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The Week Ahead On Beacon Hill: Baker Meets Trump, SJC Nomination Up For Hearing

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker met with President Donald Trump Monday morning in Washington D.C., along with other governors who are in the nation’s capital for the winter meeting of the National Governor’s Association. Governor Baker and President Trump are both Republicans, but Baker has kept his political distance from Trump. He’s spoken out against some of the Trump Administration’s early actions, including the controversial travel ban.

For more, we spoke with Matt Murphy, reporter with the State House News Service. He’s been covering the Governor’s Association meetings in Washington.

Click the audio player above to hear New England Public Radio’s Henry Epp interview Matt Murphy of the State House News Service.

 

The Week Ahead On Beacon Hill

Debates over four ballot questions in Massachusetts are heating up before the November election. But there’s another ballot campaign gaining traction for a much more distant contest: an activist group says they have enough signatures to meet a deadline this week to repeal the state’s new law on transgender public accommodations. That law allows transgender individuals to use public spaces without discrimination. It took effect October 1st.

For our weekly look at Beacon Hill politics, we turn to State House reporter Shira Schoenberg of the Springfield Republican newspaper, and asked her why this group wants the new law repealed.

For more on the effort to repeal the state’s transgender accommodations law, click the audio player above to hear Schoenberg’s conversation with New England Public Radio’s Henry Epp.

Ballot Referendums Gather Needed Signatures But Face Opposition

Supporters for three voter referendums say they’ve cleared a key hurdle to put their initiatives on the Massachusetts ballot in November. The groups must submit over 11,000 signatures to local election clerks by the end of the day on Wednesday.

Organizers with an anti-casino group and the state nurses’ union are both bragging that they’ve gathered over 25,000 signatures for each ballot question. The Massachusetts Nurses Association is sponsoring two initiatives, one to limit the ratio of patients to nurses, and another to increase transparency in hospital profits. David Schildmeier is the union’s spokesperson. He says nurses had an easy time collecting signatures.

“We think the voters have the most to lose if these issues fail, and we think they also understand the most to gain if they pass,” says Schildmeier.

Both initiatives are opposed by the state Hospital Association. Meanwhile, a group looking to repeal Massachusetts’ casino law faces uncertainty over whether a court challenge will allow the question on the ballot. Steve Abdow is heading the group in Western Massachusetts.

“We’re proceeding as if we will be on the ballot. We don’t have a choice. We have to get our campaign going,” says Abdow.
The state supreme judicial court is expected to rule on the referendum by early July. If it makes the ballot, casino companies have vowed to campaign against it.