By all rights, Regina McCarthy’s nomination by President Obama to head the Environmental Protection Agency should be sailing through the normally partisan-riven Senate. The Dorchester native and UMass Boston graduate is a career environmental official with a sensitivity toward businesses, having served under all four recent Republican governors in Massachusetts, including Mitt Romney. She received unanimous confirmation in the Senate for her current post as second in charge at the federal agency.
But none of that has stopped McCarthy from being used as the latest pawn in the increasingly intense standoffs between congressional Republicans and Obama as the GOP, thwarted at the voting booth, tries new ways to derail the administration’s agenda. McCarthy’s nomination brought it to a different level as Senate Republicans boycotted a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, denying the committee a quorum and the ability to take a vote to move the nomination to the floor.
While it’s certainly putting a crimp in McCarthy’s prospects, all of this posturing could also have a significant impact on the special Senate race underway in Massachusetts. Not only does it play into US Rep. Edward Markey’s strong suit on environmental issues, it creates yet another hurdle for GOP hopeful Gabriel Gomez, who is trying to fashion himself as a “different kind of Republican.” He might want to ask Scott Brown how that worked out for him.
Then-candidate Elizabeth Warren successfully tied the national Republican albatross around Brown’s neck, weighing down the popular senator who touted his centrist bona fides to no avail. Warren’s people were able to cement the message that a vote for Brown was a vote for Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader from Kentucky who’s about as popular in Massachusetts as Obama is in Texas. McConnell has strongly defended his colleagues’ boycott of McCarthy’s hearing, which will leave Gomez, whether he likes it or not, holding the bag over why a seemingly qualified Massachusetts-grown product can’t get a fair shake from his fellow Republicans.
Republicans say their action is in response to the EPA’s refusal to provide information to them, though Democrats dismiss that, claiming McCarthy has answered more than 1,000 questions from the minority party, an unprecedented level for a nominee. They say the action is proof-positive that the GOP is intent on obstructionism rather than governance.
Industry officials view McCarthy as a less strident overseer of the agency than the current EPA chief, Lisa Jackson. Though McCarthy has been a strong advocate for gas and carbon emission regulations, energy lobbyists see her as willing to keep an open mind and ear for their concerns.
The McCarthy pick is an “opportunity for the administration to reset relations with the industry by striking a better balance between environmental and economic issues and to develop a genuine, credible ‘all-of-the-above’ energy policy,” Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, told U.S. News & World Report.
But McCarthy is the new poster girl for ideological warfare. Obama’s nominee for labor secretary, Thomas Perez, is also being held up by Republicans looking for answers, and the ongoing GOP obsession with Benghazi torpedoed the nomination of Susan Rice as secretary of state, though John Kerry has no complaints.
If all 10 Democrats are present for the next environment committee hearing, they will have enough members to take a vote and move McCarthy’s nomination to the floor, even if no Republicans show up. But it’s uncertain whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can muster 60 votes if a filibuster ensues. And that would mean Gomez will have some explaining to do.
The two most recent Senate race polls, a WBUR poll done by MassINC Polling Group and another by Suffolk University/7News, show Gomez trailing Markey by 8 and 17 points, respectively. While pundits scratch their heads over why a former Navy SEAL, successful businessman, and fiscally conservative-socially moderate Republican can’t get a foothold in the bluest of states, they are overlooking the likelihood that the numbers are a reflection of the national party, not Gomez’s qualities. Bay State Democrats will be certain to once again hammer away that a vote for Gomez, like a vote for Brown, puts McConnell one step closer to running the Senate. That might be a hill too high to climb.
–JACK SULLIVAN
MARATHON BOMBINGS
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis testified in Washington that his department received no briefing from federal officials about their 2011 investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. NECN has video. Read Davis’s remarks here.
Dorchester’s Richard family released a heart-wrenching statement detailing their anguish and the progress injured members of the family have made since the Marathon bombings that claimed the life of 8-year-old Martin Richard.
A team of Israeli mental health professionals, seasoned in dealing with those traumatized by terrorist attacks, has been in the Boston area helping those affected by the Marathon bombings.
BEACON HILL
Towns are finding a way to pay for artificial turf fields with Community Preservation Act funds despite a state law prohibiting such payments, CommonWealth reports.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
After two recessions, Boston has a slimmed-down payroll, WBUR reports.
Jack Yunits, the former mayor of Brockton, offers some Gateway City insights in his book, Urban Mayor, reviewed here in the latest issue of CommonWealth.
New Bedford city councilors want to up the fines and increase enforcement for owners of unleashed dogs fouling up the city’s playgrounds.
The Republican backs a pay raise for the mayor of Springfield.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s first piece of legislation would let students borrow money at the same rate as banks borrow from the federal government, Time reports.
ELECTIONS
Republican Senate hopeful Gabriel Gomez says he won’t release more information on the $280,000 historic preservation tax deduction he claimed in 2005 on his Cohasset home.
“I don’t need to catch lightning in a bottle,” Gomez says, explaining why he isn’t the Latino Scott Brown.
Voters in Norwell and Hanover will be hard-pressed to perform their civic duty tomorrow: There are no contested races for any of the offices on the ballots.
Former California lieutenant governor Abel Maldonado, a Republican, signals he plans to run for governor on a platform focusing on the danger of Gov. Jerry Brown’s prison reforms, which include a requirement that lower-level felons and parole violators be held by county jails rather than state prisons.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Greater Boston looks at the business of “Boston Strong” with at least one company trying to trademark the slogan and booming sales of hats, tee shirts, and wristbands have kept cash registers ringing.
The Globe reports that a number of Massachusetts life sciences companies could go public this year, as the rising stock market buoys the hopes of start-ups.
Target pulls out of a pair of Boston development projects.
EDUCATION
Scot Lehigh finds supporters, opponents, and one glaring case of waffle-itis when he checks with a sample of Boston mayoral candidates to see whether they’d support raising or lifting the cap on charter schools. He also finds the current officeholder uninterested in the findings from any stinkin’ research study on charters.
With the state takeover of Lawrence’s schools, few bother to run for the city’s school committee, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Time-lapse satellite photography shows four areas on the planet changing dramatically over several decades.
There’s something in the air in Quincy — and it’s not pleasant. Officials are trying to determine what is causing a constant foul smell emanating from the harbor near the city’s Squantum section.
A Somerset tire service owner has been indicted on charges his business violated state vehicle emissions regulations and fraudulently issued dozens of inspection stickers to unqualified commercial vehicles.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
A judge orders the Methuen High School student accused of making a terrorist threat on Facebook held without bail for up to 90 days, calling him a threat to the community, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
A former Boston deputy fire chief was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty yesterday of posing as a state trooper and raping and kidnapping women at gunpoint in the Brockton area over an 11-year period.
Hackers grab $45 million in an ATM card breach, the Associated Press reports (via Telegram & Gazette).
Alleged Connecticut mobster Robert Gentile had a list of paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, each with an assigned value, at his home. Gentile was sentenced yesterday on federal narcotics and weapons charges.
MEDIA
The nonprofit investigative journalism site ProPublica has launched an online search tool for the tax filings of charities and foundations. Via Chronicle of Philanthropy. The database shows Massachusetts ranks fifth in total nonprofit revenue at $94.3 billion, with Partners HealthCare the Bay State leader at $9.6 billion.
New York magazine argues that Joel Stein’s Time cover story on millennial hopelessness forgets what Tom Wolfe showed a generation ago — anyone can complain about how These Kids Today are worthless layabouts, but if a writer can’t wrap this old complaint with skillful storytelling, nobody wants to listen.