A years-long debate over whether or not to switch the state flag was a political soccer this previous week as Republicans seeking to problem Gov. Maura Healey in subsequent yr’s governor’s race tried to show the trouble right into a marketing campaign speaking level.
When offered with an opportunity to weigh in on the subject throughout an unrelated occasion on COVID-19 vaccines, Healey almost laughed off a query from a Herald reporter and declared the state flag wouldn’t be going anyplace any time quickly.
“I don’t mean to laugh. But of everything that’s going on right now — I support that there was a legislative commission to look at this,” Healey mentioned earlier than acknowledging {that a} 2021 legislation tasked a state fee with developing with suggestions for a brand new state flag, seal, and motto.
Healey then pivoted into well-worn speaking factors.
“I’m focused on a bunch of stuff, public health that we’re talking about today, building more homes, driving down housing costs, right? Bringing more energy into the region so we can lower people’s energy bills. We’ve got ongoing issues with ICE in our communities, right? And these are the things that I’m focused on,” she mentioned.
The primary-term Democrat then made clear that the state flag could be sticking round, for now.
“Until further discussions and recommendations … I’ll continue to be here and that flag will continue to be here,” Healey mentioned.
As she continues to stare down the barrel of the 2026 governor’s race, Healey has at instances chosen to take a average tack on key points.
These choices might play nicely subsequent yr with the huge variety of unbiased voters in Massachusetts that she might want to win over, and Democrats who discover themselves disaffected with their celebration after the 2024 presidential election.
Healey’s try to sidestep, and even downplay, the controversy over the state flag might be one other notch within the average column.
However it is also — as others within the State Home press corps have identified this previous week — an effort to remain out of what’s positive to be a raucous tradition conflict argument between Republicans who wish to hold the state flag as it’s and different teams who discover the depiction of a Native American below a colonist’s arm holding a sword offensive.
Home Democratic management has some studying to do…
Prime Home Democrats made it clear this previous week that two key proposals from Healey to make driving data public once more and increase her budget-cutting authority will not be on their fast to-do record.
Healey filed a $2.45 billion spending invoice final month that sought to reopen driving data to public scrutiny after an immigrants’ driver’s license legislation sealed them away. One other $100 million spending invoice she filed in July would hand her workplace the extraordinary energy to chop spending throughout all of state authorities as a substitute of simply throughout the govt department.
Home funds chief Aaron Michlewitz, a North Finish Democrat, mentioned lawmakers are nonetheless reviewing the expanded budget-cutting plan.
“She does already have some of those powers at hand, and I think we feel comfortable with where it’s been in the past,” he advised reporters this previous week.
Home Speaker Ron Mariano mentioned he has not learn the driving data entry language.
“I haven’t read the proposal,” he mentioned. “You have the advantage on me. I don’t know. I’d have to go back and review it.”
Michlewitz mentioned Democrats in Home management are nonetheless “reviewing all the outside sections” Healey has filed.
“(We) haven’t really made a determination yet where we’re going to land on that,” he mentioned of the driving data.
Brian Shortsleeve touts outcomes from South Shore ‘straw poll’ …
Brian Shortsleeve, a enterprise capitalist and former MBTA official working to problem Healey subsequent yr, is making an attempt to play up the outcomes of a neighborhood survey of Republicans down the South Shore this previous week.
Shortsleeve earned 68% of the vote in a “straw poll” held throughout a candidate discussion board hosted by the Republican City Committees of Duxbury, Pembroke, and Weymouth, in accordance with his marketing campaign. Shortsleeve described the end result as a “decisive victory.”
“These early wins show that our message is resonating. Voters are ready for bold leadership and real results, and they support my mission for Massachusetts,” he mentioned in an announcement.
A “straw poll” of a handful of South Shore cities is hardly an indicator of who will win the Republican major subsequent yr. However it’s an attention-grabbing sampling for political insiders to speak about.
Shortsleeve is working towards Mike Kennealy, a former cupboard secretary below Gov. Charlie Baker, for the Republican nomination to tackle Healey within the 2026 statewide election.
Logan Trupiano, a spokesperson for Kennealy, accused Shortsleeve of going “negative” through the candidate discussion board solely hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
“Republicans overwhelmingly reject Brian Shortsleeve when they find out he donated $100,000 to Democrats like (Attorney General) Andrea Campbell, while simultaneously giving a $249 million taxpayer-funded no-bid contract to the Chinese Communist Party while he was running the MBTA into the ground,” Trupiano mentioned in an announcement.
Holly Robichaud, a political strategist working for Shortsleeve, shot again.
“Mike Kennealy keeps losing these straw polls because Republicans strongly oppose his record as a Never Trumper who, as Gov. Baker’s housing secretary, opened migrant hotels, wrote the MBTA Communities Act regulations, and was the COVID economic hibernation czar who kept businesses and schools shut down way too long, doing lasting damage to our economy and students,” Robichaud mentioned in an announcement.
