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Massachusetts governor’s poll shows GOP candidates competing for undecided voters

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Massachusetts governor’s poll shows GOP candidates competing for undecided voters


The GOP’s Mike Kennealy is polling ahead of his two rivals in the race against Gov. Maura Healey in next year’s election, but it’s too early to take a victory lap with many voters still on the sidelines.

Kennealy holds 44% of the vote over primary opponents Brian Shortsleeve and Mike Minogue, both sitting at 13%. More than half of the would-be Republican or Independent voters in the poll, however, said they don’t know enough about the candidates to pick a side.

The Kennealy campaign is celebrating the UMass poll, released this week, as Shortsleeve questions the survey’s credibility, and Minogue points to donations as a stronger indicator of how Bay State Republicans are leaning a year out from the election.

UMass pollsters surveyed 800 respondents, with 416 Democrats and 183 Republicans or pure independents. Healey, the Democrat incumbent, leads each of the three GOP candidates by at least 21%.

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“This poll confirms what we have been hearing in every corner of the Commonwealth: voters recognize that Mike Kennealy is the only candidate prepared to take on Maura Healey in 2026 and deliver real results,” Kennealy campaign manager Ben Hincher said in a statement.

“Mike will lower energy costs for Massachusetts families, cut taxes and burdensome regulations, audit the legislature, end sanctuary state policies, restore excellence in our schools, and return common sense to state government.”

Roughly a third of the respondents voting in a preview of the Republican primary stated that they were “not too familiar” with Kennealy, Shortsleeve and Minogue, and 19% “not familiar at all” with the GOP candidates.

Kennealy, a former housing and economic development secretary in Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration, first entered the race in April. Shortsleeve, a venture capitalist who ran the MBTA under Baker, followed behind, announcing his campaign in May.

Minogue, a major donor to President Trump and former CEO of heart-pump maker Abiomed Inc., jumped into the race last month.

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In an email to supporters, Jim Barnett, general consultant for the Shortsleeve campaign, said the poll shouldn’t be taken seriously. He argued that the survey of Republican and Independent voters of the GOP candidates lacks credibility, with the rigor being “embarrassingly shallow,” and that the results “should have never been released.”

Barnett suggested that general election results, which pit Shortsleeve as the closest opponent individually to Healey over Kennealy and Minogue, are “far more credible.”

“Those toplines align with historic partisan margins at this stage of a campaign and other independent polling,” Barnett stated. “In contrast, the ‘Republican primary’ subsample lacks proper screening, weighting, and mathematical coherence, making it unfit for analysis or reporting.”

After Minogue announced his campaign in October, the South Hamilton resident received a $1.8 million first-month haul, nearly matching what Kennealy has raised and loaned himself during his months-long run since the spring.

Shortsleeve has raised just over $1 million.

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“Mike is incredibly grateful for the support his campaign is seeing across Massachusetts with hundreds of volunteers and twice as many donors as the rest of the Republican field,” a Minogue campaign spokesperson told the Herald. “In just 21 days, he’s already passing lifetime politicians who’ve been in the race for more than half a year. People are ready for a new kind of leadership focused on accountability, affordability, and opportunity for every family in our state.”



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Massachusetts

Police to address Princeton death during child sexual abuse material investigation

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Police to address Princeton death during child sexual abuse material investigation


Authorities will speak Friday after a death occurred while police were serving a search warrant for child sexual abuse material in Princeton, Massachusetts.

The subject of the search warrant “was a person of trust in communities in Worcester and Middlesex Counties,” Massachusetts State Police said.

Authorities said little about the case ahead of the press conference, which will begin at 6 p.m. and be streamed in the player above.

State police will be hosting the conference, which will include Princeton Police Chief Paul Patricia, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.

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Check back for more as this story develops.



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Mass. unveils $250 million in subsidies to protect residents from premium hikes – The Boston Globe

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Mass. unveils 0 million in subsidies to protect residents from premium hikes – The Boston Globe


Audrey Morse Gasteier, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, said the financial bulwark that benefited 270,000 residents is “part of the reason that we’re hanging in there in terms of enrollment and keeping people covered.”

But Thursday’s announcement won’t translate into any additional help.

Healey’s news conference coincided with the beginning of an election year in which three Republicans are vying for her job and voters are expected to be particularly focused on the state’s high cost of living. One survey last year found Massachusetts had the second highest cost of living in the country. People who saw their insurance premiums increase this year said it was one pricey bill amid an onslaught of growing expenses.

“I can’t believe how much it is when we go to the grocery store. Our electricity has gone up,“ said Judith O’Gara, whose family was hit with a $400 increase a month in insurance premiums for their ACA plan in January. ”We were just bracing ourselves to try to stretch the paycheck further.”

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O’Gara, of Millis, is a part-time editor at community newspapers, and her husband is a self-employed computer animator and mural artist. She has added hours at work, she said, but it still wasn’t enough to qualify for health coverage through her employer, leaving the couple to buy insurance through the connector.

