12/4/2019--The first snowfall has officially landed in Boston, which means cozy sweaters, romantic tree lightings, and of course, more MBTA dysfunction.

In other news, the People's Pledge is making a reappearance after its first installation during the 2012 Elizabeth Warren/Scott Brown Senate race. The pact aims to limit outside spending. While Senate candidates Joe Kennedy and Shannon Liss-Riordan signed the pledge on Monday, incumbent Ed Markey proposed a pledge of his own that stipulates outside spending dedicated to "positive messages" should not be limited. He pointed to groups like climate activists and reproductive rights organizations who he thinks should be allowed to spend for a campaign.

Controversy is bubbling up in the wake of a scheduling decision regarding special elections. The date set for the special elections of four legislators (whose seats were vacated by now mayors) has been set for the same day as the presidential primary. Because the primary will inherently draw out droves of Democrats, the move to also schedule special elections on that date elicits the question of fairness.

Two candidates running for the Massachusetts 4th Congressional seat joined as guests on The Horse Race today. First is Jesse Mermell. She's the former president of Alliance for Business Leadership, worked as communications director during Deval Patrick's governorship and served as Vice President of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. She says she's running for Congress because, "The people and places that we love and the progress that's so vital to the future of this country are under attack, and I think that the people of the 4th Congressional district deserve a Congresswoman --a Congresswoman-- who won't just fight back against the hate and the backwards thinking that's coming out of the White House but will also fight for the future that we all deserve." When asked what makes her stand out in this crowded field of six candidates, Mermell says, "These aren't just policies that I hold as a Progressive, these aren't just values that I espouse to, it's work that I've done over 20 years."

Ihssane Leckey was the first to announce her candidacy for the MA4 seat, doing so even before Kennedy resigned, as a challenge to him. She's confident she brings a unique perspective to the field of candidates as a sex abuse survivor, immigrant, and former Wall Street regulator, and was motivated to run after Trump's election. She told The Horse Race, "Once Trump was elected, my identities have been attacked on so many different levels." She's also troubled by what she sees as irresponsibility by the Trump administration in an economic context. "So, when recessions happen what is going to happen now if these big banks were affected? Are they going to be able to bail themselves out? The answer right now, is probably not, because I saw how the Trump administration had started to take away any protection that I worked on putting in place for our people," Leckey says.