Entries in MassPoliticsProfs by Maurice Cunningham

Boston Globe reporters Frank Phillips and Jim O’Sullivan are interviewed by Adam Reilly on The Scrum and talk about the pressures of campaign coverage, why the State House is more interesting to cover, and why an older Yankee journalist is superior to a young Irish reporter (and vice-versa).

Remarks from federal Judge William Young and United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz suggest that the feds have seriously disrupted, if not ended, political patronage in the state. Let’s hope they’re wrong.

The Boston Globe wants the Democrats to do away with the fifteen percent rule at their party convention. Here’s why (again) the Globe is wrong.

In a brief address to the fighting men of the 166^th Ohio regiment, President Abraham Lincoln poetically expressed the great cause for which they fought.

When the Progressives of a century ago amended the Massachusetts Constitution to institute the referendum process, they envisioned a process by which the people would make policy. That’s now how it has turned out.  

We all look forward to a substantive debate tonight between Democratic candidate Martha Coakley and Republican Charlie Baker. In that spirit I asked some of the smartest people I know – my colleagues at MassPoliticsProfs and at UMass Boston – for some debate questions. You’re welcome, Jim and Margery.

At the end of almost every episode of “South Park,” Kenny McCormick suffers a gruesome death. Journalistic stories about campaign gaffes and Martha Coakley’s 2010 campaign should suffer the same fate. Unlike Kenny though, they should stay dead.