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Therese Murray

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Can Beacon Hill do better?

Gambling and education take center stage
With DiMasi gone, the idea of casino gambling is again alive.
By EDITORIAL  |  September 23, 2009
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After Ted

Kennedy’s death came amid renewed speculation about his succession, his family, and potential candidates for his job
The death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy early Wednesday morning brings to a close the life and legendary career of one of Massachusetts's greatest political figures.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  August 26, 2009
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Female Trouble

A shocking dearth of Republican female pols should have the party in a panic. So why doesn't it care?
Conventional political wisdom says that for a party to oppose a woman — or a women's issue — it's best to send out a female spokesperson.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  June 03, 2009
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Roast pork

As our state's bumbling, craven, and inept elected officials stumble toward summer, we get a few good laughs out of their promises for reform
Back in January, Governor Deval Patrick declared a "season of significant government reform" on Beacon Hill.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  May 27, 2009
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Tax time?

New taxes may be needed. Plus, why Massachusetts can take pride in the Serve America Act.
State House of Representatives leaders have served the Commonwealth well with their austere new budget: they have shown us the tremendous sacrifices we will need to make, and the drastic cuts that will be put into effect, if we don't raise new revenues.
By EDITORIAL  |  April 22, 2009
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Time to wake up

The State Legislature and Boston's big municipal unions are hurting the public
The news that Massachusetts's finances are in even worse shape than previously thought was not exactly a surprise.
By EDITORIAL  |  April 15, 2009
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Tone deaf

Can Gov. Deval hear the thunder of jeers?
March has not been kind to Deval Patrick.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  March 25, 2009
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Shape up, governor

It's time to talk the talk
If the Phoenix were grading the recent performance of Governor Deval Patrick, we'd give him somewhere between a B and a B- for pure policy, but between a C- and D+ for political skill.
By EDITORIAL  |  March 25, 2009

Make no mistake

Letters to the Boston editor, March 6, 2009
Please note that David S. Bernstein's February 27 story "Capuano Cornered?" contains some inaccuracies.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS  |  March 04, 2009
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Youth infusion

The surprisingly diverse leaders of team DeLeo. Plus, do environmentalists have reason to worry?
In DeLeo's restructuring, white, non-Hispanic men older than 45 fell from power in droves.  
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  February 19, 2009
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Money talks

Can Beacon Hill reform itself when the State Senate President and the new House Speaker rake in so much lobbyist cash?
To hear our state legislators talk lately, Beacon Hill is all about reforming the sketchy, poorly governed relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  February 06, 2009
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The political virgins

With a crucial state-legislature session looming, Boston residents turn to untested newbies to fight for their share of the pie
At this incalculably critical time — with a fiscal nightmare threatening billions of dollars of state-government spending and momentous budget decisions to be made — everyone in Massachusetts wants to be represented on Beacon Hill by someone with clout.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  January 09, 2009
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Start Snitching

Wilkerson, Murray, and just about everyone else forever hold their peace
There's a new theater in the multilateral conflict spurred by bribery charges leveled against former state senator Dianne Wilkerson.
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  January 07, 2009
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FBI nabs Wilkerson

Will the fallout involve other officials?
State senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested Tuesday morning on charges of public corruption -- charges at a level far above and beyond any she has previously faced.  
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  October 29, 2008
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Women on the verge

Clinton die-hards have created a new-girls’ network bent on remedying decades of sexism by putting women in elected office
At next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, Hillary Clinton’s delegates will get just about everything they’ve wanted — aside from the nomination of their candidate, of course.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  August 20, 2008
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Will race enter the race?