Healey also used the news conference to weigh in on a high-profile effort in Congress to revive the federal subsidies. Also on Thursday, the US House, with help from 17 Republican defectors facing competitive reelection races, passed a bill that would extend the subsidies for another three years. A small group of senators is considering proposing their own extension of the subsidies.

“We need to see people in Congress step up and take action and fight the president on this and get him to focus on the domestic agenda and how to make life more affordable for people,” Healey said.

The governor said she didn’t announce the influx of funds earlier because she had hoped Congress would act before the end of 2025.

“We gave up until the deadline to see if they take action,” she said.

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ACA open enrollment extends through Jan. 23.

The infusion of funds from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund brings the state’s total commitment to the insurance marketplace to $600 million, which Healey said is the largest support from any state in the country.

Federally subsidized insurance policies were first made available to people making less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $128,600 for a family of four, in 2009 under President Barack Obama’s ACA, also known as Obamacare. In 2021, Congress made those subsidies more generous for many recipients and extended them to people earning up to 500 percent of the federal poverty level. The expanded tax credits doubled participation in the ACA exchanges over the past four years, and by last year 337,000 people in Massachusetts received subsidized insurance through ConnectorCare.

The increases were slated to expire after four years, and without congressional action to preserve them, premiums reverted to pre-2021 levels for this year. People earning more than 400 percent of the poverty level became ineligible to receive subsidized insurance. State officials have estimated roughly 300,000 people could become uninsured statewide over the next decade, in part due to the expiration of the tax credits.

Democrats staged a 43-day shutdown last fall, the longest in US history, in an unsuccessful effort to preserve the expanded subsidies.

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The Commonwealth Care Trust Fund predates the 2021 coverage expansion, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit budget watchdog, and was established to support ConnectorCare programs. Massachusetts has long had a robust public insurance program, and the 2021 expansion essentially allowed the state to shift the cost of subsidies it had been paying to the federal government. Tapping the trust fund now essentially returns Massachusetts to the support levels it provided prior to 2021, Howgate said.

Regardless of the timing of Healey’s announcement, it is a reality that Massachusetts has a uniquely robust commitment to health insurance access, Howgate said.

“I do think that the idea that the state is able to offset some of those impacts is an important message to get out there,” he said. “This is real money.”

According to Healey’s office, a 45-year-old couple with two kids making $75,000 in Fall River previously paid $166 per month for the lowest-cost coverage. Without state action, their premium would have more than doubled. But with the infusion from the trust fund, they will pay $206 per month.

There’s only so much the state can do to mitigate the impacts of the expired subsidies, though. Because Congress didn’t extend them, people between 400 and 500 percent of the federal poverty level simply are ineligible to sign up for subsidized policies through the ACA marketplace. There are roughly 27,000 people statewide who cannot benefit from the state’s effort to compensate for the lost federal money, and those people are among those facing the biggest new insurance expenses.

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Christa, 56, a hair dresser, and her husband, Gary, 69, a truck driver, earn less than $105,750 annually combined, just shy of 500 percent of the poverty level. The couple, who asked not to be named to protect their privacy, went from paying $282-a-month for Christa’s insurance with no deductible, to a private plan costing $725 a month with a $2000 deductible.

Gary, who is enrolled in Medicare, is still counting on Congress for a reprieve.

“I believe the Senate will be forced to do something, and we’re hoping,” he said.


Jason Laughlin can be reached at jason.laughlin@globe.com. Follow him @jasmlaughlin.





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Healey shares plan to limit health insurance cost increases for Massachusetts residents

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Healey shares plan to limit health insurance cost increases for Massachusetts residents



Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday that the state is spending an additional $250 million to limit premium increases for residents who have insurance through the Massachusetts Health Connector.

After Congress let Affordable Care Act tax credits expire at the end of last year, more than 300,000 people in Massachusetts have been facing a potentially steep increase in their health care bills. 

The governor’s office said those enrolled in ConnectorCare who make below 400% of the of the federal poverty level, which is $62,600 for an individual or $128,600 for a family of four, will see “little to no premium increases.”

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Under the plan, Healey’s office said a 45-year-old couple with two kids in Fall River will see their monthly health insurance costs rise from $166 to $206. Without the new funding, the governor says they would be paying $452 a month.

“While President Trump continues to increase health care costs, we are taking the strongest action in the nation to address them and keep costs as low as possible for families,” Healey said in a statement. “Despite this increased state investment, far too many people will still see their premiums increase because of the White House.”  

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to approve a three-year extension of the health care tax credits. While it appears unlikely to pass the Senate, senators have talked about a compromise plan that could include a two-year extension with added reforms. President Trump hasn’t offered a specific health care plan, but said subsidies going to insurance companies should “go to the people” instead. 

The $250 million is coming from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund, which gets its money from employer medical assistance contributions and financial penalties from residents who violate the state’s health care insurance mandate. 

Massachusetts residents can sign up for health insurance coverage or switch their Health Connector plans until Jan. 23 if they want to be covered by Feb. 1. 

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