaker of the House or anybody like that. I think that Healey is going to just try to maintain that wave of popularity both internally and externally, for as long as she can.
Katie Lannan [00:20:03] One thing with our limited one week of data, as you point out that I think is worth looking back on is before Healey was even sworn in when she and Michelle Wu held a press conference after their their first official meeting. You know, Healey fielded they took very few questions. One of them was directed to Healey, and it was whether she would sign a Boston rent control bill if it landed on her desk. And Mayor Wu jumped in and answered that question for her and kind of gave her cover to to not say yes or no, to say that, you know, of course, the governor elect at the time would need to review the specifics and talked kind of around it, giving her room a little bit there. So I think that that certainly indicates that they're mindful on both sides of that relationship and not really wanting to put each other on the spot or call each other out, at least at this point. As always, we'll see how things evolve.
Steve Koczela [00:21:00] And Mike, you touched on an issue which I know has been brewing for a little while now, which is that the thought of tax cuts. Do we have any specifics as far as what those might entail? Meant to whom, what rates, what kinds of taxes? What do we know about any tax bill that that might be coming?
Mike Deehan [00:21:17] Well, it's kind of two different stories here. On the one hand, we know exactly what the legislature had planned to put in that massive economic development bill from last year that never got passed. That was something that was really keyed up to go. The governor was all for it. And then that 1986 law kicked in that got everyone tax refunds because the state took in too many revenues. And that kind of put the kibosh on what the legislature had planned for a more progressive tax cut agenda. Now, this is kind of back to square one. We've already sent out that money. So that initial plan that the Democrats had drawn up could very well change. But it really did follow the same basic plans that the Baker administration proposed last year, which was really a lot of cuts, targeted tax breaks across the economic spectrum, everything from pretty much eliminating state taxes for the poorest workers in Massachusetts all the way up to, you know, middle class people, middle class seniors would have, you know, better deals with housing deductions. A student loans had an aspect in there, if I'm not mistaken. Renters would have seen a tax benefit from this all the way up to the richest folks who own homes and are or rather own large estates will be paying an a state tax on their death. That's something that Baker wanted to address and quite a few Democrats wanted to as well. Doesn't seem like a Democratic issue, but there's a lot of money in Massachusetts. A lot of people have $2 million estates, and they're not all, you know, the millionaire tax crowd, so to speak. So we know exactly what they had planned. It's going to have been almost a year, more than a year by the time this thing gets passed. The economic and fiscal situation will have changed dramatically in that time. But I think we can still see what the main mission of that legislation is, which is essentially tax cuts, targeted tax cuts to make it easier for people to live in, lower the cost of housing across the economic spectrum in Massachusetts.
Katie Lannan [00:23:18] And worth noting that candidate Healey was in support of that plan, and she, in her inaugural address, specifically called out rental deductions. She mentioned her own child tax credit plan from the campaign. Both she and Speaker Mariano have indicated that their thinking on taxes broadly might be shaped by the consensus revenue hearing Beacon Hill jargon. That's coming up later this month. That's where all the economists and budget writers will gather to figure out just how much money they think the state will take in next fiscal year. It's really the start of the budget writing process.
Jennifer Smith [00:23:55] And another thing that Healey mentioned in her inaugural speech was the broad bucket of housing policy, especially in the later years of the Baker administration. It was talking with real urgency about the need to make some substantial changes to Massachusetts housing policy procedures, zoning reform. How has Healey been approaching that so far? And as she rolled out any significant plans that we might want to keep an eye on?
Mike Deehan [00:24:20] Well, there's no real housing bills yet. As we've said before, we don't quite know anything too much other than her plan to make it a more prominent secretariat, so to speak, to break up the Housing and Economic Development Secretariat into separate agencies and then kind of isolate and honestly enhance the housing sector here. The other side of that is that she's putting Lieutenant Governor Jim Driscoll essentially in charge of the housing agenda, at least for now, as it takes shape. If you look at the talking points, it plays kind of like a record we've heard before. It's how do we create more housing? How do we change zoning laws in municipalities so that more housing can be developed in to make areas denser? And how do we build more housing around MBTA stations? It's exactly what Governor Baker's been trying to do for the last eight years to limited success. Healey is picking up that ball. She's picking it up with a little bit more goodwill because of her party affiliation and because of this big win she just had. But it again, remains to be seen how that pitch is going to work in municipalities with select boards who don't want to see their downtowns get more crowded.
Steve Koczela [00:25:29] So one of the changes at the meeting of the big three that we saw on Beacon Hill was that there were no Republicans involved. Of course, one of the ways that Republicans have been in these exchanges over the years is that they've tended to be the, you know, have the governor's office and now they don't have the governor's office. Also didn't have a lot of success in 2022 in terms of in terms of legislative elections. So what role should we expect the GOP to play in policymaking and legislating and so forth in 2023?
Mike Deehan [00:25:56] I would say that really comes down to the two minority leaders in the House, and the Senate, Brett Jones in the House, and and Bruce Tarr in the Senate. As you know, institutions in and of themselves, both from their own, you know, personal legislative background. But, you know, they do have a few votes and they both have kind of the goodwill of the chambers. We don't often think about that when we think about, you know, the Democratic controlled legislature in the houses of the legislature. But they do play a pretty pivotal role in overseeing what the Democrats are doing. They don't command enough votes to make it too big of a dent. They you know, they they can't derail debates and lawmaking the way that we see on the federal level. I don't want anyone to think that it's that kind of situation with that kind of friction. But they are there behind the scenes, you know, inputting certain things. And that's kind of shown in the fact that almost all major legislation is passed nearly unanimously. They get buy in from those those Republicans, sometimes very conservative Republicans, when they're passing the budget, the big economic development bills, all the way down to really the some of the social issue bills. They'll get Republican buy in because they will address their concerns about, you know, what's going on at the local level or parenting or input or anything like that that, you know, a Republican social issue might touch upon. So I think those leaders in those caucuses are still going to be active. But, you know, it was another bad year for Republican seats in the legislature. So if anything, their impact is going to be seen less and less, but perhaps felt behind the scenes.
