Hidden Link

September 6, 2024

By MICHAEL JONAS

Ron Mariano’s district sits 10 miles south of Cambridge and Somerville, so his name was not on the ballot there in this week’s primary election. But the centralized, closed-door leadership style he presides over as House speaker was, and the verdict from voters in the two liberal strongholds was not kind. 

In Somerville, second-term Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, one of the few Democrats willing to buck the stay-in-line ethos that characterizes the top-down culture of the House, walloped challenger Kathleen Hornby by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Uyterhoeven’s first act upon taking office in 2021 was to vote “present” in the election of a House speaker, rather than join her Democratic colleagues in installing Mariano, and she’s maintained that defiant streak ever since. 

While it’s hardly news when an incumbent soundly defeats a challenger in Massachusetts, the usual dynamic of incumbent insider versus insurgent challenger seemed flipped on its head in the race. Hornby, a former State House aide, had the backing of the local Democratic establishment, winning the endorsement of the Somerville Democratic City Committee. She offered herself as more pragmatic progressive – someone with many of the same left-leaning views as Uyterhoeven who would find ways to get more done within the system. 

The voters apparently thought otherwise. 

In neighboring Cambridge, veteran Democratic incumbent Rep. Marjorie Decker, who has cruised easily to reelection – whether running unopposed or against a challenger – every cycle since winning her seat in 2012, faced the fight of her political life. 

Decker, who co-chairs the Legislature’s public health committee and is close to Mariano, touted her clout and ability to get things done. Challenger Evan MacKay, a democratic socialist, hammered her for being too cozy with House leaders and not standing up to them in pushing progressive positions.

MacKay seemed to have eked out a 40-vote upset in the initial tally, but the outcome was reversed when additional ballots were counted on Wednesday, with Decker appearing to prevail by 41 votes. A recount is possible, but regardless of the final outcome, Cambridge voters sent a clear message of discontent with the current ways on Beacon Hill. 

The ultra-liberal Somerville and Cambridge districts are hardly bellwethers of statewide sentiment. But Uyterhoeven showed that, at least in uber-liberal Somerville, voters will reward independence when it means standing up to a status quo that seems increasingly tarnished and dysfunctional. Meanwhile, Decker learned that being part of the leadership on Beacon Hill has become a decidedly mixed blessing in the state’s most progressive precincts. 

Boston papers differ on Trump’s prospects in New Hampshire

Has Donald Trump given up on New Hampshire? 

On Monday, the Boston Globe reported that a top Donald Trump volunteer in Massachusetts, Tom Mountain, was being cut loose from the former president’s campaign after sending an email to other Trump volunteers saying “the campaign has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state.”

Republicans in New England and the Trump campaign were quick to push back on the idea, telling the Globe New Hampshire is very much in play,and that Mountain, as a volunteer, had no access to internal campaign strategy. They also pointed to Vice President Kamala Harris’s scheduled visit there on Wednesday as proof of Democratic worries about winning the state. 

On Thursday, the Boston Herald did some further pushing back, with a story headlined: “Trump’s team pushes back on assertions made in Globe article about New Hampshire.”

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The article repeated the Trump campaign denials that they have written off New Hampshire, but came close to making the Globe an accomplice to Mountain in the misrepresentations. It cited a Trump campaign official who said the Globe reporting was based “on the opinion” of Mountain, who had neither the authority nor information to say the campaign was giving up on New Hampshire. 

What’s more, the Trump campaign said the assertion is simply not true. The story went on to report the campaign’s claim that about 1,000 volunteers took part in Trump campaign “election integrity in New Hampshire” training on Zoom last month, and it cited “self-organized” boat and car parades that Trump supporters have held across the state. 

A Globe story on Harris’s Wednesday visit to New Hampshire said the VP’s campaign stop came as “Republican hopes of carrying New Hampshire in November have begun to dim.” The story pointed out that no Republican has carried the state in 20 years, and said the Trump campaign “has made minimal formal investments in New Hampshire recently.”

So where does the race in New Hampshire actually stand? 

The Herald story acknowledged Trump’s loss in New Hampshire by 7 points to Joe Biden in 2020, but pointed to his razor-thin 3,000-vote loss to Hillary Clinton four years earlier. What it omitted were results of any recent polls measuring the state of the race there.  

The RealClearPolitics site’s average of three New Hampshire polls carried out since late July shows Harris with a 5 point lead, while the ABC News site 538 lists a University of New Hampshire poll showing Harris with a lead of either 5 or 7 points depending on whether third-party candidates are included. Meanwhile, as the Globe reported, the Cook Political Report recently moved New Hampshire’s rating in the presidential race from “lean” to “likely” Democratic.