What took them so long?
Associated Press called the governor's race for Maura Healey at 8:02 p.m. She'll be our first openly queer governor and the first woman elected to the post.
And Andrea Campbell will be our first Black woman attorney general.
Report from Healey's victory party.
Boston numbers show Democrats winning big in statewide and congressional races. Ayanna Pressley so far has the biggest margin, besting Trumpie Donnie Palmer in a complete knockout. Steve Lynch also easily won re-election.
Speaking of losers, Roy Owens, who, of course, extended his losing streak, losing in the 5th Suffolk state rep's race to Chris Worrell. This was the only contested race for all of Boston's state-rep and state-senate elections; Boston continues with all Democrats in those seats - state Rep. Liz Miranda is now state Sen. Elect Liz Miranda, replacing Sonia Chang-Diaz, who left to try to run for governor.
Questions 1 (taxing rich people), 2 (making dental insurers limit how much money they can scoop off the top of premiums), 3 (letting big store owners increase the number of liquor licenses they can have from 9 to 12) and 4 (letting all Massachusetts residents, regardless of immigration status, get a license) are all winning in the city. Statewide ballot-question results.
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Comments
You called it days earlier.
You called it days earlier.
Which hardly makes one
Carnac.
Start the next clock
How long until Diehl claims massive voter fraud stole the win from him?
He doesn't burn with the anger of 10,000 suns
He called Healey to concede shortly before 11.
He should’ve conceded
6 months ago, or maybe before he was born.
Yeah, he's only half-unhinged
More of a crack about the company he keeps than what I really thought he'd do. Maybe Kari Lake I could see making the claim even with this margin of defeat.
I called the Palmer vs
I called the Palmer vs Pressley bout a few weeks ago.
Fourth in the U.S.
This makes her the fourth out queer governor in the US. Others have been Kate Brown, Jared Polis, and Jim McGreevey, in that order. Some media is focusing on her as the first out lesbian in the country, given that Kate Brown self-identifies as bi, though queer media channels led by younger and/or more leftist folks aren’t bothering with the distinction.
(And before any UH trolls make your queerphobic comments about why no one should care, go read a history book. If you still don’t understand, read another until you do instead of commenting here.)
As somebody who struggled
As somebody who struggled with internalized lesbophobia in an era where popular girls were "bi, but only like, at parties", the distinction matters to some people. Even now using the label lesbian, lots of people assume you're a humorless man-hater with 8 dogs, or get all creepy because the most common use of the word as a standalone label is on pornhub. I get why younger LGBTQ groups don't see the value in the labels anymore but for some of us representation still matters and I'm happy a sister lesbian gets to be our first female governor.
Terms
I defer to the term the person uses to describe themselves, whatever it is. If Healey calls herself a lesbian or gay, I'd use that term when discussing them.
where popular girls were "bi, but only like, at parties"
Don't forget the LUGs (Lesbian Until Graduation) in college.
Even back in the 90s I (a straight white guy) became good friends with a black lesbian woman and ended up often socializing in her circles so haven't bought into the stereotypes you describe for a long time.
However, that was also the era when Howard Stern was pushing the "Oh man, lesbians are so hot!" shtick regularly on his show that I think was responsible for a lot of the "bi at parties" thing you're talking about back then.
I was always annoyed back then when I'd be at a party/bar/club and two girls would basically put themselves on display making out in the middle of the room, but you could see that they were actually just doing it to get a reaction out of the guys there (sometimes you could even see their eyes scanning the crowd while they were doing it). I though it was cheap attention-seeking under the guise of sexual liberation.
Yep, all of that
Oh, as a gen-X queer person, I agree it's all valid discussion.
Mmmhmmm
We called them "drive-bis".
Jeez eeka, Who said anything?
Jeez eeka, Who said anything?
You must be new here
Another Mass. Trumpie lost last night
That Bristol County sheriff who wanted to send prisoners to Texas to build the wall.
Did any opposed republicans win?
Anyone? Bueller?
DA Cruz in Plymouth County…
…handily defeated Rashaan Hall.
Ballot question results are in!
1: yeah I guess
2: HELL yeah
3: no
4. yeah
...sayeth the voting public. Supermajority on #2. People are not fond of insurance companies and their wily ways. I wonder how much voting being during open enrollment season impacted this.
(Same way I voted, too. Main reason I voted No on 3 was that it was trying to do too many things. They need to come back with something a little cleaner.)
The liquor one (#3) surprised me
Especially since no one seemed to be pushing for or against it. Maybe people didn't want to give up the ability to buy booze at self-checkout machines?
I voted no on 3
because I didn't see any compelling need to change the status quo on liquor licensing. If the package store owners want a Yes vote next time, they need to make a better argument.
No for me too
If you read it carefully, it still didn't add up. It was so convoluted, I decided to punish them for it. Anything that obtuse is up to no good.
What others said about it being convoluted
but also it seemed like it was trying to punish grocery stores for selling alcohol, which was weird and didn't seem to be justified anywhere.
I don't drink, and I buy wine maybe once a year for cooking with, so I didn't really have a dog in this race. I'm generally not in favor of people getting drunk in my vicinity, but it didn't seem to affect that meaningfully; it was just shifting licenses around in some complicated way to favor some establishments more and others less. Just weird. And I think that's why people were against it.
I voted yes but...
I voted yes but I didn't have a strong feeling either way. It was indeed trying to do too much, so either way you voted and however you looked at it, it was a mixed bag. The design of this was almost a poison pill.
Insurance companies
Arbella insurance spent a bundle for Yes on #4. Which is smart, since newly legalized drivers will need to buy insurance.
Other insurance companies
Health insurance companies spent a bundle trying to defeat #2, because of course. Screw those parasites.