Republicans in the United State House of Representatives jammed through their budget and spending bill this week. Given their rank in the Democratic caucus, both reps for Western Massachusetts featured prominently in the debate.
The federal government has confirmed its cancellation of a $20 million environmental grant to the city of Springfield, but officials are not giving in. There is a formal, administrative appeal process. When city officials learned of the grant’s cancellation, it said it was considering all options. Since then, the city has been in touch with the office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell. That could add some firepower to Springfield’s response.
Last fall, when we endorsed the Democratic ticket, we warned that Donald Trump sought to target the enemy within. To us, that plainly meant “Americans. Your friends, your neighbors, critics, journalists, indeed, your editor-in-chief.” Three months in, we have seen his will, if not always the power, to execute that prerogative and endanger the Constitutional rights all in this nation possess.
SOUTH HADLEY—Despite a life of activism in politics, State Senator Jake Oliveira’s state electoral career only just began. However, his sophomore term in Beacon Hill’s upper house will differ from his previous two in the legislature.
The Democratic party’s new chairman, Ken Martin, gave the day-to-day job of running the party to Roger Lau. The longtime political hand has worn many hats for Massachusetts Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren.
As attorney general of Massachusetts, Maura Healey essentially ran point for the commonwealth’s legal opposition to Donald Trump. Now Healey is governor, a very different role than attorney general, and Trump has returned. Her successor in the AG’s office is facing a landscape not unlike the one Healey did—and Attorney General Andrea Campbell has been busy.
Donald Trump has launched a trade war with Canada and Mexico. Elon Musk is doing his best to play aviation gremlin to the federal airship midflight. Both ongoing acts of economic and civic vandalism touch the jurisdiction of the Ways & Means Committee and therefore its ranking member Springfield Congressman Richard Neal.
BOSTON—In her second State of the Commonwealth address, which solemnly nodded at the coming national change, Governor Maura Healey celebrated legislative accomplishments and restated 2025 goals. Among these were her $8 billion transportation plan. It was a laundry list and a pep rally that, as
If 2023 in Springfield was defined by its election, there is ample irony that transitions would define 2024. They just would not be transitions in municipal elective office. The pieces had been moving below deck for some time.
After House Republicans tanked a year-end deal at the orders of Donald Trump and his ostensible boss, Elon Musk, Democrats took the floor to blast GOP subservience. Among those excoriating the other side was Congressman Richard Neal, who emphasized that a bipartisan agreement fell apart because of social media posts.
Elon Musk didn’t like that.