Entries in MassPoliticsProfs by Peter Ubertaccio

It is tempting to blame certain Democrats for not acting like an opposition party vis-à-vis Republican Governor Charlie Baker. 

We should temper ourselves.  There are constitutionally ordained reasons for the lack of a true opposition party in Massachusetts. 

The resignation of Speaker John Boehner highlights the limits of party leadership in the House of Representatives.

The new presidential nominating system, the one unofficially dominated by national polls and national debates months before any balloting, is a sad spectacle.

What happened to the vice presidency?

If Joe Biden decides to forgo a presidential bid, he’ll be something of an anomaly.

The Massachusetts Legislature recently voted for another sales tax holiday the weekend of August 13-14.  Just before the vote, the Retail Association of Massachusetts released the contents of a study on the holiday it commissioned from the Beacon Hill Institute.

Like the Sales Tax Holiday itself, the BHI study underwhelms.

As he surveyed the landscape of emerging political campaigns in the 1840s, former President John Quincy Adams denounced the “fearful extent [of] itinerant speechmaking” and the “revolution in the habits in the manners of people” that it brought about.

Adams wondered where this all might lead. Now we know: it leads to presidential candidates like Donald Trump and there will be plenty more in future.

Last week a judge in Texas brought some common sense to the politically motivated criminal charges against former Governor Rick Perry.

Governor Baker’s recent budgetary vetoes highlight another area where the Massachusetts Constitution and the federal Constitution differ.

It’s hard to believe that earnest bakers working flexible hours making wholesome bread could bring down the power of the state. At least that’s the image George Will paints for his readers this week.

It’s been some time since I’ve given much thought to how much power and influence public interested activists and nonprofits have in our regulatory environment. Then I read Tuesday’s  Globe  and came across an eye opening piece about the Conservation Law Foundation and TDI-New England, a developer that hopes to bring hydropower to the region.