DONALD TRUMP WAS elected president, upending the expectations set by virtually every poll going into Tuesday’s election. He won despite alienating and attacking everyone from Hispanics to Gold Star families, calling war hero (and fellow Republican) John McCain a loser, and boasting of his celebrity-fueled ability to grab women’s genitals at will.
None of it stopped him from a stunning upset over Hillary Clinton, perhaps because prognosticators expected her to win by virtue of being only the second most disliked major party nominee in recent memory.
President Obama famously said Clinton was “likeable enough” in their 2008 primary duel. Not yesterday.
Steve Koczela of the MassINC Polling Group and Politico’s Lauren Dezenski join The Codcast to take stock of the jaw-dropping turn of events.
They also help sort out Massachusetts election results that saw Gov. Charlie Baker land on the losing side of two high-profile ballot questions — whether to expand charter schools (voters said “no”) or legalize marijuana (high times are coming).
Ballot questions can be a tough sell when they raise complicated policy issues that many think are best left to the deliberative ways of the Legislature, and that was true for the charter question. Baker and other advocates wanted it to be about opportunity for low-income families; opponents used the campaign to rail against school funding that they say is already inadequate and would only be made worse if Question 2 passed.
Meanwhile, the marijuana outcome raises a host of complicated regulatory issues that the Legislature may have to take up after having punted to voters on the overall question of legalization.
Meet the Author
Executive Editor, CommonWealth
About Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. Before joining the CommonWealth staff in early 2001, he was a contributing writer for the magazine for two years. His cover story in CommonWealth's Fall 1999 issue on Boston youth outreach workers was selected for a PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Michael got his start in journalism at the Dorchester Community News, a community newspaper serving Boston's largest neighborhood, where he covered a range of urban issues. Since the late 1980s, he has been a regular contributor to the Boston Globe. For 15 years he wrote a weekly column on local politics for the Boston Sunday Globe's City Weekly section.
Michael has also worked in broadcast journalism. In 1989, he was a co-producer for "The AIDS Quarterly," a national PBS series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, and in the early 1990s, he worked as a producer for "Our Times," a weekly magazine program on WHDH-TV (Ch. 7) in Boston.
Michael lives in Dorchester with his wife and their two daughters.
About Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. Before joining the CommonWealth staff in early 2001, he was a contributing writer for the magazine for two years. His cover story in CommonWealth's Fall 1999 issue on Boston youth outreach workers was selected for a PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Michael got his start in journalism at the Dorchester Community News, a community newspaper serving Boston's largest neighborhood, where he covered a range of urban issues. Since the late 1980s, he has been a regular contributor to the Boston Globe. For 15 years he wrote a weekly column on local politics for the Boston Sunday Globe's City Weekly section.
Michael has also worked in broadcast journalism. In 1989, he was a co-producer for "The AIDS Quarterly," a national PBS series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, and in the early 1990s, he worked as a producer for "Our Times," a weekly magazine program on WHDH-TV (Ch. 7) in Boston.
Michael lives in Dorchester with his wife and their two daughters.
What do the ballot question outcomes mean politically for Baker, who is expected to seek reelection in two years? And why didn’t the first-term governor’s sky-high popularity rating give him the power of persuasion on the two issues?
Have a listen for a first take on those questions – and on what a Trump administration will mean for a Republican governor who blanked the top of his ballot and declared the man who is now president-elect unfit for office.
