MASS-A-CHOOSE-ITS — Welcome to a not-so-Super Tuesday in the Bay State, where the hottest ballot battles are for party committees. Here are six contests we’re keeping an eye on: HALEY’S LAST HOPE — Nikki Haley’s delegate math isn’t mathing. Massachusetts holds some potentially good news for her: More than 15,000 Democrats have switched their voter registration to either unenrolled or Republican since Jan. 1. The percentage of voters who are unenrolled — meaning they can vote in either party’s primary — now stands at nearly 64 percent. Secretary of State Bill Galvin predicts turnout in the GOP primary — which stood at 168,779 on Monday afternoon — will exceed 400,000 today. But he doesn’t expect it’ll reach the record 637,000-plus votes cast in the 2016 GOP primary that Donald Trump won. That could spell trouble for Haley, who needs to expand the electorate if she has any chance of winning here and across the map — especially now that the Supreme Court has ruled states can't bar Trump from primary ballots. A PREFERENCE FOR NO PREFERENCE — An 11th-hour effort to convince Democratic primary voters to select “no preference” on their ballots to rebuke Joe Biden’s support for Israel and to press for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza is unlikely to keep the president from cruising to victory here. Still, organizers sent 21,000 texts to voters in the last three days and are planning to send “tens of thousands more” before polls close today. They don’t have a benchmark for success. But, as organizer Lara Jirmanus told reporters on Monday, Biden needs “to come into line with what the base is demanding” and “if there is any state it should be safe to send a message in the primary, it is Massachusetts.” THE GOP INFIGHTING CONTINUES — Control of the state GOP could again change hands based on the results of today’s Republican State Committee races, where a slate of conservative candidates backed by former state Rep. Geoff Diehl and past party Chair Jim Lyons is attempting to win enough seats to overthrow what they see as the party’s “dysfunctional” current leadership. High turnover and personal grudges have led to a series of downright ugly races in which one candidate’s anti-Semitic views attracted the attention of Rolling Stone and at least two others have seen criminal charges they've faced smeared across social media. At least one possible campaign finance violation was reported to state regulators, according to a person familiar with the complaint. And in promoting competing slates, two key players in conservative circles — Diehl and radio host and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr — have turned the contests that could decide Amy Carnevale’s future as party chair into a proxy battle in their personal war. Carnevale faces her own challenger today, though she can technically continue serving as party chair even if she loses her committee seat. DEMS' DOWN-BALLOT DRAMA — Democratic State Committee seats are also up for grabs today. But one of the party’s most competitive races is even further down the ballot — for the Framingham Democratic Committee. Fissures among Democratic activists — inflamed by last year’s abortion imbroglio — have led to competing slates of candidates in a contest that’s pitting two of the city’s state representatives and several of its councilors against each other. Leaders of the slate known as “Group 2” — which includes state Rep. Priscila Sousa, City Councilor George King and School Committee Chair Jessica Barnhill — want to bring new leadership to a committee they say has been too insular and inaccessible to newcomers. But members of “Group 1” — which includes the committee’s current co-chairs and other incumbents like state Rep. Jack Lewis and former Mayor Yvonne Spicer — maintain that the rift is more about past politics than fresh faces. HOUSE SPECIAL — Here’s something Republicans can all get behind: The party is on track to win its second straight special legislative election, with Dudley Selectman John Marsi running unopposed for the 6th Worcester seat left open by now-state Sen. Peter Durant. CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' — Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley are also facing off today — in California, where they’re backing different candidates in that state’s U.S. Senate primary. Warren is supporting one of her protégés, Rep. Katie Porter, while Pressley is pulling for Rep. Barbara Lee. GOOD SUPER TUESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Polls close at 8 p.m. Here’s your list of candidates. And we’ll have results from the presidential primaries here. TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey makes a veterans’ housing announcement with Rep. Stephen Lynch, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, state Sen. Lydia Edwards and other local officials at 1:30 p.m. at the New England Center and Home for Veterans. Wu speaks at the William E. Carter School topping-off ceremony at 11:30 a.m. in the South End and attends the Boston Bruins Heritage Hall ribbon cutting at 2:30 p.m. in the West End. Galvin votes in Brighton at 9:30 a.m. Trump backers will hold a watch party at the Inn at Bay Pointe in Quincy tonight. The state Democratic Party is throwing its shindig at Boston's Bell in Hand Tavern. Send us the results in your state and local committee races: lkashinsky@politico.com and kgarrity@politico.com.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment