Your weekly look at politics, policy and elections in Massachusetts
10/1/20-- After the most chaotic and uncomfortable presidential debate the country has ever seen, Jennifer, Steve, and Stephanie gather in the virtual bunker to share their thoughts and reflect on the reactions of #mapoli members.
Jennifer said, “The president gave a lot of troubling answers on a lot of topics that are extremely consequential and dodged a lot of important questions.” Perhaps the most egregious was his refusal to openly condemn white supremacy.
Trump launched into “an uninterrupted rambling attack on the integrity of mail-in voting.” But, like Jenn says, it didn’t end there. “He wasn’t just attacking mail-in voting but one thing that a lot of people, I think reasonably, read into his comments about asking his supporters to watch people at the polls for fraud is that that also seems like an effort to get people to intimidate voters.”
Stephanie wasn’t surprised by this performance, saying, “If you’ve paid attention to his style over the past four years, a lot of this was pretty predictable.” The tone of the debate did not match the gravity of the situation we’re living in.
“It was frustrating to me that the organization in the debate was just these three men all interrupting each other and laughing nervously when things are just going so wrong.”
As the Commission on Presidential Debates announced they would put in place stronger regulations for the next Presidential debate to limit candidates running away with their responses and ignoring set guidelines, Steve wonders, what actually can be done? Well, hopefully something. Anything. “Yesterday was shameful all around, and it should not happen again,” Steve said.
Journalist Bill Shaner, author of the Worcester Sucks and I Love It blog stopped by The Horse Race to give the lowdown on what's happening in Central Massachusetts. An organization called Defund WPD is asking the Worcester City Council and and the Worcester City Manage to create a public database of police conduct records.
Bill explains, the group initially formed to put pressure on Worcester to lower the police department's budget. "They lost that battle really hard," he says. "Worcester City Council and City Manager sort of callously dismissed them.” Now, the group is still putting on pressure on the police department and the city.
New polling out of UMass Lowell shows how voters in three swing states are leaning five weeks before the presidential election. In New Hampshire, Biden's got a comfortable lead over Trump, while the candidates are locked in a dead heat in North Carolina, and Trump is ahead of Biden in Texas by a three-point margin.
This week on The Horse Race, sports betting is now live in Massachusetts! Then, Lisa Kashinsky joins us to talk about the change in leadership at the top of the MassGOP. Finally, we’ll …
This week on The Horse Race, municipal elections are coming and that means an interesting choice on mail-in ballots. Also, we have a new poll from …
01/19/23-- This week on The Horse Race, we’ve got trains and transitions. We’re diving into a dysfunctional MBTA car factory in Springfield with …
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 …
12/22/22-- This week on The Horse Race we're recapping the year in Massachusetts politics, policy and elections. Steve and Jenn run through the highs …
12/15/22-- This week on The Horse Race, our hearts are warmed by the opening of the Green Line extension! Folks came out early to take a ride on the …
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