The Horse Race

4/21/21--This week, there's good news surrounding the vaccine in Massachusetts. Saturday marked a happy milestone in that the state surpassed 2 million residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In national news, all eyes were on Minneapolis Tuesday night when a verdict came down on the Derek Chauvin trial. Chauvin was convicted on all charges in the death of George Floyd. Massachusetts politica...

4/14/21-- This week, there is a lot of #bospoli news to discuss, and it begins with the Boston Police Department. Acting Mayor Kim Janey on Tuesday named the executive director of Boston’s first Office of Police Accountability and Transparency. This comes as the department is reeling from two major scandals. Jenn and Stephanie discuss where things stand now, and what the future may hold the BPD. N...

4/7/21-- This week, Steve, Jennifer, and Stephanie discuss the #bospoli news that Acting Mayor of Boston Kim Janey is in fact running for full-term mayor. She made the announcement Tuesday morning, alongside the release of a campaign ad that speaks to Boston's long history of white male leaders as well as her promises to address issues such as housing and income inequality. She will have been mayo...

3/31/21--After weeks of COVID cases on the decline in Massachusetts, data show that they are on the uptick. Not just here in the Bay State, but in states across the nation. This week CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she felt a sense of "impending doom" and stressed the necessity for people to "hold on a little while longer." In #mapoli news, state Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz has said she's "seriou...

3/24/21-- It's a momentous day in Boston as the city swore in its first non-white non-male mayor in Kim Janey. Stephanie Murray says it's "hard to overstate" just how historic the moment is, as Janey takes on the new role in a ceremony including Ayanna Pressley and Kimberly Budd who are Massachusetts history-makers as well. Later, Stephanie and Steve are joined by outgoing mayor of Lynn, Tom McGee...

Full transcript: https://www.massincpolling.com/the-topline/episode-173-orange-you-glad-we-didnt-say-red-line 3/17/21-- Happy St. Paddy's Day, listeners! All three co-hosts are back in the virtual bunker, and there's a whole lot to discuss. The Baker administration announced Wednesday the timeline for all remaining groups to receive the vaccine. In not so pleasant news, the Orange Line derailed. S...

3/10/21--This week, Jenn and Stephanie discuss the Baker administration's announcement of a new vaccine preregistration system. The centralized tool allows people to preregister for a vaccine appointment in any of the state's seven mass vaccination sites. Jenn is also keeping an eye on the continued tensions in state leadership, where, after a year of Governor Baker operating under a state of emer...

3/3/21--Stephanie and Jenn regroup in the virtual pod bunker, starting the episode with a quick recap of a special election. Jeff Turco pulled off a victory in the 19th Suffolk district Democratic primary to replace Bob DeLeo. Stephanie breaks down the contributing factors to Turco's win, including the fallout from allegations of sexual misconduct aimed at then-candidate Tino Capobianco. Later, th...

2/24/21-- A year ago this week marks one of the last weeks before a state of emergency was declared in Massachusetts and self-isolation began. In that time, schools throughout the state have implemented remote learning for at least a portion, if not most of that time when the school year was in session. Massachusetts Education Commissioner Jeff Riley on Tuesday called for elementary school student...

2/17/21-- The vaccine rollout continues here in Massachusetts, and while this week bring some good news -- the state now ranks 10th in the country in vaccinations per capita. Still, officials across the state are criticizing Charlie Baker's administration for its vaccine rollout thus far for a few reasons. It got off to a notoriously sluggish start, and the disparities in vaccination rates between...

2/10/20-- This week on The Horse Race, Jenn and Stephanie bring you something a little different than the usual programming. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh sat through a Senate confirmation hearing last week as President Biden’s pick for Labor Secretary. It looks very likely that he will be confirmed. If that happens and the mayor leaves office before March 5, normally the rules say we would have to hav...

2/3/21-- Steve, Jennifer, and Stephanie are back in the virtual bunker, each with a different opinion on this week's snowfall. Vaccine rollout rolls on throughout the country, but unfortunately, Massachusetts doesn’t rank too highly in terms of distribution. Steve points to a comparison conducted by NPR which finds the Bay State ranking 37th for efficiency (proportion of doses administered to dose...

