| | |  | BY LISA KASHINSKY | A BIF DEAL — If you’re a Massachusetts pol who didn’t take a selfie on the South Lawn, were you even there for President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill signing Monday? Rep. Jake Auchincloss posted a pic with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (and later said it was his first visit to the White House since he was a kid). Reps. Seth Moulton, Bill Keating, Lori Trahan, Jim McGovern, Richard Neal and Stephen Lynch were all there. Sen. Ed Markey took things to the next level with a selfie video. State House Majority Leader Claire Cronin, who’s still awaiting confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to Ireland, was spotted embracing Biden after the signing, in a picture shared with Playbook. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh got the honor of standing over Biden’s shoulder — and having his face plastered all over national television — as the president signed the landmark legislation. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill is more than a photo op. It’s expected to bring roughly $9 billion to the Bay State for repairing roads and bridges and weatherizing homes. Here’s BIF by the numbers: $4.2 billion — For improving highways. 1,200 — Miles of highway currently in poor condition in Massachusetts. $1.1 billion — For repairing bridges, and also for improving access to clean drinking water by replacing lead pipes and other upgrades over five years. 472 — Bridges considered in poor condition in Massachusetts. $2.5 billion — For improving public transportation, including repairing and upgrading bus and rail fleets and making stations mor accessible. $100 million — For expanding broadband across the state. 137,000 — Bay Staters who currently lack broadband access. $63 million — For expanding the number of electric vehicle charging stations. $15.7 million — For preventing cyberattacks. Speaking of bipartisan, GOP Gov. Charlie Baker tweeted he was “Grateful to see Washington work across party lines to get this bill done.” The Boston Herald’s Erin Tiernan and the Boston Globe’s Neya Thanikachalam and Taylor Dolven have more reaction from the delegation. GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Biden is taking his infrastructure show on the road in New Hampshire today. But there will be plenty of action in Boston, where Michelle Wu will be sworn in as mayor at noon. Warren, Markey and Baker will be among the attendees. Acting Mayor Kim Janey will give remarks at the ceremony. For our Boston-based readers, what do you think Wu’s priorities should be for her first 100 days? Drop me your answer at lkashinsky@politico.com for a chance to be featured in Playbook this week! TODAY — Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and administration officials highlight National Apprenticeship Week at Arranta Bio in Watertown at 10 a.m. Polito and state and local officials make grant announcements in Worcester at 12:30 p.m. and Lowell at 3:30 p.m. Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi address home-care workers at Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. | |
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| – "Massachusetts reports 5,248 coronavirus cases over the weekend, as infection counts keep rising," by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: "The 5,248 infection tally was a jump of 1,209 cases over last weekend’s three-day total of 4,039. The weekend before that was 3,243 cases." | | MAPMAKER, MAPMAKER |
| – SEPARATE WAYS: Fall River and New Bedford still appear headed for splitsville after mapmakers rejected pleas from some of the region’s politicians and activists to unite the South Coast cities into one congressional district. Fall River, which is currently divided between the 4th and 9th Districts, would be fully in Rep. Jake Auchincloss’s 4th District while New Bedford would stay in Rep. Bill Keating’s 9th District under the map that advanced out of the redistricting committee yesterday. The map could come up for a vote in the House as early as today. Assistant House Majority Leader Mike Moran, who co-leads the redistricting effort, told me he wasn’t swayed by the South Coast unification argument he perceived as coming too much from New Bedford-based advocates and not enough from Fall River, where electeds were more split on the issue. Moran likened it to the "mayor of Somerville telling the city of Boston which congressional district the city of Boston should be in," something he said he "could never imagine." Keating called the map “unfortunate.” He told me “this is bigger than any one congressional member” and