Katie Lannan [00:27:33] And I think some of the things you've really seen the Republicans in the legislature over the past several years go go to bat for and really push in the legislature when they are active, have been priorities of Governor Baker when he was had his dangerousness legislation, some of his other policies. Those are the things that really got the small numbers of Republicans in the Senate and House to stand up and make waves a little bit. It'll be really interesting to see where that agenda comes from without a Republican in the corner office.
Jennifer Smith [00:28:10] And getting to the core of how the sausage is made. And speaking of that, you know, unanimity that we often end up seeing journalists and the public only usually have had so much access to the communications between any branch of our Massachusetts legislature, Governor, Judiciary. Maura Healey had said during the campaign that she would be open to no longer claiming a public records exemption. Katie, talk to us about the experience of trying to cover a an administration that kind of claims that its records are not open to journalistic scrutiny. And then Deehan, do you want to talk to us about whether or not that might change at all, at least on one branch?
Katie Lannan [00:28:58] So I think worth noting that it's the it's the governor's office that gets the exemption or that claims the exemption, the executive agencies still have to respond to at least most of the public records law. There are, of course, exemptions throughout. But, you know, I think to be seen as we have to put to the test, what Healey does and how much she differs from Baker's practice which had involved. Some responsiveness to public records, request a degree on the lot of exemption claiming and we even saw the just in the public schedules that the governor's office chooses to put out. That's really optional what they include. We did not see Governor Baker include all of his events, just the ones where they would be maybe amenable to media showing up things like radio appearances wouldn't be on his public schedule. But those are pretty public. When you think about it. So there's even without getting into the public records law itself, there will be lots of opportunities for Healey to decide what will be public about her governing.
Mike Deehan [00:30:14] Right, I think that the thing that we're going to be looking for and what might lead to conflict with the governor's office when, you know, they're looking for exceptions to what we're asking for, is that kind of, you know, the influence of the governor, the times spent, Who was he with? Where did he go, that kind of stuff. And speaking in the past tense about the former governor now where she will go and who she will talk to in this new administration is still an open question. Who is the governor exercising her power with? One thing that I know that they're going to be very careful about when parsing these exemptions, just saying a blanket. We're going to be open to public records requests, with some exceptions in mind. Maura Healey was the attorney general for eight years. She's the most competent lawyer we've had in that position in ages. Her chief of staff, Kate Cook, was with the Attorney General's office for most of Healy's tenure and was a former chief counsel to Governor Deval Patrick. Kate Cook, the chief of staff, knows the public records law in and out. So when it comes to, you know, who are they emailing, who are they talking to, what was going on? Where were they? I think they are all going to have a very keen idea of how to exercise all those exemptions while still technically falling under Healey's vow to be open to public records request.
Jennifer Smith [00:31:33] All right. Well, tragically, we have to leave it there. So for now, thank you to both of you for joining us. Mike Dean from Axios, Boston, and Katy Lannin from GBH. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of a very busy start of term.
Mike Deehan [00:31:47] Thanks, you guys.
Jennifer Smith [00:31:54] And that brings us to the end of our show. But, you know, it wouldn't be us if we didn't find some kind of musical tie in. Don't worry. We're not going to sing. No one's going to sing to you. The Boston Calling Music Festival returns to Allston this year. The lineup is set and the lineup looks like Foo Fighters, the Lumineers and Paramore at the top of the bill. It's going to be on Memorial Day weekend, so I guess fingers crossed for a non rainy one. Steve, have you bought your tickets yet? Are you going to be headlining a very small politically themed stage at the Boston Calling Festival?
Steve Koczela [00:32:29] I have not bought my tickets. And Jen, that's a very specific question that has a very good reason. And that very good reason is that we were talking about the Boston Calling Music Festival while we were planning this episode, and it got us thinking, could we write a song about the horse race or about polling or about any of the things that are near and dear to our heart? So of course, we turned to our good friend and many time guest. The chat GPT Bot to ask us to write a song about polling in the style of Bob Dylan. I wish how I wish that we could sing this. If any of you a console is out there listening, play the guitar and would like to sing this. We'll send you the lyrics, but we'll just read you a couple because that's something that we feel like you deserve.
Jennifer Smith [00:33:11] Yes. I'd like to start with a dramatic reading of the chorus of this lovely, lovely song, which is polling numbers rise and fall just like the seasons, they change it all. The people's voices, they must be heard. But you got to sift through the lies and the word.
Steve Koczela [00:33:31] I think it's probably best for all of us if we just leave it there. So we'll just say before I break out and song, that is all the time we have for today. I'm signing off today with Jennifer Smith. Lisa Kashinski will be back next week. Our producer starting today is Adam Boyajy. Best of luck to Eleanor Eberwein in her new role at GBH. Don't forget to give the horse race a review wherever you're hearing us now. Subscribe to Lisa's Massachusetts Politico Playbook and reach out to us here at the Mass Inc Polling Group if you need polls or focus groups done. For now, thank you all for listening and we will see you next week.