Connect with us

Massachusetts

Massachusetts GOP candidates differ on Trump, border and how they’ll take on Elizabeth Warren

Published

on

Massachusetts GOP candidates differ on Trump, border and how they’ll take on Elizabeth Warren


BOSTON – The three Republicans competing for the right to take on Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a fight for Massachusetts’s U.S. Senate seat debated which of them was a “real” Republican rather than a “RINO” – Republican In Name Only. The GOP candidates met in their only TV debate at the WBZ-TV studios.

Will the candidates support Donald Trump?

Each candidate was asked if they will support Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as he aims to return to the White House.

“The big differentiating litmus test is whether someone supports the head of the ticket, which is why I’m wearing this hat,” said engineer Robert Antonellis, pointing to his bright red Make America Great Again hat. “I’m the one on the stage here who plans to vote for Donald Trump in November, and he’s the head of the ticket.”

“For me, this is about pro-growth,” said Quincy City Council President Ian Cain, who acknowledged being an unenrolled voter and a registered Democrat at times in the past. “This is about getting back to respect and rule of law. This is back to smaller government.”

Advertisement

“People ask, ‘Are you a Donald Trump Republican, John, or are you a Charlie Baker Republican?’ And my answer is always, ‘I’m a John Deaton Republican,’” said John Deaton, an attorney who has also been registered as a Democrat and an independent. “When I get to the United States Senate, I’m going to have one test, and that is, is it good for Massachusetts and America? If it is, I’m all in; it doesn’t matter who the president is.”

Border Security

The candidates were asked how they would have voted on last winter’s bipartisan budget deal to tighten border security that died in Congress without a vote after Senate Republicans answered Trump’s call to kill it.

Deaton said he would have voted for the bill “because it stopped the bleeding. It’s not a perfect bill…[but] James Lankford was voted number two most conservative United States Senator, and he wrote that bill. It’s not perfect, but you have to stop the bleeding, and that’s what I mean by loyalty – loyalty to the Constitution of the country, not a person, not a party.”

Antonellis disagreed. “It was a red herring. No wonder John supports it. Donald Trump was against it. It could be solved with a phone call from the White House. In other words, all the executive orders that Biden signed mere moments after taking the pen in the White House, January 20, he unraveled that border, and Donald Trump could fix it immediately. … And how many transgender bathrooms were in that bill? We don’t even know. They put all kinds of stuff into these bills.”

Cain also said he would not have supported what he called “a Chuck Schumer progressive open border bill” because it doesn’t get to the heart of the matter. “If you talk to voters across Massachusetts, irrespective of their party affiliation, illegal immigration is the number one issue on their minds. People are looking for, again, a sensible solution to closing the border, adjudicating the backlog of illegal immigrants that have arrived here to this country, ending the catch-and-release program, and then figuring out how to get back to a normal, legal immigration pathway for people that want to come here the right way.”

Advertisement

Taking on Elizabeth Warren

The candidates sparred on other issues, but on one topic there was solidarity.

“Elizabeth Warren has her fingerprints on every single horrible deed, everything coming from the White House, and so she is very complicit in the destruction of our society that we’re all living through today,” said Antonellis. “So whether it’s the border collapse, whether it’s crime, whether it’s inflation, whether it’s the attack on womanhood, or even the attack on our environment … she has been absolutely directly involved with.”

“She has been one of the most divisive members of the U.S. Senate since her time there. She is actually not only part of the reason that Washington is frozen, but she’s part of the reason why we’re deeply divided,” said Cain. “She uses her partisanship and her extreme partisanship to divide people. She pits people against identity. She pits classes against each other.”

Added Deaton: “She’s great at fighting against the rich and the wealthy. That is not the same as fighting for the poor and the middle class. I want to uplift people. I want to bring people up, expand the middle class, bring people out of poverty, like I brought myself out of poverty… I can do that without tearing people down… and she is the queen of finger-pointing politics.”

You can watch the debate in its entirety by clicking in the video player above.

Advertisement



Source link

Advertisement

Massachusetts

Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit

Published

on

Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit


Twenty-eight lawmakers dissented Wednesday as the Massachusetts House voted to set new terms around what state Auditor Diana DiZoglio would be able to review in the legislative audit voters authorized her to carry out in 2024.

Almost all House Democrats voted for the measure, which also proposes to make more state government records accessible to the public. Three Democrats — Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly, Attleboro Rep. Jim Hawkins and Fall River Rep. Alan Silvia — joined the body’s 25 Republicans in voting no.

Speaker Ron Mariano said the bill responds to an ongoing call from voters for more transparency out of Beacon Hill and provides a path forward in lieu of a what he called “politically motivated audit conducted in violation of the Constitution.”

Leaders of the House and Senate have resisted DiZoglio’s audit push, arguing that a probe by the auditor’s office would run afoul of the separation of powers laid out in the state Constitution, bringing the legislative branch under the review of a piece of the executive branch.

Advertisement

“We are not accountable to any constitutional officer,” said Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat. “We are only accountable to our constituents.”

Taunton Rep. Lisa Field, a Democrat in her first term, said she was among the 72% of Massachusetts voters who backed the audit ballot question in 2024.

