Transition is coming early to the City of Easthampton. Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, who had announced last year she would not seek another term, will resign early to take on a new state role. Come July 21, LaChapelle will join Governor Maura Healey’s administration as Commissioner of the Department of Conservation & Recreation.
CHICAGO—Delegates to the Democratic National Convention from Massachusetts came to a much different convention than the one they had signed up for. With caucuses and Democratic State Committee (DSC) votes long before Biden’s debate, essentially everybody representing the commonwealth had signed up with the president for nomination.
EASTHAMPTON—Despite years of involvement with Democratic politics, it is no secret that the 2016 election was a turning point for Nicole LaChapelle. Two reelections later, LaChapelle will not seek reelection as mayor here next year, although there is another presidential election before that.
“I was out at the Brass Cat and one of the bartenders is like, ‘Hey, Trump can be president again. Does that mean you’re gonna run again?’” LaChapelle recalled.
The first legislative race of 2024 in Western Massachusetts began Saturday. Easthampton State Rep Daniel Carey’s announced he would not seek a fourth term. A lifelong native of the city, Carey will instead seek the open Clerk of Courts position for Hampshire County. A former
BELCHERTOWN—Kim Driscoll has a line while stumping for lieutenant governor in which she acknowledged she is not “the hometown gal.”
“But I really do care about hometowns and the strength of communities, and making sure they have the assets and tools they need to impact the quality of life in a favorable way,” she told WMP&I.
Echoing recent LG’s role, Driscoll has invested heavily into the narrative of lieutenant governors as municipal liaison in her bid to become Maura Healey’s running mate on the Democratic ticket.
SPRINGFIELD—Whether in a McKnight neighborhood backyard or at the Democratic convention, Tanisha Sullivan holds her audience rapt. Since joining the race for Secretary of the Commonwealth she has won over voting rights and open government activists with a passionate pitch for an engaged and nimble secretariat.
Cities up and down the Pioneer Valley swore in their new governments Monday. In two cities new mayors took office while a third formally began his full term.
BOSTON—In any other year, the voting of the Electoral College in Massachusetts would be a ho-hum occasion. With no question of the commonwealth’s presidential result outside the darkest corners of the Internet, the vote was still not dramatic. But with Donald Trump insisting it is
A history-making era in the Paper City is about to end. On Tuesday Morning, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse announced he would not seek another term. His statement indicated he intended to serve out the remainder of his term, capping his mayoralty at 10 years. Such
Shutdowns much of the nation underwent—if sometimes halfheartedly—to counter the novel coronavirus punched the ailing media industry in the gut. Closed businesses do not advertise, exacerbating the preexisting online flight of ad dollars. If the industry was reeling before, a pandemic would be an awful