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Pressley makes history; Baker, Warren re-elected

At 8:01 p.m., Associated Press declared Ayanna Pressley would become the first black woman member of Congress from Massachusetts, since she had no opposition in her race in the 7th Congressional District, after defeating incumbent Mike Capuano in the September primary.

Pressley's ascension from the Boston City Council to Congress means perennial candidate Althea Garrison will become an at-large city councilor in January, since she is losing in a rout in the 5th Suffolk state rep's race to Liz Miranda, who will replace Evandro Carvalho.

Speaking to her supporters, Pressley said she was not going to deliver a victory speech. Only when we have "equity, justice and equality," she said, will she deliver one.

Pressley said women of color don't face just a glass ceiling, but a concrete one. "But you know what breaks through concrete? Seismic shifts. Drastic change."

As a black woman, she said, she was constantly asked: "Is your appeal broad enough? Are you playing identify politics? Can you really inspire millennials and the faith-based community? Can a congresswoman wear her hair in braids, rock a black leather jacket and bold red lips?"

She vowed to work to protect trans rights, to help college students facing "crippling student debt," to keep immigrant families "safe and together" and to deal with the epidemic of gun violence and trauma.

She said her election and others are "a mandate for hope."

And she cautioned fellow Democrats she will not moderate her beliefs. "We are the party of workers, the party of immigrant rights and women's rights, and people of color. And we are the party of survivor's rights. ... We don't have to wait our turn we don't have to wait for change. I still believe in the power of us. And change is on the way."

In another unsurprising result, Charlie Baker was re-elected govenor. Elizabeth Warren is also cruising to a second term, as Senator, over two right wingers.

In her speech, Warren said that, at least for the next two years, the House of Representatives, the people's house, is going to do a lot more work for the people."

But she also warned Republicans to watch out - that the millions of women who were disgusted by Trump's election would continue to persist.

"This resistance began with women and it is being led by women tonight," she said. After Trump's election, women didn't whimper, they didn't whine, they fought back. ...They refused to let anyone shut them up or stand in their way. And that is how real change begins."

And she vowed to fight for the "millions of Americans getting ripped off by a rigged economy and by a corrupt government in Washington." Specifically, she vowed to continue fighting "Donald Trump and his corrupt friends" and Mitch McConnell to keep them from raiding the treasury for rich people and to steal health care for millions of Americans.

"Yeah, it will be hard," she said. "Neverthless, we will persist."

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Comments

Shirley Chisolm might take exception.

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Fixed

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But wasn’t the election of Presley, who was unopposed, less surprising as the re-election of Baker and Warren.

Don’t get me wrong, she did well, but she’s basically been Congressman elect since the day after Labor Day.

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Raise your hand if you seriously thought Gonzalez had a chance.

Plus, Baker is not doing anything historic by winning, while Pressley is.

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But I did meet an enthusiastic Gonzalez today, and Warren had, in theory, two people running against her. Of course, it did seem like she was running for a different office, but what do I know?

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Shameful that it's taken half a century for that to happen in MA.

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47 minutes after the polls close, when it's obvious that not all the results have come in yet.

Perhaps next year we need an initiative petition for a law demanding that there will be NO reporting on election results until all the ballots have been counted and those results are officially released. Voting is supposed to be an important civic function, and should not be treated with the cheesy "play by play" coverage you'd normally find at a sporting event.

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Also, the media looks at bellweather municipalities, their results and turnout levels, to prognosticate.

Why the griping? Now, if they were releasing exit polls at 6, I’d agree in a second. Then again, I’m watching Tosh.0 reruns right now.

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They also rely on the results from certain bellwether districts (AP has at least a stringer at thousands of county election offices). That's why they can call Massachusetts for Baker with 3% of the vote in, but not Texas, where O'Rourke was in the lead with 3% of the vote in.

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Why the griping?

There is always a "Get Out the Vote" campaign. If those who might vote are told by the media that their votes are not worth reporting - in other words, meaningless - it will defeat every civics lesson attempted.

Suldog

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...do you actually think that people won't vote...because the media doesn't report on their votes?

I've heard a semi-plausible argument against early reporting. It is not what you say.