“Due to legitimate concerns and questions about constitutional privileges and separation of powers, we have been stuck on this audit issue for more than a year,” Field said. “Let’s not be like Washington, D.C. and accept such gridlock — not about the audit and not about public records. Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good progress.”

The House’s bill would authorize DiZoglio to review what it defines as the “administrative functions” of the Legislature, going back to the 2021 fiscal year. Those areas include the adoption of annual budgets, official audits of the House and Senate by independent firms, spending by both chambers, and the execution of any financial settlements with lawmakers and employees.

It would also newly apply the state’s public records law to the governor’s office, and create a process by which people could request and receive certain legislative files.

Advertisement

Massachusetts is currently the only state where the Legislature, governor and judiciary all claim to be exempt from the public records law.

Warren Republican Rep. Todd Smola described the process that led up to Wednesday’s vote as opaque in and of itself. Mariano last week said the House would take up what he called comprehensive transparency legislation, but did not say when or what, specifically, the bill would do.

The bill was circulated to members of the House Ways and Means Committee around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and committee members had a little over a half hour to vote on whether to advance it. Smola, the ranking Republican on the committee, said during that 34-minute window, “we had members on both sides of the political aisle that were calling each other back and forth to say, ‘Can you explain this portion to me?’”

“We are so much better than the process that has unfolded,” he said. “And for the sake of people that are asking us for transparency, that is not transparency. That’s the opposite of transparency.”

Rep. Michael Soter, a Bellingham Republican, said he was particularly concerned with a part of the bill that removes the courts from settling disputes between the auditor and the Legislature.

Advertisement

He said that by setting its own rules around an audit, the House would be “ensuring the auditor can only see exactly what we allow her to see and nothing more.”

It’s not clear yet if the Senate will pass the bill. Last week, state senators voted to turn over a limited set of documents to DiZoglio. The documents the Senate plans to provide mirror the records she would be allowed to review under the House bill.

Asked if he expected the Senate to agree to the legislation, Mariano on Tuesday said only, “I talked to the Senate.”



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Massachusetts

French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston

Published

on

French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston


BOSTON, MA — An international restaurant group with locations across the globe is preparing to open its first Massachusetts restaurant this year.

LPM Restaurant & Bar, a French Riviera-inspired restaurant founded in London, is set to open on the second floor of the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street in Back Bay, according to Four Seasons. The hotel lists the restaurant as “Opening Summer 2026,” while the Boston Business Journal reported the restaurant plans to open in September.

The Boston restaurant will mark LPM’s debut in the Northeast and its third U.S. outpost, following locations in Miami and Las Vegas, according to a Four Seasons announcement.

LPM, also known as La Petite Maison, was founded in London in 2007 and is known for French-Mediterranean food, Mediterranean ingredients and dining rooms influenced by Belle Époque design.

Advertisement

The business operates locations in London, Dubai, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Riyadh, Limassol, Doha, Mykonos, Kuwait, Boston, Maldives and Bangkok.

Four Seasons said LPM will take over the space that formerly housed One Dalton’s breakfast concept, One + One. The restaurant will join other dining options at the hotel, including Zuma and Trifecta.

See Also:





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Massachusetts

Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer

Published

on

Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer


A Massachusetts high school is under investigation after “several” teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions.

The state Department of Public Health is set to visit Uxbridge High School on Thursday to “conduct a series of air quality tests,” to determine whether the multiple cases are potentially connected.

Superintendent David Ljungberg and Principal Michael Rubin alerted families and district staff on Monday of the “sombering news,” after Uxbridge High School’s graduation over the weekend.

“We are writing to inform you about a concern we are investigating at Uxbridge High School,” Ljungberg and Rubin stated in the letter. “Several female teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions over the past few years.”

Advertisement

“It is, of course, possible that these multiple cases are not connected to one another,” the leaders added, “but out of abundance of caution, we are looking into any environmental factors at the school that may be a factor in their diagnoses.”

The 123,000-square-foot school, with an enrollment of roughly 600, was constructed in 2012 at a cost of $45 million, including a $22-million state reimbursement.

Uxbridge school leaders say they notified the state Department of Health and local health board as soon as they became aware of the cases, seeking “counsel about how best to proceed.”

“Massachusetts DPH officials have indicated that there is no evidence of immediate danger in the building and no reason to limit access to or use of the facility at this time,” they wrote in their letter. “In fact, the public health officials have commended our decision to approach them with these concerns, our readiness to partner with them in support of the evaluation process.”

Health officials are assessing the school’s interior and exterior to “ensure there are no issues with the infrastructure that would present risks (including electrical, plumbing, mechanical, HVAC, and other systems)” and the indoor and outdoor air quality on campus.

Advertisement

The superintendent and principal said that state officials have ruled out water supply as a “risk factor” after “thorough testing.”

“The team has reached out to the women who have been diagnosed, requesting data to evaluate whether there may be a connection among their cases,” Ljungberg and Rubin wrote. “We are grateful for their cooperation.”

They added that the state has said discovering an environmental “smoking gun” is “rare” in workplace investigations.

“However, even if a direct causal link is not established,” the leaders wrote, “the administration is utilizing this process to rigorously test the building and guarantee that it meets all safety standards moving forward.”

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending