The Massachusetts primary is coming up on September 4. In addition to some big state races, we've got an eye on some hot primaries for the U.S. House and Senate.
For our quick look at the week ahead in government and politics in Massachusetts, Matt Murphy joins us from the State House News Service.
Jill Kaufman, NEPR: Let's spend a moment digging into the U.S. Senate primary, and the GOP candidates who are taking on Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. We've got State Rep. Geoff Diehl, former Mitt Romney administration official Beth Lindstrom, and businessman John Kingston. Each are trying to distinguish themselves for voters as the candidate who stands the best chance of defeating Warren. What does this race look like right now?
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: This is really the signature race on the Republican side of the ballot for the primaries.
The Trump factor is really going to be interesting to watch as this race plays out over the final week. Rep. Geoff Diehl is a former co-chair of the Trump campaign in Massachusetts. While all three have said that they would vote for President Trump for re-election in 2020, it's Diehl who's really the Trump candidate in this race. He has been campaigning on his support for the president.
Trump did carry Massachusetts in the Republican primary, and it'll be interesting to watch who these Diehl voters are when they come out, and watch what impact that has on the governor's primary.
On the other side, you have Beth Lindstrom, who is more of an established candidate in Massachusetts, has worked with Republicans to elect Republicans across the state for years, worked with Scott Brown, worked with Mitt Romney.
And John Kingston, really the outsider, trying to be the person who he says is a uniter, someone who can work with Democrats and Republicans in Congress; was someone who worked against the president during the 2016 election.
But he has also been reluctant to debate, and has been really trying to almost buy this race, spending a lot on TV ads, saying that he is the most well-financed, well-resourced candidate to take on Elizabeth Warren in November. A lot of that money is coming out of his own pocket.
There are several other races going on in Massachusetts for seats in Congress. In western Mass., Congressman Richie Neal faces a challenge from Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a lawyer. In the Massachusetts 3rd Congressional District, the race to fill U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas's seat, the district touches some towns in central Massachusetts, and further east. The race is really crowded with Democrats. A new poll says that Dan Koh, a city of Boston mover and shaker, may have a narrow lead, but there are loads of undecided voters.
Yeah, loads of undecided voters still in the 3rd. And as you mentioned, the second poll in that race came out last week showing that Dan Koh had really jumped from fourth to perhaps first. But he's there with only about 19 percent of the vote.
Rufus Gifford, former ambassador to Denmark, son of a former Bank of America chairman, running in second, tied with state Senator Barbara L'Italien from Andover.
Those are really the top three, along with Lori Trahan, who is from Westford, used to work for Congressman Marty Meehan; well-known in the Lowell area which pulls a lot of weight in that district.
And the winner there will face Republican Rick Green in November. He owns an online auto parts company.
Yeah that's right, and he has put a lot of money into this race, and raised money. He's sort of a moderate, but I think the pundits and the polls, and people who look at this, still think this is a heavily Democratic seat, and should remain Democratic.
Last week, the Massachusetts Cannabis Commission approved two testing labs. Without them, the entire recreational marijuana business couldn't go forward; stores could not open. So does this mean that stores that will sell recreational marijuana in various products can open?
Soon, at least. This is pretty much the last major hurdle to getting these retail stores open. And now that these labs have been approved, there been nine provisional licenses given to retail establishments. Chairman Steve Hoffman is saying that the onus is really now on these retail establishments to pass those final tests, get inspected, and get up and operational. He expects that the first sales could be coming within months, if not weeks.