that “putting the two cities together would have given the region very important leverage” when it comes to federal resources. Mapmakers made some tweaks, including keeping Tewksbury in Rep. Seth Moulton's 6th District instead of moving most of the town into Rep. Lori Trahan's 3rd District. – More on the South Coast redistricting schism from the Boston Globe’s Matt Stout: “[Moran] said he disagreed with arguments that the two cities should be unified in part because of the region’s tightly knit Portuguese and Azorean communities. Fall River and New Bedford have the country’s highest numbers of Portuguese-American residents. Neither, he argued, are protected classes under redistricting, and people in the area ‘strongly identified’ as non-Hispanic white within Census data.” | | DATELINE BEACON HILL |
| – SPILKA SAT OUT DC: Senate President Karen Spilka opted not to travel to Washington for the infrastructure bill signing after falling ill while preparing for the trip. Her pre-trip Covid-19 test was negative, a spokesperson said, adding that Spilka will remain home "to monitor her health for as long as needed." – “North Adams Mayor Tom Bernard says he views phone call from state Rep. John Barrett III as 'clear, if nonspecific, threat',” by Lawrence Parnass, Berkshire Eagle: “The mayor of North Adams is calling on the speaker of the Massachusetts House to order an ethics review of what he describes as recent bullying remarks to him by state Rep. John Barrett III. Mayor Thomas W. Bernard also suggests that Barrett’s status as a trustee of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts be reviewed, in light of a telephone conversation with Barrett that the mayor saw as threatening, and which he has memorialized in several emails. Barrett says he tried to provide friendly, if pointed advice to Bernard, only to see it backfire.” – “Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker prods federal government for more information on Haitian arrivals,” by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: “Gov. Charlie Baker recently prodded the federal government to disclose more detailed information about Haitians coming to Massachusetts, warning a lack of clear guidance could prevent new arrivals from accessing resources like food stamps.” – “Bill would let Tompkins hold men solely for substance use treatment,” by Shira Schoenberg, CommonWealth Magazine: “Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins could get permission to treat people civilly committed for substance use disorders in the Suffolk County jail, under a bill pending before the Legislature that is adding to the controversy already swirling around Tompkins’s role in cleaning up ‘Mass. and Cass’ — the area around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Boston that has become the center of the region’s opioid crisis.” – “Rural Massachusetts towns poised to get state aid for broadband infrastructure,” by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: “Within the state Senate’s sprawling $3.82 billion COVID relief package, comprised of federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act and Massachusetts’ budget surplus, lawmakers carved out $75 million to close the digital divide, including to support low-income households and invest in connectivity projects in underserved areas. But a successful amendment last week from Sen. Adam Hinds, a Pittsfield Democrat, ensures that small towns, especially those clustered in Western Massachusetts, are also directly eligible to receive a portion of that $75 million.” | | VAX-ACHUSETTS |
| – “COVID-19 outbreak spreads to 53 at Dartmouth jail,” by Abigail Nehring, New Bedford Light: “At least 47 people incarcerated at the regional jail on Faunce Corner in Dartmouth and six staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak that began Nov. 1. Cases among inmates and staff jumped by 18 over the weekend, according to a spokesperson for the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office." | | WU TRAIN |
