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JanusIanitos's avatar

One election I'm interested in downballot is Massachusetts' Question 1.

If passed it would specifically state that the State Auditor has the power to audit the state legislature. The currently elected auditor was rebuffed by the legislature when she tried to audit them, then the state AG refused to back her up.

My interest is threefold:

(1) I want to live in MA, so I care more about their nuts & bolts politics than I do most states.

(2) It's absurd to me to imagine that an elected office of State Auditor isn't allowed to audit an entire branch of the state government. The arguments put forth by the legislature are unconvincing.

(3) MA's legislature is underachieving considering the balance of power and ideology of the median state voter. Anything that puts even a little bit of pressure on them to be better is of interest to me.

On more standard partisan politics, I really want to see how Texas and Alaska end up in the presidential race plus AK-AL and TX-Sen. I'm optimistic about our prospects in each state in the medium term and want to see what this year's data points suggest for their trends.

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Marcus Graly's avatar

An Emerson College poll (for the right-wing Pioneer Institute) found Question 1 up 80-6:

https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/ECP-Pioneer-Institute-Report-Aug.-2024.pdf

The legislature is notoriously opaque. Even things like votes on legislation aren't public record. Even if the case to vote 'no' were more convincing, that alone would convince me to vote 'yes'.

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Marcus Graly's avatar

An interesting tidbit from the same Emerson poll:

"In recent years, the number of international students at U.S. colleges and universities has declined. Do you believe the U.S. should do more to attract foreign students to our colleges and universities?"

The results deviated sharply on racial lines :

White 23-55

Asian 64-19

Black 50-36

Hispanic 42-42

The overall result was essentially the same for all education levels.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Unsurprisingly, whites are the most racist and xenophobic.

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JanusIanitos's avatar

Glad to see it isn't even remotely close. I already expected it to pass but I do worry that voters could get confused (I'm lazy and haven't looked up the ballot wording) and vote no as a result.

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Marcus Graly's avatar

I suspect the actual result will be a little closer, since the wording the Pioneer Institute used is different than what's on the ballot, but it should still win in a landslide.

Ballot Question:

This proposed law would specify that the State Auditor has the authority to audit the Legislature.

A YES VOTE would specify that the State Auditor has the authority to audit the Legislature.

A NO VOTE would make no change in the law relative to the State Auditor’s authority.

(Remarkably clear and concise, which is unusual for MA questions)

PI poll question:

The job of the State Auditor is to audit state agencies, report on how well they are functioning and make recommendations for improvement. In Massachusetts, the legislature is exempt from these audits. The current State Auditor is seeking to gain the ability to audit the legislature. Do you approve of this?

(Seems to be pushing for a 'yes' answer in my view)

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michaelflutist's avatar

Yeah, that's easy to understand, for a ballot measure.

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michaelflutist's avatar

It's absolutely crazy that the auditor is prevented from auditing the legislature! I'd have to think that ballot measure will pass in a landslide.

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