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March Madness

Talking Politics
It's no surprise that the coming weekend's Saint Patrick's Day celebrations have become politically charged, given the extraordinary convergence of electoral events visiting South Boston.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 12, 2013

Labor's love lost

Talking Politics
Steve Lynch is winning back much of the union support that left him in 2009.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 08, 2013

After Markey, Get Set, Go

Talking Politics
It's a matter of political decorum: when an officeholder is running for higher office, you wait until the election has been won before publicly coveting the resulting vacancy.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | February 20, 2013

Red Blues: Scott Brown exposes the empty Massachusetts GOP bench

It wasn't just that Scott Brown announced he was not running in the special US Senate election — it was that it quickly became evident that he was not handing the job off to another Republican.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | February 15, 2013

Wheels on the Bus: Mass Transit

Few parts of Massachusetts government need additional spending as badly as transportation — or have as publicly visible deficiencies.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 25, 2013

Running Outside the Box

Congressman Ed Markey's announcement that he will run in the upcoming special election for US Senate was quickly followed by a choreographed show of institutional backing, from Vicki Kennedy, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and even John Kerry, holder of the soon-to-be-vacated seat Markey desires.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 18, 2013

Budging Forward

Talking Politics
The nation has just suffered through fiscal-cliff negotiations that left nobody, on either side of the aisle, happy with the results or the process.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 11, 2013

After Kerry, who?

Talking Politics
As word circulated on Thursday, December 13, that Susan Rice was withdrawing her name from consideration for secretary of state, it was like a 2013 starting gun going off in Massachusetts.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 31, 2012

Death knell for the local GOP?

Obituaries for the Massachusetts Republican Party have been written many times — I've contributed several items to that genre myself.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 18, 2012

Smoke signals

Talking Politics
The Massachusetts Medical Society's strident opposition to medical marijuana helped prevent passage in the legislature, but could not defeat the ballot initiative.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 12, 2012

Lessons learned?

Talking Politics
I take the blackout as a sign that the universe wants these smart and savvy yet secluded and out-of-touch campaign elites to hold their tongues — and learn some lessons from what ordinary people have been trying, collectively, to tell them: that voters know more about the country's mood than the campaign strategists do.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 04, 2012

Meet the Freshman class

Through much of 2012, the local political media — myself included — were a bit distracted by the big-name, big-money campaigns of Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, and Elizabeth Warren.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 27, 2012

Him Again?

This was supposed to be the calm after the storm.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 21, 2012

Thrill and Agony

The vote totals that poured in through the state secretary's office November 6 provided one set of winners (Elizabeth Warren, John Tierney, Joe Kennedy III, medical marijuana) and losers (Scott Brown, Richard Tisei, medical suicide). But there were plenty of other victories and defeats in Bay State politics last Tuesday.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 14, 2012

The Gathering Storm

As I write this column, a campaign-weary Commonwealth awaits the end of a year-long, roughly $80 million Senate race that seems to have been on the front pages — and in every commercial break — for as long as we can remember.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 07, 2012

In a Bind

"Binders full of women" were the social-media sensation of last week's presidential debate.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 23, 2012

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G(rand) O(ld) P(ricks)

For years, I've chronicled in the Phoenix the dwindling ranks of Republican women in elected office, and suggested that their absence will ultimately hurt the GOP.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 15, 2012

Council Klout

Tito Jackson is one of the most recently elected Boston City Councilors — he won a special election in 2010 to replace Chuck Turner — but he is already the most powerful.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 10, 2012

The good, bad, and ugly in debate politics

Candidate debates feel simultaneously like a timeless honoring of American democratic practice, harkening to Lincoln-Douglas, and a vacuous example of the contemporary political circus, dominated by empty, rehearsed rhetoric and relentless spinning of the media.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 12, 2012

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Can Richard Tisei cure the GOP’s homophobia?

Two weekends ago, the elites of the Massachusetts LGBT community gathered at the Marriott Copley for the 31st annual Human Rights Campaign (HRC) New England Dinner Gala.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 05, 2012

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