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Talking Politics

The weird politics of this year’s ballot questions

The only two contested referendum questions on November's ballot — physician-prescribed suicide and medical marijuana — are totally sex-free. But some of the donors trying to stop both are notorious homophobes.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 28, 2012

Scott Brown vs. the GOP

Talking Politics
This Thursday brings the first debate of Massachusetts's blockbuster US Senate campaign.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 18, 2012

At its convention, the GOP tries to clean up for company

(Tea) Party's Over
For the past several years, the conservative base of the Republican Party — which is now the bulk of the party — has been hoping for another 1964 convention.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 05, 2012

The GOP has the nominee from Massachusetts, but Barack Obama’s convention will have more of a Bay State flavor

A Wicked Good Convention
When the Democratic National Convention convenes next week, delegates will be gathering in North Carolina to renominate a man born in Hawaii, raised in Kansas, and officially residing in Illinois.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 31, 2012

Next week’s Republican convention offers Mitt Romney a chance to get the voting public to like him — but he might as well not bother

Love me not
Heading into his party's nominating convention, Mitt Romney faces a problem similar to one that confronted Bill Clinton in the summer of 1992: a lot of people don't like him.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 22, 2012

Officials arm themselves for onslaught of democracy

Batten down the hatches
With the Republican and Democratic national conventions approaching, federal, state, and local officials are working tirelessly to ensure that Tampa and Charlotte welcome all visitors to their cities with rose petals and open arms. Just kidding – they're actually spending tens of millions of dollars on combat training, armor, bloodhounds, and sophisticated weaponry.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | August 22, 2012

How black sheep could color the Sixth District’s race for Congress

Tisei's family ties
The parents of Republican congressional candidate Richard Tisei, in the course of their business dealings in the 1980s and '90s, prompted a lot of complaints and lost a string of legal judgments.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 01, 2012

Romney’s Shadow Years

Mitt wants to make his departure for the Olympics a clean break from his business life — but it’s not that simple
With just six weeks to go before the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney's campaign has bogged down over the seemingly insignificant minutia of how to precisely define the leave of absence he took from Bain Capital, while he ran the Winter Olympics from 1999 to 2002.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 18, 2012

Mitt Romney's Bain Shadow Years Loom Larger

Mitt Romney's shadow years at Bain have been thrown into the national media spotlight. That's a problem for the Romney campaign.
We now have some additional evidence to what has been pretty evident for many years: when he left for Utah in 1999, Romney handed over day-to-day operational duties to other executives at Bain Capital but retained full ownership of the company in every legal, fiduciary, and ethical sense until finalizing a separation agreement in 2002.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 14, 2012

Massachusetts voters are about to get an up-close look at the right-wing smear machine

Fighting Dirty
If you followed last month's story about the ousting and reinstatement of University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan, it might surprise you to learn that many Massachusetts Republicans believe that Sullivan was forced out over academic fraud she committed 23 years ago with US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 03, 2012

As Democratic bigwigs hope for a surprise candidate for governor, tried-and-true names jockey for position

Inside game
Talking to Democrats recently, at the party's state convention and elsewhere, reveals a widespread hope that an independent Beacon Hill outsider will emerge out of the mist in the 2014 governor's race to challenge the expected Republican nominee, Charlie Baker.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | June 22, 2012

Just Say No

Lefty activists at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention and Netroots Nation are finding it easier to fight the right wing than to champion their own
The key to understanding American politics these days is recognizing that it's easier to oppose a candidate or policy than it is to promote one of your own.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | June 13, 2012

Can Netroots make a difference in November – and beyond?

Rallying the troops
Online progressive activists have grown and developed to the point where they are ready to play critical roles in 2012 elections all over the country.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 30, 2012

From the penitentiary to the presidential race, it’s our annual Memorial Day roast of Massachusetts pols

Surveying the Damage
Welcome to the fourth annual Boston Phoenix Memorial Day Roast of Massachusetts politicians! I love looking around the room every year, seeing so many familiar faces of elected officials.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 25, 2012

A More Perfect Union

By embracing full marriage equality, President Obama both reflected and hastened real change on many fronts
People will surely debate for years to come whether President Barack Obama's self-described "evolution" on universal, legal, same-sex marriage caused, or simply reflected, a turning point on the issue in the United States.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 18, 2012

Mitt & the GOP Boys’ Club

Romney needs to reach out to women voters, but his party has few who can help him do it
Last week, Barack Obama's re-election campaign launched a Web slide show, "The Life of Julia," depicting a woman helped throughout her years by Obama policies, and warning that — if elected — Mitt Romney would undo all of them.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 10, 2012

Could the Bay State’s Ron Paul-loving delegates ruin Romney’s coronation?

Mitt’s Massachusetts Massacre
Saturday was an embarrassment of epic proportions for Mitt Romney and the Massachusetts Republican Party — an organization that, as I've chronicled in recent months, is essentially an extension of the Romney machine.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 02, 2012

Five years into Therese Murray’s tenure as president, the State Senate seems to have run out of steam

Sleepy Senate
Therese Murray's fifth anniversary as State Senate president passed by with little fanfare last month.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 05, 2012

Ranking and rating the possible successors as Senate president

Who's next
State senators insist that nobody is thinking about succession when Therese Murray's tenure as Senate president ends.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 04, 2012

Romney can live with the ‘Etch A Sketch’ gaffe, but not without the guy who said it

Fehrnstrom ex machina
In late November, Mitt Romney sat for a rare interview, with Bret Baier of Fox News.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 28, 2012

The Massachusetts Republican Party is undergoing massive disruption — or finding the right balance, depending on your view

Chaos theory
The stereotype of Massachusetts Republican State Committee members, at the local or state level, is of genteel, moneyed Brahmins discreetly delivering their contribution checks during a pleasant social gathering over wine and brandy.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 26, 2012

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