Massachusetts
After former chair’s ouster, conservative Republicans eye retaking control of Mass. GOP – The Boston Globe
For years, the state party has been bitterly split between conservatives led by former party chairman Jim Lyons and a more moderate, establishment wing once led by former governor Charlie Baker. Now, as many as 35 of the committeeâs current members are not seeking reelection to a four-year term, including many who hail from that more moderate faction.
The vacancies have primed the committee for major turnover and could potentially threaten the leadership of first-term chair Amy Carnevale at a time when the party is trying to find its footing after suffering years of electoral losses, accumulating hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and becoming the focus of state investigations.
Enter the âMassachusetts Freedom Slate,â a wide-ranging list of more than 70 conservative candidates who have been promoted by Geoff Diehl, a former state lawmaker, the partyâs gubernatorial nominee in 2022, and a leader of its more conservative wing. At least 24 incumbents have been endorsed as Freedom Slate members, and dozens of other new candidates have also won backing of the group, including 18 who are challenging other sitting committee members.
While it was not clear who organized the group or picked which candidates it endorsed, Diehl wrote in a fund-raising email that he is supporting the whole slate, saying they are the âconservatives candidatesâ in their races and share his âvision of growing the Republican Party.â The groupâs website derides the current committee as âdysfunctionalâ and âfailing,â and critiques the partyâs fund-raising as having âfallen off a cliff.â
Lyons, whom Carnevale beat last year for chair, has also publicly supported several âFreedom Slateâ candidates, including through formal endorsements. Dennis Galvin, a state committee member who is seeking reelection, said Lyons was âcooperativeâ in his own race, and has been involved in others, though he wasnât sure to what degree.
âHeâs actively involved in the state committee races,â Galvin said.
Efforts to reach Lyons and Diehl were not successful.
Carnevale herself is facing a challenge for her state committee seat from a âFreedom Slateâ candidate, who is also the chair of the Lynn Republican City Committee. Janet Fogarty, the partyâs national committeewoman, is also facing a challenge for her state committee post.
âThereâs a feeling [in] the establishment wing of the Mass. GOP that we need to keep bending to the calls to be more moderate,â said Bob May, a former congressional candidate who is challenging a North Shore incumbent for a committee seat and has been endorsed by Lyons. âWeâre conservatives. Weâre not going to be pulled to the left simply because thatâs the way you think youâre going to win more elections.â
Voters in each of the 40 state Senate districts elect a woman and man to serve on the committee, making it difficult even for party insiders to predict how the outcome of these races might immediately impact the panelâs make-up. A number of state committee members predicted the bodyâs ideological balance may ultimately change little.
State law does not require candidates or other entities involved in the state committee races to submit public filings with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance disclosing their donors or spending on those races. That, too, makes it nearly impossible to track how much money is flowing through the contests, or who is giving it.
Even some of the candidates who had been endorsed by the Freedom Slate group said they were not sure who had decided to endorse them or why.
The committee races can have wide political consequences, from helping determine who may emerge as party chair in next yearâs election to where the state party focuses its resources in this fallâs elections when a likely rematch between President Biden and Donald Trump will top the ballot.
Committee elections have in the past served as a front in the Mass. GOPâs own internal battles. Baker twice raised and deployed significant money in attempts to shape the 80-seat committee, with varying success. Baker later clashed publicly with Lyons, who twice won election as party chair over candidates more friendly to the then-governor.
Itâs not clear, however, that the advertised slate of conservative candidates would even function as a bloc. State Representative David F. DeCoste, a Norwell Republican endorsed as a âFreedom Slateâ candidate, said he backs Carnevale as chair and suspects the push behind the slate is motivated by a desire to eventually replace her. Asked who organized the slate, DeCoste said he âcould only guess.â
âI donât see this as a left-versus-right thing,â DeCoste said. âThe race is between those who are supporting competent management and those who are [supporting] going back to inept management.â
A longtime state committee member from Marblehead, Carnevale has served as a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention and has sought to bridge divides after years of polarization, internal lawsuits, and a steady drumbeat of electoral losses under Lyons.
