Why Beacon Hill should adopt same-day voting and join the national popular-vote movement. Plus, that Obama cover.
The Massachusetts Legislature is expected to vote in the next several days on two proposals that would make democracy, well, more democratic.
By EDITORIAL | July 16, 2008

Open book?

Sal DiMasi is an embattled politician. His wife is an aspiring talk-show host. Welcome to New England Cable News’ ethics problem.
On any given day, New England Cable News features more smart, substantive politics coverage than any other Boston television station.
By ADAM REILLY | May 21, 2008

Sunshine needed

Political transparency is key if DiMasi is to transcend his crisis
Sal DiMasi has a track record of great accomplishment as Speaker of the House, with victories that include health-care reform, gay-marriage protection, and an economic-development package that offers unprecedented support for the arts, to cite just three examples.
By EDITORIAL | May 14, 2008

Hardball

How Herald publisher Pat Purcell could pitch inside — and brush back the Globe
Once upon a time, two daily newspapers battled in Boston.
By ADAM REILLY | May 08, 2008

So to speak

Letters to the Bostone editor, May 2, 2008
The article attacking House Speaker Sal DiMasi by David S. Bernstein was offensive character assassination based on ethnic stereotyping and cute political correctness.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | April 30, 2008

Trouble 'round the bend?

MBTA workers have been without a contract for two years. Arbitration will settle the matter soon, but could stir an angry hornets’ nest for 2010.
Perhaps because it hasn’t exploded into a public shutdown of services (as happened a few years ago in New York), arguably the most important fact about the MBTA has escaped public notice: most of its workers have been without a contract for nearly two years.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 30, 2008

Communication breakdown

How did Deval Patrick's greatest strength become a dangerous weakness?
You campaign in poetry, Mario Cuomo famously claimed, but you govern in prose. Don’t buy the dichotomy.
By ADAM REILLY | April 24, 2008

DiMasi’s sheep

How Stepford politics rule Beacon Hill
DiMasi’s overwhelming victory in the recent casino vote — in which only 34 of 140 Democrats voted against his plan to banish the bill for further study — was actually, as meager as it was, an unusual show of dissent.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 09, 2008

Four-star rebuttal

Letters to the Boston editor, April 4, 2008
I wonder if Peary realizes just how detrimental his dismissive panning of this movie could be?
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | April 02, 2008

No side bets

The governor’s gaming legislation crapped out, but are casinos still alive in a compromise? Plus, a school-budget crisis could start a political firestorm.
Opponents of legalized gaming in Massachusetts are celebrating the death this past week of Governor Deval Patrick’s bill to license casinos, which was crushed by a seemingly decisive margin of more than two-to-one.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 26, 2008

Whither the GOP?

With Democrats in total control of state government, the Massachusetts GOP should be a rising voice of dissent. Instead, it seems more impotent than ever.
Ask people to name the leading voice of opposition on Beacon Hill these days, and you’re likely to be told House Speaker Sal DiMasi.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 19, 2008

Cash carousel

Many things changed this year on Beacon Hill, but not the power of the almighty dollar
Even though the dollar has taken an international whupping of late, there remains at least one place where the love of the greenback remains strong: Beacon Hill.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 30, 2008

Can Obama lasso the Bay State?

Once considered sure Clinton country, the Massachusetts primary is now a shootout
Nobody around here forgets that Deval Patrick swiped the gubernatorial nomination from the establishment-backed Tom Reilly.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 23, 2008

Madam Mayor Maureen?

While everyone was distracted by the New Hampshire primary, did City Council President Maureen Feeney step into the race for mayor?
This past week, with Bostonians’ attention focused on the presidential-primary drama north of the Massachusetts border, an opening salvo in the 2009 mayoral race may have been delivered.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 16, 2008

Menino’s hit list

40 potential candidates for the 2009 election who could take on the mayor — if they have the courage.
At a recent political event, Boston mayor Thomas M. Menino asked Robert Crane, the former long-time state treasurer, how many years he had held that office.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 28, 2007

The Left, left out?

Deval Patrick’s famed grassroots progressives are losing steam and influence
In the wake of the recent local elections, more and more observers are concluding that the energy that put Patrick in the Corner Office has come and gone.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 03, 2007

Disillusioning reality

The weight of public opinion will not get us out of Iraq. Plus, a huge boost for the arts.
It took the United States four years to get out of Vietnam.
By EDITORIAL | September 12, 2007

Taking the Fifth

The race for Marty Meehan’s congressionalseat is running below the radar, but it could hold the answers to a couple of burning political questions
The September 4 Democratic primary has compelling interest beyond the borders of the Fifth Congressional District.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 22, 2007

Wagering, or wavering?

When will Deval Patrick play his casino cards?
With the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe quickly moving forward on its plans for a casino in Middleborough, how long can power players continue to hold their cards close to the vest?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 15, 2007

Fender bender

Last year, opponents thought they had killed auto-insurance reform for good. Its resurrection could be a headache for Deval Patrick.
Recent signs on Beacon Hill indicate to some that Deval Patrick is not quite the progressive, populist lefty that many of his supporters — and detractors — think he is.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 26, 2007

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