“The type of voter who pays attention to all of the constitutional offices really early are a subset of a subset. When you have those people, you go in knowing there’s a large pool of people who are undecided,” said Jonathan Cohn, policy director for the group, Progressive Massachusetts. “It ups the stakes.”
PM in the News: Massachusetts lawmakers should put their name where their vote is
That one voice vote illustrates the larger cultural problem on Beacon Hill. “There is a fundamental opacity in the legislative process in Massachusetts and a damning lack of transparency here,” Jonathan Cohn, the policy director of the grassroots organization, Progressive Mass, said after the vote. Senate President Karen Spilka’s response to such criticism — along with her refusal to say where she herselfstands on the legislation — does nothing to dispel it. Spilka told the State House News Service that an “exhaustive process” led up to the measure coming to the floor and that roll call votes were taken on some amendments to the bill.
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The Massachusetts House of Representatives has a reputation for operating with less transparency than the Senate, said Cohn of Progressive Mass. But both legislative bodies, he said, embrace a style of consensus-building that “likes to pretend divisions don’t exist.” When they do, roll call votes are avoided. Lawmakers are counselled to withdraw amendments and a quick voice vote is called. He also said lawmakers who oppose a measure that is generally seen as popular seek the cover of a voice vote, rather than be recorded with a “nay.” Beacon Hill’s lack of transparency, said Cohn, “is striking, compared to other states. Massachusetts likes to view itself as a positive example, but this is one place where we can learn something from other states.”
PM in the News: Scorecards in Action
Alison Kuznitz, “Auditor candidate Chris Dempsey accuses rival Sen. Diana DiZoglio of a ‘falsehood born of willful ignorance,'” MassLive, May 4, 2022.
Dempsey, for his part during the forum, blasted DiZoglio for her 30% rating on the Senate’s police reform bill, as tracked by Progressive Massachusetts based on a string of amendments to the legislation. The organization, which has endorsed Dempsey for state auditor, gave other statewide candidates — including lieutenant governor candidates Sen. Adam Hinds and Sen. Eric Lesser, as well as gubernatorial candidate Sen. Sonia Chang- Díaz — a 100% rating.
PM in the News: A “Damning Lack of Transparency”
Progressive Mass Policy Director Jonathan Cohn called out a “damning” lack of transparency that permeated the Senate debate on Thursday. Members passed the bill in a voice vote — an unusual move for a major policy change that he suggested was “intentionally opaque” and “choreographed” to tee up contentious closed-door negotiations as the two chambers work to reconcile major policy differences and pass a bill over the next three months.
“There is a fundamental opacity in the legislative process in Massachusetts and a damning lack of transparency here,” Cohn said of the Senate sports betting vote. “This is something you see again and again across issues — a tendency to avoid taking difficult votes as a way of asserting power.”
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Cohn pointed to a practice in both chambers to whip up unanimous and near-unanimous support out of view before legislation is debated and voted on publicly.
“So much is already decided behind closed doors that they’re not actually even pretending to do the process because the outcome of a vote is more than likely to be predetermined,” Cohn said.
He said both chambers “ironically” almost always conduct roll-call votes when leaders are confident they have overwhelming support and will push for voice votes on more contentious bills that would likely reveal slimmer margins.
“The opposite should be true,” he said.
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“We need electeds who are more willing to actually bring things to a vote, who aren’t afraid to put themselves and their colleagues on the record,” Cohn said.
Globe: “Two months in, Maura Healey’s pitch for Mass. governor is light on the details”
Chang-Díaz’s platform web pages link to news articles, studies, and votes the senator has taken while serving on Beacon Hill, going into great detail with bulleted lists of actions she would take as governor. She’s been endorsed by groups like Progressive Massachusetts, which require lengthy, detailed questionnaires. Chang-Díaz’s was 48 pages long.
Healey did not file a questionnaire with the group, and thus did not partake in its endorsement process. Instead, Healey’scampaign sent the group an e-mail with an abbreviated version of her record as attorney general.