| – “As Boston mayor, Michelle Wu will seek to deliver on candidate Wu’s promises for transformative change,” by Emma Platoff, Boston Globe: “For more than a year on the campaign trail, Michelle Wu promised transformative change for Boston. Starting Tuesday, when she is sworn in as mayor, she’ll have to start proving she can deliver it. Boston’s first woman and first person of color elected to the city’s top job, she carries the challenge of her ambitious policy agenda, lofty ideas she will have to slot into the rigid workings of municipal government. … ‘It’s very different going from campaigning to governing. . . . She made a lot of promises during the campaign that she’ll have to deliver on,’ said City Councilor Andrea Campbell, who was one of Wu’s rivals in the mayoral race.” – From the opinion pages: “A year before there was Mayor Michelle Wu in Boston, there was Mayor Hazel Chu in Dublin,” by Kevin Cullen, Boston Globe: “When Michelle Wu is sworn in Tuesday as mayor of Boston, Hazel Chu will be cheering her on 3,000 miles away, in Dublin, Ireland. Wu is the first woman, and first person of color, elected mayor of Boston, long thought of as the most Irish city in America. In 2020, Chu became not only the first person of color to serve as mayor of Ireland’s capital, but the first person of Chinese ancestry to serve as mayor of a European capital.” | | FROM THE HUB |
| – “Boston Teachers Union blasts Massachusetts education department for not counting Curley School remote days,” by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: “The Boston Teachers Union is ripping state education officials and calling on Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley to count remote days for a Jamaica Plain school amid a coronavirus outbreak. The Curley K-8 School is in the midst of a 10-day closure due to the COVID-19 cluster, and Riley has said he would not count all of the remote learning days for the 180-day annual requirement.” | | FEELING '22 |
| – FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: State Sen. Adam Hinds is rolling out a slew of new endorsements today in his bid for lieutenant governor. State Sens. Jo Comerford and Anne Gobi; state Reps. Natalie Blais, Lindsay Sabadosa, Mindy Domb and Jake Oliveira; former state Rep. Stephen Kulik; Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan, Franklin County Sheriff Chris Donelan, Hampshire County Sheriff Patrick Cahillane and Franklin County Register of Probate John Merrigan will endorse Hinds at a morning event in Northampton. – "GOP gubernatorial candidate Diehl makes stop in Phillipston," by Greg Vine, Greenfield Recorder: "[Geoff] Diehl touched on several issues that are priorities with many conservative Republicans. The first was that of critical race theory ... Diehl also faulted state Attorney General Maura Healey, in part, for the decision of gunmaker Smith & Wesson to leave Springfield." | | PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES |
| – “The MBTA’s new fare vending machines promise to make life easier. But first, a ‘learning curve’,” by Nik DeCosta-Klipa, Boston.com: “The MBTA recently finished installing new fare vending machines on the Orange Line, a milestone in the agency’s ongoing work to make boarding across the transit system ‘easier and more convenient.’ The new machines will make CharlieCards — as well as new tappable CharlieTickets — available at all subway stations and allow riders to use a smartphone or contactless credit card to pay. … [but] MBTA employees — as well as the agency’s Twitter account — have fielded numerous complaints from riders at Orange Line stations about the new machines not processing their credit cards.” | | DAY IN COURT |
| – “Federal jury awards Boston police detective $2 million in gender discrimination lawsuit,” by Shelley Murphy, Boston Globe: “A federal jury Monday ordered the city to pay $2 million to a high-ranking female Boston police detective in a gender discrimination case that cast a spotlight on the treatment of women in the city’s male-dominated police force.” | | THE LOCAL ANGLE |
| – “‘Sparkle’ the dog — a beloved presence in Somerville — was diagnosed with cancer. When the Internet found out, people showed up in droves to support her,” by Steve Annear, Boston Globe: “Melora Rush feels like she’s become a publicist for a celebrity. In less than a week, Rush’s family dog, a Corgi-mix named ‘Sparkle,’ has gone from beloved neighborhood fixture to online superstar, after the sad news that Rush’s longtime companion has incurable jaw cancer surged across the Internet, eliciting an outpouring of sympathy and support from people across the country.” – “Danvers school board takes no action on superintendent,” by Paul Leighton, Salem News: “The Danvers School Committee took no action regarding the future of Superintendent Lisa Dana after meeting for 90 minutes in executive session Monday night. … The School Committee held the executive session after a raucous meeting last week in which several members of the public called for Dana and School Committee members to resign over their handling of allegations of racist, sexual and homophobic misconduct during the 2019-20 Danvers High School boys hockey season.” – “Walking to school gains renewed