Carnevale has remained a target for some of Lyonsâ most ardent supporters, including some who are pushing for her ouster. Some Republicans are eyeing a routine vote in which the newly elected committee must ratify the chair mid-term after the state committee elections as an opportunity to knock Carnevale off.
âThe politics will play themselves out. Iâm trying not to focus too much on the elections or get distracted,â Carnevale said.
The candidate challenging Carnevale for her committee seat, Lynnâs Maria Pia Perez, described herself as âan America First individualââ a popular motto of former president Trump. She also said she is an immigrant, though she declined to say from where she emigrated. In a pitch on a local television station, she said her campaign is built, in part, on âsuppressing the progressive socialist takeover.â
âWe need a new face and a new energy [on the committee] to really address the issues that are happening at the local level,â Perez said in an interview with the Globe.
Some of those choosing to leave the state committee represent the partyâs more establishment wing. Matthew Sisk, a 20-year veteran of the state committee who has advised Republican governors and worked for a time in Bakerâs administration, said he would not seek re-election because âthe foundation of the Republican Party in Massachusetts has been crumbling under the weight of the extreme politics of Donald Trump.â
âI, like so many moderate Massachusetts Republicans, feel there is no longer a place for us in the party,â Sisk told the Globe.
Mike Valanzola, who also hews closer to the establishment wing of the party and supported Carnevaleâs election last year, said he, too, was tired of the divisive politics on the state committee.
âThe last four years dealing with Jim and his agenda were exhausting,â said Valanzola, who is also choosing not to seek reelection.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout. Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her @emmaplatoff.
Massachusetts
New Bedford MS-13 Member, Illegal Alien Pleads Guilty to Role in Brutal Murders In Massachusetts, Virginia
Frankli
Police shot and killed a man who officials say rushed officers with a knife during a call in Lexington, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said the situation started around 1:40 p.m. when Lexington police received a 911 call from a resident of Mason Street reporting that his son had injured himself with a knife.
Officers from the Lexington Police Department and officers from the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC), who were already in town for Patriots’ Day events, responded to the call.
Police were able to escort two other residents out of the home, initially leaving a 26-year-old man inside. According to Ryan, while officers were setting up outside, the man ran out of the home and approached officers with a large kitchen knife.
She added that police tried twice to use non-lethal force, but it was not effective in stopping him. The man was shot by a Wilmington police officer who is a member of NEMLEC. The man was pronounced dead on scene and the officer who fired that shot was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
The man’s name has not been released.
Ryan said typically in a call like this where someone was described as harming themselves, officers would first try to separate anyone else to keep them out of danger, which was done, and then standard practice would be to try to wait outside.
“It would be their practice to just wait for the person to come out. In the terrible circumstances of today, he suddenly rushed the officers, still clutching the knife,” Ryan said.
The investigation is still in the preliminary stages and more information is expected in time. Ryan said her office will request a formal inquest from the court to review whether any criminal conduct has occurred, which is the standard process.
This happened around the same time as the annual Patriots’ Day Parade, and just hours after a reenactment of the Battle of Lexington, which drew large crowds to town.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Massachusetts
‘An impossible choice’: With little federal help to combat rising costs, Head Start looks to Massachusetts for more help – The Boston Globe
In Massachusetts, roughly 1,300 slots for children across Head Start’s 28 agencies have been eliminated in the last three years because federal funding has plateaued over that time, while the cost of running the program continues to rise, according to the Massachusetts Head Start Association. Nationally, Head Start enrollment dropped from 1.1 million kids in 2013 to around 785,000 in 2022, according to research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
“If they didn’t get into a Head Start program, they would be sitting at home,” said Brittany Acosta, a Head Start parent in Dorchester.