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...do you actually think that people won't vote...because the media doesn't report on their votes?

Yes.

Suldog

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How can the media declare that it's likely to rain tomorrow, when it's not tomorrow yet? We need a general law demanding that there be no reporting on what *will* happen until it's actually happened, even if it's the obvious conclusion from the current information available.

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How do you function in this world on a daily basis without someone holding your hand?

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I hate when primaries become the de facto election and refuse to vote for anyone who is running unopposed.

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If you want less unopposed elections, time to start promoting and assisting people to run in these races for different parties. Or run yourself!

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It's not that they're running completely unopposed, it's just that all of the opposition was also fairly liberal. This isn't inherently a problem, it just means that the district itself is probably too liberal to ever support a conservative candidate so none bother to run.

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If Maura Healey had run for governor she would have won.

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It ain't workin' Guv. Change your approach. That deep blue shade in Greater Boston should haunt him. He needs to get his books in order before Governor Healy in 2022

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Heck even Weld won Cambridge. The irony. if Baker had cancelled the GLX and said "look people, $500 million plus per mile is insanity for a streetcar", CamSom would have gone Baker red.

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And something tells me you are unaware of the political leanings of Cambridge and Somerville today.

Also, you might want to read up on Jay Gonzalez's views on investment in public transportation. It was more along the line of "we shouldn't have stopped to rework the GLX, since that just put it behind schedule. The original design was better. Also, we should build South Coast Rail and upgrade Fairmount, and all of this will be paid for with a tax on millionaires."

Sorry, Charlie, but the governor's race was between the GLX candidate and the GLX-ier candidate. Nice try, though.

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Somerville's sewer system is crumbling. Our pedestrian corridors are unsafe. Baker CUT funding for both saying the GLX is enough. Nobody wants the GLX beyond a few morbid advocates. Please. Stop the armchair commenting

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Somerville is in much worse shape than I think it is.

In Boston, both are handled by the city. The sewers are maintained through charges on water and sewer service, while sidewalks are just a general Public Works outlay. I never knew that Somerville's finances are so mismanaged that the state handles these things. Perhaps you should be upset about that instead.

But speaking of armchair commenting, other than one anon on this website, I have not seen much in the way of opposition to this project. I also believe I've asked you in the past for some kind of citation to a poll of the area that shows support or opposition to the project. Since the elected officials of the area support it, and they keep on getting reelected (save one), I'm going to assume that this is a well supported endeavor.

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Sure, you'll hear people complaining about tree removal, and bridge closures, and construction detours, but we're willing to put up with all of that to get the transit service we need.

The other complaint you'll hear is that we want it to go further, to Route 16, not end at Tufts on College Avenue.

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Until he was dumped (thank Somerville!) for Ayanna Pressley.

So you guys took a powerful, nuts and bolts advocate committee chair who was bringing home a hugely difficult project to improve all our transit lives, and replaced him with a green newbie who will have trouble finding the Capitol Building for the first six months.

When the shit hits the fan over this project, who do you think would have done a better job representing your interests, Capuano or Pressley?

Yeah. But hey, she is sooooo Progressive and yeehah, we made history! Keep that in mind the next time we have a moderate snowstorm that craters your commute.

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We're pretty well screwed, anyway, regarding the GLX, now that she's in.

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Why is the state paying, or as anon notes no longer paying, for sewer and sidewalk work outside of the GLX area? I'm still scratching my head at that. Boston Water and Sewer does a lot of work on infrastructure. Do they have anything like that in Somerville?

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but I have no idea how it is being funded. It is definitely needed work.

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In my neighborhood of East Somerville, I would anecdotally say that my neighbors are running about 70-30 against the GLX. And I don't hang around with a clique of out-of-touch cranks, it's a wide variety of residents who feel this way. Nobody is against 'improved public transportation' - nobody. But many people believe that the GLX is just a huge boondoggle. Even Somerville residents commonly cite other places in the MBTA/Keolis system where that money could have been better spent.

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They like the idea of improved public transportation, but they don't want any improvements to public transportation in their area. Rather, they'd prefer that it be spent on services they cannot use, but the people who ride on the trains that don't stop in their area do use.