1/27/21-- It's a new week back in The Horse Race virtual bunker, but Jenn's laser focus on Boston matters has not wavered one bit. Be sure to tune in a couple weeks from now for a special episode covering the Boston City Charter, including a look at this year's special election debacle after Mayor Walsh left his post to join the Biden administration, leaving it open before his term ends. This week...

1/21/2021-- This week, we bring you an all-transit episode of The Horse Race. This is also the first episode under the new Biden administration, and we plan to publish an episode exploring what the new administration means for Massachusetts in the very near future. For now, we jump into the news that state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack is departing to serve on the Federal Highway Admi...

1/13/21--The U.S. House Representatives moves to impeach President Donald Trump today. This comes after last week’s insurrection on the Capitol by rioters who were incited by Trump who has for months been spreading false claims of voter fraud during the presidential election that he lost. State governments are preparing for the potential of more violent acts upon state capitols as we ramp up to In...

1/7/21-- Steve, Jenn, and Stephanie are back in The Horse Race bunker, this time to rehash the unsettling events that took place Wednesday in D.C. when pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the Capitol building during a process to ratify President-elect Joe Biden's electoral victory. This comes after months of President Trump spouting false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election in which he lost....

12/30/20-- Farewell, 2020! Can't say we'll miss you, but as you can tell from this week's episode, there were some fun moments after all. Please enjoy this end-of-year blooper reel, and we'll be back with new episodes on Massachusetts politics, policy, and elections in 2021!

12/23/20-- Happy Holidays, Horse Racers! We are guilty of claiming last week was our last episode of 2020, but as soon as we hit 'publish,' there was a major development in the Massachusetts legislature, so, we're back. Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Bob DeLeo officially filed a disclosure Friday saying he's in talks with Northeastern University about a job there, meaning he...

12/16/20-- This week, we are both celebrating a new development that is the first COVID-19 vaccinations making their way to U.S. citizens, as well as passing a grim milestone that is 300,000 deaths in the U.S. due to COVID-19. Here in Massachusetts, rates of community spread are still worryingly high, and several municipal leaders have decided to roll back reopening in their own cities further tha...

12/9/20-- In keeping with baseless election fraud lawsuits happening around the country, Massachusetts political hopefuls have decided to join in the fun. A handful of unsuccessful GOP candidates for Congress and state office in Massachusetts are asking that a federal court overturn the 2020 election results in the state. The claim is that mail-in voting is unconstitutional, but the plaintiffs are...

12/3/20-- Steve and Jenn are back in the bunker after an atypical (but very 2020) Thanksgiving celebration. After a quick excoriation of the cast of characters on The Bachelorette, the hosts transition to a development on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Kimberly Budd was sworn in Monday as chief justice of the SJC, succeeding the late chief justice Ralph Gants. This makes her the first B...

11/25/20-- Happy Thanksgiving Horse Race listeners! Get ready to talk turkey (and Jell-O?), but first, some #mapoli news. Former Secretary of State and Senator from Massachusetts John Kerry was tapped to serve as a special presidential envoy for climate for the Biden administration. “I’ve been kind of surprised at how little arguing there’s been about the Biden cabinet so far,” Stephanie Murray sa...

11/19/20-- With just a couple months until President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, several #MApoli members are being eyed as potential cabinet members of his administration. Stephanie has been cataloging them for the Politico Massachusetts Playbook, and she's got her eye particularly trained on Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who is being pushed for Labor Secretary by the president of the AFL-CIO. Oth...

11/11/20--The hosts are off this week so please enjoy a BONUS episode of The Horse Race. It is an exploration of the rise in young adults battling mental health impacts of COVID-19, with a #MAPoli angle, of course.

11/4/20-- What was meant to be a post-election podcast this week is in fact not. As we release this on Wednesday evening, there are still ballots left to count and states that are too early to call. It's not yet clear who our president will be, nor which party will control the Senate. As states scramble to count ballots, The Trump administration said it has filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Michi...