Campaign Contributions

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

Already the most reliably Democratic state in national politics, Massachusetts puts its money where its mouth is. The Commonwealth is a cash cow for the national Democratic Party, but it’s of only middling financial significance to the Republicans. As of June 3, Democratic and Republican national committees and congressional candidates raised $15 million in the(...)

Politics

Uncovering thirdparty candidates

By Dan Kennedy 1 Comment Aug 1, 2002

Carla Howell has been avoiding me. For the past several weeks I’ve been trying to interview her, only to be told by her staff that she was too busy to sit down and talk. So on a sunny Saturday afternoon in May I’ve come to check out a pro-gun rally on the Boston Common, where(...)

Uncategorized

Inching toward acceptance

By Chath Piersath 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

Le Petite Café, where I get my favorite French baguette sandwich, is a small, family-owned restaurant in an enclave of real estate agencies, cell phone providers, and medical offices at Pailin Plaza, the Cambodian business district on Middlesex Street. At lunchtime, I often gather among my fellow Cambodians, men and women of various ages. I(...)

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Whats the big idea

By Robert Keough 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

By any measure, the gubernatorial race of 2002 is shaping up as a watershed election. It could mark the end of the Weld-Cellucci-Swift era, a remarkable 12-year reign for the over-achieving standard-bearers of the state’s minority party. This would mean a return to the one-party rule of the 1980s, altering the dynamics of Beacon Hill(...)

Education/ Opinion

Where education reform has failed changing schools

By Edward Moscovitch 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

State education aid is up $2 billion from what it was in 1993, the year the state’s education reform law was enacted. While there’s little doubt that school programs are richer in countless ways and that quality education is now at the top of everyone’s radar screen, by any honest reckoning we haven’t got $2(...)

Politics

Tales of Massachusetts politics

By John C. Berg 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

Massachusetts Politics and Public Policy: Studies in Power and LeadershipBy Richard A. HogartyUniversity of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 356 pages In Massachusetts Politics and Public Policy: Studies in Power and Leadership, Richard A. Hogarty looks at politics with an emphasis on policy, on what works and what doesn¹t, and on the role of individual decisions. Hogarty(...)

Education/ Politics

In their opinion

The region's editorial-page chiefs have some choice words for gubernatorial hopefuls: Pay attention to housing, education, and telling the truth.

By Robert Keough 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

By Robert Keough Political campaigns have their rituals, one of which is a round of meetings with newspaper editorial boards. Before the summer is out, the various candidates for governor will make their pitches for the coveted endorsements of every local paper in the Commonwealth. But how much more fruitful might these conversations be if(...)

Education

What community colleges could learn from the nations best

By Richard Kazis 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

Across the country, community colleges are the fastest growing segment of public higher education. Close to half of all collegegoers now start their freshman year at a community college. In Massachusetts, community college enrollments rose almost 20 percent between 1997 and 2001; at Middlesex Community College, enrollments were at record levels in 2001-02, up 15(...)

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Counterpoint

By Jane Wallis Gumble 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

The legendary journalist H.L. Mencken once said, “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” If Mencken were alive and writing today, he could easily use that logic to describe the tactics used by Fall River city officials in their misguided attempt to demolish 100 state-aided public housing apartments(...)

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Argument

By Edward M. Lambert Jr. 0 Comments Aug 1, 2002

State housing policy in Massachusetts is a failure, not only for those individuals and families seeking affordable housing, but for the communities of the Commonwealth as well. What is needed is a plan to distribute the responsibility for housing more evenly while giving cities and towns the flexibility to meet local needs creatively within the(...)

Summer 2002

The region's editorial-page chiefs have some choice words for gubernatorial hopefuls: Pay attention to housing, education, and telling the truth.