“For Some Democratic activists, Healey’s positions on criminal justice give them pause”
Samantha Gross, “For some Democratic activists, Healey’s positions on criminal justice give them pause,” Boston Globe , March 20, 2022.
“When you are an attorney general, there tends to be a built-in relationship [with police] and she has definitely been too deferential to state and local police,” said Progressive Massachusetts policy director Jonathan Cohn. “There are many good things she has done as attorney general, but she has not been a leader on criminal justice issues.”
“Boston Progressives Fear Rollback of Reforms After DA’s Early Exit,” Bolts
Eoin Higgins, “Boston Progressives Fear Rollback of Reforms After DA’s Early Exit,” Bolts Mag, March 8, 2022, https://boltsmag.org/boston-declination/.
Jonathan Cohn, the political director of Progressive Massachusetts, a state group that supports criminal justice reforms, says Hayden’s backtracking is a major mistake.
“There’s a strong and growing body of research that shows that declining to prosecute nonviolent misdemeanor cases not only minimizes individuals’ current involvement with the criminal legal system, but also substantially reduces the probability of future involvement,” Cohn told Bolts.
“House should pass same-day voter registration,” CommonWealth (Op-Ed)
Jonathan Cohn and Kristina Mensik in CommonWealth:
“House leadership and members must vote to include same-day registration and strong jail-based voting reforms in the VOTES Act so that we can guarantee that no eligible voter who wants to participate in our democratic process gets turned away. Then, it’s time for all of us to roll up our sleeves and work on the harder, and year-round, task of increasing the number of people who want to participate in the first place.”
PM in the News: “Massachusetts Legislature Ranks Most Liberal Nationwide, Conservative Groups Say”
Hannah Green, “Massachusetts Legislature Ranks Most Liberal Nationwide, Conservative Groups Say,” WGBH News, October 28, 2021.
Others say Massachusetts lawmakers aren’t liberal enough. Jonathan Cohn, chair of the issues committee at Progressive Massachusetts, disagreed with the ranking. The Commonwealth has a high number of Democratic legislators, he said, but the legislation they pass isn’t as progressive when compared to states like California or New York. He believes Massachusetts is behind on key progressive legislation, like same-day voter registration and allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
“My initial thought on Massachusetts being ranked as the most liberal in the country is — I wish,” Cohn said.
PM in the News: “Activists seek moratorium on prison construction”
Lily Robinson, “Activists seek moratorium on prison construction,” CommonWealth, July 20, 2021, https://commonwealthmagazine.org/criminal-justice/activists-seek-moratorium-on-prison-construction/.
“If you build this prison, I guarantee you, women will be beaten. Women will be starved. Women will be raped. How does that make our community safer?” asked Caroline Bays, board president of Progressive Massachusetts, an organization that pushes for racial, social and environmental justice, at a legislative hearing on the bill Tuesday.
A representative of the Massachusetts Department of Correction said that no final decisions have been made regarding the future of MCI-Framingham or women’s correctional facilities in the state.
From 2011 to 2018, the average daily prison population in Massachusetts declined by 21 percent. At the same time, the state ramped up spending by 25 percent, taking the budget from $254 million to nearly $1.4 billion. Few of those extra dollars went to programs to reduce recidivism, according to a study by MassINC, the parent company of CommonWealth.
Testifying in support of the bill, Bays recalled visiting an incarcerated friend at Cedar Junction, a prison in Norfolk, and laughing—then sometimes crying—over the irony of a sign in the waiting room declaring the facility a place of rehabilitation. She said she knew the reality of what went on within those walls: beatings and assaults such as the one that permanently crippled her friend.
Bays pointed out that Massachusetts has one of the highest prison budgets in the country, despite housing one of the smallest populations of people behind bars. The Department of Correction spends about $70,000 per inmate annually. For about two thirds of that cost, a student could spend a year at Harvard University. “Instead of a prison, why don’t you build a university?” suggested Bays. “At the end [of the sentence, an inmate] would have a degree and a future instead of a black hole on their resume and more trauma to recover from.”