Does Healey have coattails on Question 2?
GOV. MAURA HEALEY this week launched herself into the battle over two of the ballot measures voters will decide this fall. With Healey riding favorable poll numbers into the half-way mark of her first term, it can’t be bad to have her on your side, but history suggests that even the most popular governors have limited ability to sway the outcome of contentious ballot campaigns.
Healey had already made clear her opposition to Question 2, which would remove passing MCAS as a high school graduation requirement, but she dialed things up considerably this week. “There has to be some uniform [graduation] requirement,” Healey said on Wednesday on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” show, while adding that she is the daughter of two union teachers. (The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union, is the driving force behind the ballot question, while business groups are behind the opposition that has struggled to keep up in the money race.)
Then she was off to a press conference that the question’s opponents hastily convened at a Roxbury youth services nonprofit, with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Attorney General Andrea Campbell, where the three officials hammered home their opposition to the question. Healey’s political operation also blasted out an email to supporters, saying if Question 2 passes, the “only universal standard remaining for graduation would be completing four years of gym,” leading to “less rigorous standards than states like Alabama and Mississippi.” The email contained a link encouraging people to donate to the “no on 2” side.
Healey also said this week that she is opposed to Question 5, which would establish a minimum wage for tipped workers, siding with restaurant industry leaders who say it would upend their economics and lead to layoffs.
https://commonwealthbeacon.org/ballot-questions/political-notebook-does-healey-have-coattails-on-question-2/