Groups pushing for Massachusetts ballot questions had to turn in more than 80,000 certified signatures this week to the secretary of state's office in order to stay on track for the 2020 election.
Tommy Hickey, with the Right to Repair Coalition, which is pushing for a question on auto repair, says getting the required 80,000-plus signatures — which they did — is hard work.
"We have over 3,000 repair shops in Massachusetts," he said. "A lot of them were out there collecting signatures with their customers. And we had some volunteers. We have over 3,000 consumers as a part of our coalition."
Backers of other questions looking at ranked-choice voting, nursing home funding and beer and wine sales, among others, say they have enough signatures.
But another, which sought to block state funding of abortions, didn't garner enough support.
Panelist Dave Eisenstadter said he’s happy to see a question fail again that would limit abortion funding.
“It’s despicable that this happens every two years — 2015, 2017,” he said. “It just makes it clear that we really need to pass the ROE Act in the legislature. I'm also interested in the ranked-choice voting. Maine has tried it out. It'll be interesting to see whether Massachusetts voters are interested in that here.”
There are still other steps before any of these questions make it to the ballot.
While there are a lot of hurdles, panelist Elizabeth Román said she thinks the process is appropriately challenging.
“I think it is fair in the sense that a binding question on a ballot is a big deal,” she said. “You don't want someone to just be able to get, you know, 15,000 signatures, and get some major question on the ballot, and suddenly you have major change that's going to affect the entire state.”
But many groups, Román said, don’t necessarily have the resources to get tens of thousands of signatures in support of a measure.
“So maybe a little less signatures, but not too much less, because you do want it to be work, and you want to make sure that people know what it is that they're getting into,” she said.
Also this week, the two Democrats challenging Massachusetts U.S. Senator Ed Markey have taken a pledge not to accept outside money in their campaigns. Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan and U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy made the announcement, and both called on Markey to do the same. However, the senator's campaign said he would accept donations from progressive groups with "positive campaign advertising."
"I hope Senator Markey will come back around on this issue and join Congressman Kennedy and me in banning outside spending in his race," Liss-Riordan said. "This race should be decided by the people of Massachusetts, not by dark money or special interests."
In Connecticut, Treasurer Shawn Wooden announced the state plans to divest investments from civilian gun makers. He says the companies are too risky given lawsuits against them. Connecticut currently has about $30 million in pension funds invested in those companies. And Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg is calling for similar action.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials announced this week they'll knock down a barn at a wildlife refuge in Hadley, Massachusetts, which had been home to nesting barn swallows. They say the barn is in dangerously bad condition. Some bird advocates are concerned about the impact on the birds. The refuge is home to what is believed to be among the largest colonies for the barn swallow in Massachusetts.
Guests:
- Elizabeth Román, reporter/editor, Springfield Republican and El Pueblo Latino
- Dave Eisenstadter, editor, Valley Advocate