Dianne Wilkerson and Sonia Chang-Díaz don’t talk about the racial split in their Senate showdown, but it’s likely to make its mark
Two years ago, when Dianne Wilkerson inexplicably failed to submit the necessary signatures to get her name on the Democratic primary ballot for re-election as state senator, a 28-year-old upstart seized the opportunity.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  July 30, 2008
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Voting right

Why Beacon Hill should adopt same-day voting and join the national popular-vote movement. Plus, that Obama cover.
The Massachusetts Legislature is expected to vote in the next several days on two proposals that would make democracy, well, more democratic.
By EDITORIAL  |  July 16, 2008
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Senate shuffle

Massachusetts hasn’t had a Senate-seat vacancy in nearly 25 years. Now we may have two. Let the speculation begin.
Don’t count Ted Kennedy out just yet, but the prognosis immediately set minds thinking about the inevitable departure of Kennedy from the US Senate, where he has served since 1962.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  August 27, 2008
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Trouble 'round the bend?

MBTA workers have been without a contract for two years. Arbitration will settle the matter soon, but could stir an angry hornets’ nest for 2010.
Perhaps because it hasn’t exploded into a public shutdown of services (as happened a few years ago in New York), arguably the most important fact about the MBTA has escaped public notice: most of its workers have been without a contract for nearly two years.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  April 30, 2008
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Whither the GOP?

With Democrats in total control of state government, the Massachusetts GOP should be a rising voice of dissent. Instead, it seems more impotent than ever.
Ask people to name the leading voice of opposition on Beacon Hill these days, and you’re likely to be told House Speaker Sal DiMasi.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  March 19, 2008

Read the runes

Letters to the Boston editor, March 7, 2008
As a user of the special collections at the Boston Public Library, I have been appalled at the light coverage of key service desks necessitated by staff cuts over the past several years.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS  |  March 05, 2008
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IG Report on State Senate Prez takes a convenient dive

Fails to deal with tourism controversy
After a full year investigating a Boston Phoenix article about State Senate President Therese Murray, the state’s Inspector General released a report today finding “no evidence of impropriety” in the legislature’s awarding of $11 million worth of contracts for international-tourism marketing.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  February 15, 2008
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Our championship season

Brilliant us
This year’s New England Press Association annual awards dinner forsook the Park Plaza’s rubber chicken for the upper-scale poultry fare at the Marriott Copley Place. And the food’s not the only reason we’re glad we went.
By CLIF GARBODEN  |  February 13, 2008
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Cash carousel

Many things changed this year on Beacon Hill, but not the power of the almighty dollar
Even though the dollar has taken an international whupping of late, there remains at least one place where the love of the greenback remains strong: Beacon Hill.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  January 30, 2008
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Madam Mayor Maureen?

While everyone was distracted by the New Hampshire primary, did City Council President Maureen Feeney step into the race for mayor?
This past week, with Bostonians’ attention focused on the presidential-primary drama north of the Massachusetts border, an opening salvo in the 2009 mayoral race may have been delivered.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  January 16, 2008
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Taking the Fifth

The race for Marty Meehan’s congressionalseat is running below the radar, but it could hold the answers to a couple of burning political questions
The September 4 Democratic primary has compelling interest beyond the borders of the Fifth Congressional District.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  August 22, 2007
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Wagering, or wavering?

When will Deval Patrick play his casino cards?
With the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe quickly moving forward on its plans for a casino in Middleborough, how long can power players continue to hold their cards close to the vest?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  August 15, 2007
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Fender bender

Last year, opponents thought they had killed auto-insurance reform for good. Its resurrection could be a headache for Deval Patrick.
Recent signs on Beacon Hill indicate to some that Deval Patrick is not quite the progressive, populist lefty that many of his supporters — and detractors — think he is.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  July 26, 2007
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Ménage-à-trashed?

Deval Patrick has been lounging in bed cozily with Therese Murray and Sal DiMasi but with budget questions looming, the party’s probably over
In the hothouse of this past month’s same-sex-marriage battle, the State House’s top three leaders emerged as surprisingly cozy bedfellows.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  July 11, 2007
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Power hungry?

The most powerful people on Beacon Hill want to stop the gay-marriage ban, but don’t have the votes
It’s remarkable how dramatically the state’s political leadership has changed since the most recent Constitutional Convention.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  June 07, 2007

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