The presidential primary in Massachusetts isn't until March 3, but we're already getting some answers on what the ballot will look like.
One way a candidate can get onto the state's presidential primary ballot is if the secretary of state thinks the candidate's been "generally recognized... in national news media."
Matt Murphy with the State House News Service joins us to talk about how candidates get on the ballot.
Carrie Healy, NEPR: With consolidation and mergers creating fewer sources for news, are there any concerns about the media somehow determining who gets onto the ballot?
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: This was written into state law, and there's a section that very clearly spells out how you can qualify for the Massachusetts presidential ballot. There's three ways: you can be submitted by your party. You can go out and collect signatures — you only need 2,500 to qualify for the ballot and turn them in that way. Or the secretary can just put you on.
And so this is just a provision that allows the secretary — though it is subjective — to put someone on the ballot that a party may have left off their list that is notable and running a credible campaign for president.
March 3 — the date of the Massachusetts presidential primary — will also be the date for the primaries to fill two state Senate seats currently held by Republicans. One that Senator Don Humason will give up in January to become Westfield's mayor, and one vacated by a senator from Plymouth. The date-setting process wasn't without controversy. Can you explain that?
It was not without controversy. Democratic leadership in the Senate tried to schedule those to have the general election coincide with the presidential primary. But this was viewed by Republicans as an attempt to capitalize on the fact that turnout on the Democratic side is expected to be a lot higher than usual for this presidential contest, given the competition in the Democratic primary, and the relative lack thereof on the Republican side, where you have an incumbent president running.
But eventually, after the Republicans used what the Senate President Karen Spilka referred to as procedural delay tactics, she relented, and scheduled the general elections for March 31, which puts the primaries on the same date — on March 3.
Last week, that $1 billion surplus spending bill impasse ended. Lawmakers cut a deal that included some $32 million for the MBTA — an amount less than what Governor Charlie Baker asked for. In the coming months, House Speaker Robert DeLeo says the House will take up a big transportation revenue debate. This recent conversation has been all about eastern Mass. — but will western Mass. get some attention in that bigger debate?
I think the answer has to be yes, if we're going by what the speaker said. The decision to cut back on the MBTA funding was a little curious. The governor had asked for $50 million. It was in all of the budget bills until the very end, when negotiators, after weeks and weeks of talks, ended up cutting back spending in basically every area of the budget, including the MBTA.
The governor is going to seek additional money. But the speaker is promising a much more robust debate in January. Much more money probably on the table than just the $50 million. And the speaker has said in the past that he's very cognizant of the fact that there are people who are concerned that this is going to look like an MBTA or Boston-centric bill — he doesn't want that to be the case.
RTA, or regional transit authority, money is going to be on the table. Road and bridge money to fix infrastructure in central and western Mass. certainly part of that conversation — as well as — I wouldn't be surprised to see rail included, in however they choose to allocate this money. So that is the debate that the speaker is looking to have — we just have to wait a few weeks longer.
Are lawmakers concerned, after the drawn-out process for that surplus spending bill, that friction between House and Senate leaders will spill over into other issues?
Yeah, we heard this. Republican Minority Leader Brad Jones expressing some of his concerns, saying that even though they were able to get it done early in the morning hours on Wednesday, that no one should be proud of the way this went down.
There's a lot of talk up here about how it's much more functional than in Washington, but it didn't look like that in this process. And there is some concern in the building about the relationship between the speaker and the Senate president. This is not just the first time things have gotten delayed. The annual state budget was considerably late.
Now we're seeing this budget get pushed and pushed well past statutory deadlines. So it's something to watch moving forward.