interest in pandemic,” by Meg Woolhouse, GBH News: “It’s a sight you don’t see too often: a bunch of elementary school kids walking down a busy street on their way to school. But that’s what’s happening every school day in Framingham, where physical education teacher Kelsey Duffy leads the way through parking lots, apartment complexes and busy roadways, gathering students behind her like she’s leading a conga line. Duffy says it is a way to reduce absenteeism among kids when buses fail to deliver, as well as a way to engage kids who may have become a little too comfortable learning at home in the pandemic.” – “Workers in Lynn call for more local investment as GE prepares for major split,” by Darryl C. Murphy, WBUR: “Union workers at GE’s jet engine plant in Lynn are calling on the company to make more investments in the facility as the Boston-based conglomerate plans to split into three separate companies. GE announced last week that it will spin off its health care and energy divisions, and keep aviation, it’s most profitable division, under its name.” – “Gambling revenues climb in October at MGM Springfield, Encore Boston Harbor,” by Peter Goonan, Springfield Republican: “Gross gaming revenue climbed in October at the two resort casinos in Massachusetts, including an approximately $2 million increase at MGM Springfield compared to September revenues, according to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.” – “Meet the next mayor of Somerville: Katjana Ballantyne,” by Julia Taliesin, Boston.com: “Only the second woman elected as mayor of Somerville, Ballantyne brings a wealth of lived-experience to the role. She’s an immigrant, car-free, a career affordable housing and economic development advocate, and lifelong volunteer. She’s also coming off three terms as an elected city councilor…” – “Flood insurance rates to rise for many under new system,” by Christian M. Wade, CNHI/Eagle-Tribune: “Tens of thousands of property owners in Massachusetts could be hit with higher flood insurance premiums under a new federal rating system that anticipates increased flooding and storms fueled by climate change.” – “Monopoly Worcester Edition game board revealed. Here is a sneak peak at the 34 spaces,” by Dave Nordman, Worcester Telegram & Gazette: "No Polar Park. No Hotel Vernon. No DCU Center. No Clark University. No Worcester Art Museum. No restaurants. And no Ralph's Tavern. When the Monopoly Worcester Edition is revealed at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Union Station the board will include businesses such as Maria's Jewelry, Hot Power Yoga Center, Worcester Wares, Table Talk Pies and Digital Credit Union (twice). The game will also include Worcester Academy, Bancroft School and College of the Holy Cross..." | | BIDEN TIME |
| – “Biden to spend Thanksgiving on Nantucket, reviving a family tradition,” by Jim Puzzanghera and Mark Shanahan, Boston Globe: “President Biden will spend Thanksgiving on Nantucket, according to a source familiar with his plans, reviving a family tradition of gathering his family for the holiday on the island. … Biden has celebrated Thanksgiving on Nantucket nearly every year since 1975. He does not own a home there and has stayed in different rental properties over the years as he hosted a large family gathering and participated in events like the polar plunge.” | | MEANWHILE IN VERMONT |
| – “Patrick Leahy to retire after 8 terms in US Senate,” by Lola Duffort and Sarah Mearhoff, VT Digger: “The longest serving senator in Vermont history and fifth-longest serving senator in U.S. history, [Sen. Patrick] Leahy’s retirement will have profound implications for the political landscape at home and in Washington. His retirement opens the door to Vermont’s first open congressional seat in 15 years, during an election cycle where Democrats and Republicans will be fighting tooth and nail to clinch a Senate majority. … Vermont is also the only state in the country that has never sent a woman to Congress, and there is enormous political pressure — particularly in Democratic circles — to change course.” SPOTTED – Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren on the same flight back from D.C., talking about biofuel planes, because of course (h/t Gina Christo of Rivera Consulting). TRANSITIONS – GBH and PRX have named Dan Lothian executive producer of "The World." Lothian has been interim editor since March. HAPPY BIRTHDAY – to Brad Wyatt, Stephanie Harris, Jonathan Ng and Minda Conroe, managing director for J Strategies, Inc. Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com. | |
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