It’s teachers are drastically underpaid, and there’s a serious need for a rainy day-type fund should the federal government shut down again, the association says. As they’ve done in years past, state lawmakers have offered to provide financial relief, but the Massachusetts Head Start Association’s request for 3 percent above the amount it received last year, an additional $4.6 million to help its staff keep up with the state’s rising cost of living, so far has not been allocated.
Last year, President Trump’s leaked budget proposal revealed he considered eliminating Head Start entirely. Then, in the summer, he cut off Head Start enrollment for immigrants without legal status. And during the fall’s government shutdown, four Head Start centers in Massachusetts closed because they couldn’t access their funding.
Trump’s latest budget proposal shows a fourth year without increasing funding for the program, which was established in the mid-1960s.
Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, said the program doesn’t want to eliminate more child slots than it already has, but paying teachers a competitive salary is equally important in order to keep them from leaving for higher paying jobs. Head Start teachers make under $50,000 annually compared to over $85,000 for the average Massachusetts kindergarten teacher.
“It’s an impossible choice,” Haimowitz said. “When we reduce the size of our programs, we’re not reducing the size of the need.”
Massachusetts is one of few states that supplements federal funding for Head Start, and last year it increased the program’s state grant from $5 million to $20 million, adding to the $189 million in federal aid it receives in this state.
“We can’t run a program without giving staff a raise for three years,” Haimowitz said. “Our next fight now is not just for survival, but it’s for thriving and growth.”
The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday released its budget, which doesn’t grant Head Start’s request of a 3 percent boost. But state Representative Christopher Worrell filed an amendment for additional funding. Worrell, whose district covers parts of Dorchester and Roxbury, said he loves Head Start’s embrace of culture, recalling one visit to a center where he could smell staff cooking stew chicken, a traditional Caribbean dish.
“I’ve been to dozens of schools throughout the district, and you don’t get that home-cooked meal,” Worrell said. “[The state is] stepping up and doing the best we can with what we have.”
At the Action for Boston Community Development’s Head Start and Early Head Start center in Dorchester, the children of Classroom 7 arrived one Monday morning and dove into bins of magnetic tiles before their teachers, Paola Polanco and Leolina Rasundar Chinnappa, served breakfast. Acosta dropped off her 4-year-old daughter, Violeta, before reporting to her teaching position at the center, where several other Head Start parents also work.
“It’s important for all Head Start parents to have the opportunity to give their child an experience in a learning environment before they actually start kindergarten,” Acosta said.
Beyond providing early education and care to children of low-income families, from birth to age 5, the program helps them access other resources, including mental health services, SNAP benefits, homelessness assistance, and employment opportunities.
It also serves as daycare for parents who might not be able to afford it, while they’re at work.
Research has shown the importance of preschool in a child’s development with one 2023 study, focused on Boston public preschools, finding that it improves student behavior and increases the likelihood of high school graduation and college enrollment.
For Rickencia Clerveaux and Christopher Mclean, the Dorchester Head Start center is the only place they feel comfortable sending their 3-year-old son, Shontz, who is on the autism spectrum. Shontz’s stimming — repetitive movements that stimulate the senses — has reduced, and his speech has improved since he joined the center in 2024, Clerveaux said.
His parents say he’s also come out of his shell. Mclean now drops his son off and gets a simple “bye” as Shontz joins his classmates, he said.
He and Clerveaux said they appreciate the specialized attention Shontz can receive from teachers, such as when staff identified that Shontz might have hearing issues. His parents were able to follow up with their doctor and get Shontz to have surgery to improve his hearing.
“It’s a safe net for parents,” Clerveaux said. “There’s so many ways that him being here helps him grow better.”
Without Head Start, Clerveaux said a lot of pressure would be put on parents to find care for their children, “knowing that they’re already struggling or not getting the ends to meet.”
“That’s a burden for everybody in the community,” she said. “If there’s no funding, there’s no daycare and parents cannot work.”
Lauren Albano can be reached at lauren.albano@globe.com. Follow her on X @LaurenAlbano_.
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