New Boston Herald presidential polls released this week indicate Jeb Bush is tied with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker among Republicans and Hillary Clinton is all alone on the Democratic side. Yet, for media watchers, what’s interesting about the polls is who theHerald is doing them with.
The Herald, which teamed up with Suffolk University’s David Paleologos for the 2013 Boston mayor’s race and last year’s governor’s campaign, jumped this year into a partnership with Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire. Franklin Pierce is headed by George W. Bush’s former chief of staff, Andrew Card, who took over in December.
The deal gives the Herald a ringside seat for the New Hampshire primary and a partner with the right connections to possibly host a presidential debate or two. The contract between the Herald and Franklin Pierce runs through early 2016.
Paleologos, Suffolk University’s pollster, said in a telephone interview that some local media organizations have reached out to him about polling partnerships but nothing has been decided. Suffolk officials say they may even do polling on their own for awhile. The university put out a poll on the GOP New Hampshire primary in late March that had Bush with a slight lead over Walker. Suffolk also does national polling for USA Today under a deal that runs through the end of the year.
Here’s the other major media-polling partnerships in town. The Boston Globe polls with Social Sphere of Cambridge, although the region’s biggest newspaper hasn’t done any polls of late. WBUR works with the MassINC Polling Group, which is partly owned by MassINC, the publisher of CommonWealth. WBZ-TV (Channel 4) had a polling relationship with UMass Amherst for last year’s governor’s race.
–BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
A high-stakes battle over rules governing the flow of legislation, playing out largely — but not entirely — out of public view, has put the brakes on the movement of bills on Beacon Hill and raised tensions between the House and the Senate. (CommonWealth)
State workers lobby against a Baker administration proposal to increase the employee share of health insurance premiums from 20 to 25 percent. (State House News)
House members are digging in to oppose Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposal to do away with the state film tax credit. (Boston Globe)
Jim Aloisi ponders civic pride in the context of the MBTA meltdown and the push for the Olympics. (CommonWealth)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
An Ipswich police officer accused of assaulting his girlfriend and another officer in 2013 works out a deal with the town to retire. (Salem News)
A former Chelsea Housing Authority administrator and consultant for the agency were found guilty of on fraud charges in connection with rigging the inspection schedule for apartments. (Boston Globe)
A Dorchester church holds a prayer service attended by Boston police officers who were at the scene of last Friday’s shooting of an officer. Also attending the service were friends of the man who police say opened fire on the officer and was then fatally shot by other officers. (Boston Herald)
OLYMPICS
The New York Times has a scathing look at the public relations disaster that is the Boston Olympics bid and says the US Olympic Committee tapped the Hub despite stronger public support in other bidding cities.
Inveterate Boston 2024 booster Shirley Leung tries to ride to the Games’ PR rescue by saying a new strategy (and firm) is needed to ride to the Games’ PR rescue after the mess made by Doug Rubin’s Northwind Strategies. She says the word is that Weber Shandwick, which actually has experience with Olympics promotion, will be that firm. (Boston Globe)
Scot Lehigh says providing an iron-clad guarantee that no public coffers will be exposed in the case of cost overruns is the biggest challenge facing Boston 2024 — and it is not one that will be easy to overcome. (Boston Globe)
CASINOS
The state Gaming Commission has decided to move forward for now with the process to license a casino in the southeast region despite expressing concerns about market oversaturation. (Brockton Enterprise)
MGM Springfield and the city’s Historical Commission come to terms over the fate of an old YMCA building. (MassLive)
Revere Mayor Dan Rizzo is calling for the state’s inspector general and attorney general to probe the recent MBTA sale of land to Wynn Resorts after a Baker administration official said the deal short-circuited the required environmental-impact review process for such a transaction. (Boston Globe)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Governing explores how the days of laissez-faire political tolerance when it comes to corruption are over, replaced by a new convoluted system where the rules are written to favor federal prosecutors.
Experts say the framework for the nuclear agreement the US and its allies have reached with Iran is an “all or nothing” proposition for President Obama and his foreign affairs legacy. (New York Times) Secretary of State John Kerry takes to the op-ed pages of his hometown paper to defend the agreement. (Boston Globe) The Herald’s Kimberly Atkins zeros in on what it means for Kerrys legacy. Tom Keane does the same in a lengthy piece for Politico.
Rhode Island officials have reached a tentative settlement agreement with six of the nine public unions that had filed suit in federal court to overturn a sweeping pension reform that saved the nearly bankrupt retirement fund. (New York Times)
Massachusetts state Sen. Eric Lesser will be celebrating Passover out of town tonight with some friends — in an expansive Washington home on Pennsylvania Avenue. (Boston Globe)
A former Maine lawmaker and mayor breaks up a Saco forum where Gov. Paul LePage was speaking and tosses a jar of Vaseline at the governor’s feet. LePage previously responded to a Democratic lawmaker’s criticism of his budget policies by suggesting he was giving it to voters without Vaseline. (Portland Press-Herald)
Indiana and Arkansas scale back their religious freedom laws to make clear anti-gay discrimination will not be tolerated and the five lessons we learned from the fracas. (US News & World Report)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Clear Channel Communications says it will take down billboard messages about gun violence under pressure from the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts and the National Rifle Association. (CommonWealth)
The owners of a bankrupt Rockland-based finance company that arranged loans for used cars for buyers who couldn’t qualify for regular loans have been charged by the US Attorney’s office with defrauding investors out of millions of dollars, including $11 million from a retirement fund. (Patriot Ledger)
The masters of the sports world pulling the decision-making strings at professional sports franchises are increasingly coming out of the consulting world — and Boston’s Bain Consulting is a top generator of that talent, reports the Globe’s Callum Borchers.
The CEO of Charity Navigator, the online watchdog that has a love-hate relationship with the nonprofit world, abruptly resigned after seven years and the group says it will find a leader with a deeper technology background. (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
EDUCATION
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, at a Boston appearance, pounds away again at the problem of rising student debt. (WBUR)
Quincy College is seeking legislative approval to become a four-year college and award bachelor’s degrees.(Patriot Ledger)
HEALTH CARE
Patriot Care Corp. finalizes a deal for a building in Lowell where it plans to grow and package medical marijuana. (The Sun)
TRANSPORTATION
A report from the Pioneer Institute says costs in the MBTA’s commuter rail system have risen far faster than those of the Philadelphia-area system. (Boston Globe)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and US Rep. Steve Lynch want federal officials to reconsider plans for a natural gas pipeline slated to run through West Roxbury and near an active quarry. (Boston Herald)
We are not alone and they are calling: Scientists have been baffled over the last several years by unexplained radio waves coming from outside our galaxy. (Greater Boston)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The director of a day care center at Bridgewater State University was placed on leave after a worker claimed she tried to keep allegations of rape by one of the student workers quiet and not report it to authorities as required by law. (Brockton Enterprise)
Prosecutors in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial rested their case Thursday. (Herald News)
A federal judge rules Lawrence officials are not liable for a former cop who raped a woman repeatedly in 2008. (Eagle-Tribune)
MEDIA
Eileen McNamara criticizes Mark Wahlberg for fast-tracking a movie about the Boston Marathon bombings. She says “Dorchester’s most famous former racist thug,” a Boston guy, fails to recognize that the city is not ready to deal with a Hollywood rendition of what is still a major trauma. (WBUR)
Business is booming at The Atlantic.
OH MY GOD! A Hunger Games theme park is on the drawing board in Dubai. (Time)