Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voters made decisions on car repairs, assisted suicide and medical marijuana in the statewide election.
Question 1: Right to Repair Voters approved the “Right to Repair” ballot question, which would give consumers more choices when fixing a car in today's election. According to numbers on boston.com, 85 percent of voters approved the question, with 51 percent of the state reporting at 10:15 p.m. The initiative requires automakers to make computer software codes for repairs more accessible to independent repair shops and car owners by 2015. But in July, state legislators devised a compromise that would give carmakers until 2018 to comply with the new law, according to a Boston Globe report. By approving Question 1, voters trumped that compromise and enacted the “Right to Repair” act as written on the ballot. “Voters sent a clear message to …
Democrat Elizabeth Warren beat incumbent candidate Scott Brown in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race.
Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren has beaten incumbent Republican candidate Scott Brown for a seat on the U.S. Senate, according to the Associated Press. Warren is won by a margin of eight percentage points, 54 percent to 46 percent, making her the first female senator elected in Massachusetts. An estatic Warren addressed a crowd of hundreds of excited supporters at the Copley Fairmont Plaza hotel in Boston on Tuesday night. "We did what everyone thought was impossible," she said. "We taught a scrappy, first-time candidate how to win." "You took on the powerful Wall Street banks and let them know that you want a Senator out there fighting for the middle class all of the time," she said. "And despite the odds, you elected the first …
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Vote in our poll, and share your thoughts in the comments field below.
A Washington Post/ABC poll released this week showed that 80 percent of voters feel President Obama has done a good job dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – a staunch supporter of Mitt Romney – praised Obama's response to the storm, which devastated parts of New Jersey and New York and caused serious damage in many other states, including New Hampshire. Obama also received the endorsement of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday, with Bloomberg citing Obama's handling of Hurricane Sandy as one of the main reasons he decided to support the president. Meanwhile, Romney's previous pledge to abolish FEMA hasn't helped him in the wake of the storm. What do you think? Will Hurricane …
Friday, November 2, 2012
The candidates are into their final push, reaching out to voters in all sorts of ways.
We have just days left until election day, and each campaign is into the final stretch. In many cases, that includes an overwhelming amount of contact with voters, from phone calls to roadside "visibilities," to flyers in the mail and endless television ads. Regardless of your political stripe, you have likely been subject to most of this. Which part of the final push has bugged you the most? Which candidate have you heard from the most? Tell us in the comments section below.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney squared off in the third and last presidential debate on Monday, Oct. 22. Here's how Massachusetts Republicans and Democrats reacted.
Massachusetts Republicans and Democrats both expressed confidence in their candidates after the final presidential debate, with Republicans citing Gov. Mitt Romney projecting an image of a "capable Commander-in-Chief" and Democrats citing President Barack Obama's line about the military having "fewer horses and bayonets" as standout moments: that's the major finding of the Red and Blue Commonwealth flash polls sent out to local politicos immediately after the debate ended on Monday night. Obama and Romney faced off on Oct. 22 at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florda, with CBS' Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer moderating a debate that focused on foreign policy, but regularly delved back into domestic policy differences between the …
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Pay for women in Boston is better than the rest of New England, but it's still not on par with what men make for the same jobs. Should we pass laws to attack the problem, or is there another solution?
The pay gap between men and women—the difference in pay for the same jobs—was front and center in this week's presidential debate. The exchange over equal pay led to the second debate's most memorable quip about "binders full of women." That statement became an instant Internet meme. Slate, meanwhile, has published an interactive map showing how each state and county does with wage inequality. In New England, Suffolk County (Booston and a few surrounding cities) does best. On average, women here are paid 83 cents for every dollar a man earns for the same job. Worst in New England? Coastal New Hampshire's Rockingham County, where women average 59 cents for every dollar a man in a similar role would earn. After decades of debate, the …
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney squared off in the second presidential debate on Tuesday, Oct. 16. Here's how Massachusetts Republicans and Democrats reacted.
The attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya that led to the death of four Americans became the flashpoint in Tuesday night's second presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney: that's the major finding of the Red and Blue Commonwealth flash polls sent out to local politicos immediately after the debate ended on Thursday night. Obama and Romney faced off on Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York in a town hall format, with CNN's Candy Crowley moderating a debate that covered both domestic and foreign policy. Of the 17 local influential Democrats who took the poll after the debate ended, 13 of them (76.5 percent) voted that Obama won by a large margin and four (23.5 percent) voted that the …
Monday, October 15, 2012
President Obama and former Governor Romney tackled foreign policy in the final debate. Who do you think had a better vision of American power overseas?
President Barack Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney met for a final debate Monday night, spending 90 minutes focused on foreign policy. The Tampa debate is the last of this election cycle. Who do you think won the debate? Did one candidate put forward a better vision of America's role in the world, or did you find the exchange less than useful? And after three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate, did you hear anything that cemented your choice or changed your mind? Tell us in the comments below.
Monday, October 8, 2012
If you have a question for the candidates, submit it in the comments section below and it could be asked during the televised Oct. 16 Town Hall Presidential Debate.
If last Wednesday’s presidential debate left you with more questions than answers, here’s your chance for the presidential candidates to address the issues that most matter to you. The next presidential debate will be a town hall meeting format at Hofstra University in Long Island, where voters will ask President Obama and Mitt Romney about domestic and foreign policy. Patch is asking you, our readers, to participate by submitting questions for the candidates. All you have to do is post your question in the comments section below and we’ll send it to the Commission on Presidential Debates. The Commission is partnering with Patch's parent company Aol, along with Google and Yahoo, to take questions from web users across the country. Don’t …
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Local Democrats and Republicans across Massachusetts discussed Wednesday night's debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney in a live chat on Patch.
In the first presidential debate in Denver, Colorado, President Barack Obama came out flat while Gov. Mitt Romney had some effective arguments, according to local Democrats and Republicans from across Massachusetts who joined in a Patch live chat during the debate on Tuesday night. "Overall, tie goes to Obama," said Democrat Alex Buck. "Romney had a couple good lines, but nothing hugely productive. He looked jittery and possibly his most memorable line was about Big Bird." Reader Tom Sheff added late in the debate, "No defining moment so far, that's for sure." As the debate opened on the economy, Romney took an early upper hand according to the Democrats and Republicans who joined the chat as panelists. "President seemed nervous, and …
Diana
9:26 am on Saturday, November 17, 2012
Whine whine whine. But hey, it's your free time. Do with it as you will. more ›