Yup, you live in East Somerville, alright. Just like I do. Are your neighbors agitating to get the Orange Line extended to Roslindale Square? In your mind, they probably are.

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Would probably be the most common sentiment.

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That’s the main issue in East Somerville?

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set up a table at Pearl and Cross and do your own survey.

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Out in my neck of the woods, if there is opposition to, say, a charter school or Taco Bell moving to the area, community groups agitate against the plans. Not seeing that in Somerville. Heck, the T dropped plans for a commuter rail stop in my neighborhood in the 80s after one community meeting.

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I don't understand why anyone would ever be against that.

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Fears of commuters parking everywhere. A big thing was that the T wanted to move the community garden to what may have been contaminated land and replace it with a soccer field and the stop. I don’t know how the two were mixed, but they were.

Mind you, it was replacing a stop a quarter mile to the north, so the dynamics were different. Still, since the proposed stop was a block from my kid’s school, I wish it was built.

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You've got me curious now. Did they keep the "stop a quarter mile to the north" instead?

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The old stop was at Blakemore Street. The proposed replacement was at Cummins Highway. I was in a photograph that accompanied the article in the local paper on the meeting, next to another registered user on this website, I’ll note.

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Do any of them have names?

How do we know that you even live there and are not making this up?

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Who in Somerville gives a crap whether the GLX gets extended from Boston Ave. Medford to Rte. 16 Medford, or not?

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The Route 16 station would be either in the part of Somerville that sticks up towards Whole Foods, or right next to it across the Medford line. Many people in Somerville (and Medford and Arlington) would be within walking distance of it. It is needed.

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Every bus is jammed and terrible. Day in, day out. While your Somerville buses run empty. Take a trip to Mattapan Ron. It may change your perspective. Oh and btw, you may run into someone named Jada.

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The buses I take through Somerville are usually packed solid.

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I'm sure there's a bus or two that's standing room only during rush hour in Somerville. But every other hour: zombie buses (10 people or less)

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It had a decent ridership. Not packed, but not empty. Then again, I was reverse commuting (going towards Lechmere in the afternoon).

You should ride the buses more.

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What did the district lose by not keeping Capuano? With the Democratic majority in the House, I wonder what chairmanships Capuano would have gotten that Pressley won't get.

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...it really should not matter to you. Does it?

Capuano is a member of a number of committees and subcommittees, which you can read about here. He is the ranking member of only one subcommittee, Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials. If you read further, I think you'll find that the new ranking Democratic members of these committees will probably handle things just fine.

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...then have fun in Imaginationland.

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That particular subcommittee that Capuano would have chaired oversees high-speed rail and Amtrak, among other things. Trains are important to the Massachusetts economy, but now we will not have someone who can ensure that local concerns are addressed.

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They will not simply be handed over to Pressley because hers is such a great story. See, these are the little tiid-bits about American Democracy that people need to read up on.

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full display. It's ability to sway Massachusetts voters is amazing. They are a powerhouse. How many times did I hear..."I don't know anyone who voted for Warren." "Tall Deval is going down." "The silent majority will speak just like 2010."

Cedar Grove awaits your entry.

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I don't think any of the state's other daily newspapers count, nor any of the local TV stations (not even Fox 25).

(Not that I'm complaining!)

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They're always happy to jump on and explain to the rest of us how the world really works if we'd just get outside of our "liberal bubble" and join the rest of Massachusetts.

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A pack of preteen girls, dressed in their school uniforms, was collecting abandoned Metro editions with Pressley on the front of them.

Some were taking group selfies with them.

So much girl power radiating from this!

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Warren polled >60%
Baker polled a little stronger at around 65%

That means that a whole lot of people voted for both.

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Honestly, they are both doing a good job. My only hope is that neither of them decide to work on the 2 year plan.

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I might have just missed it. My bad.

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She helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I'm pretty happy about that. Yes, it was not something she did as senator, but it shows how she thinks about financial policy, and that's exactly the kind of person I want asking questions on the Senate Banking Committee (e.g. https://www.thedailybeast.com/elizabeth-warren-takes-a-victory-lap).

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Which is to represent the people of Massachusetts in the Senate.

People key in on those headline things, but she does the boring constituent stuff that her 99 colleagues do, too.

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