In our look back at news of the week, Massachusetts U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III has been fueling speculation about whether he'll challenge Senator Ed Markey in the 2020 Democratic primary.
Kennedy visited Springfield this week, and said he sees some similarities between western Massachusetts and his district, when it comes to being overshadowed by Boston.
"There are other parts of the state," Kennedy said. "I represent an area in southeastern Massachusetts that sometimes feels we get overlooked in terms of opportunities for major infrastructure investment [or] major development."
If Kennedy does decide to run, he'll join two others challenging Markey in the Democratic primary: Shannon Liss-Riordan and Steve Pemberton. A new online poll commissioned by CommonWealth found Kennedy would lead that race with 42%, followed by Markey at 25%. Liss-Riordan and Pemberton garnered support in the single digits.
"[Kennedy] has to really make a decision if he's prepared to put a lot on the line, because that poll, I think, underplays how much of the activist support that I think Senator Markey is going to have," said one of our panelists, Matt Szafranski.
Panelist Natalia Muñoz said Kennedy should "stay in his own district." For Muñoz, the Kennedy name works against the congressman.
"To me, the name holds the weight of, 'Oh please, not another one,'" she said. "Please. Let's have more people come to the party. Not more Kennedys, but people whose names we do not know."
Also this week, the Valley Flyer train service between Greenfield, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut, got underway on Friday. It adds two additional weekday round trips to the line, which also services Northampton, Holyoke and Springfield. But, it's a pilot program and needs to hit ridership goals in order to continue. It's the latest effort to expand passenger rail service in western Mass.
This week on Beacon Hill, Massachusetts legislators heard testimony on more than 60 different gun-related bills. They range from requiring live-fire training for gun permits to improving firearm data reporting and gun purchase limits.
Guests:
- Natalia Muñoz, host of Vaya Con Muñoz on WHMP
- Mass Szafranski, editor, Western Mass. Politics & Insight
