Election Day resulted in a blue wave that turned into a tsunami, giving much of the country a taste of business as usual in the Bay State. All the intrigue locally came down to nine ballot initiatives posed to voters on issues from taxes to transparency to guns to cannabis.
Several proposals won landslide-style victories, based on unofficial results; Bay Staters voted overwhelmingly to expand the state’s public records law to the legislature and governor’s office, to allow public defenders to form a union, to establish a nature conservation fund and to keep a sweeping 2024 state gun control law.
“I’m very excited that it passed by such a huge margin, and I think it’s another step in finally bringing more transparency to Beacon Hill,” said Pete Septoff, an organizer of Cambridge Committee for Transparency and Accountability. He said the group would “be keeping a close eye on our legislators and the governor to make sure they don’t try to undercut the will of the vast majority of the people by putting unnecessary limitations on the measure.”
He said both the House and the Senate are already working to undercut the measure.
Also scoring a comfortable victory was Question 4, which would allow same-day voter registration statewide. It received 56 percent of the vote, built in part on votes from a whopping 83 percent of Cambridge voters, which the Associated Press said was the highest percentage of any Massachusetts municipality.
Only 39 percent of voters approved of Question 3, which would have created open primaries in elections so that the top two vote-getters move on to the general regardless of party. That measure was put on the ballot by Partners in Democracy, founded by Harvard University professor Danielle Allen. Allen focused on the positive, telling Cambridge Day that “Nearly 1 million people (were) willing to make a hard commitment to taking on the status quo by voting yes on Question 3 and against clear opposition from entrenched insider gatekeepers.”
A proposal to repeal the legalization of recreational marijuana went up in smoke with less than a quarter of voters in favor. That means good news for dispensaries, including the 19 in Cambridge and Somerville – its passage would have been a “doomsday scenario,” one business owner told Cambridge Day back in September.
Open questions
Two of the initiatives had not been called as of publication time.
Question 5 would change the methodology for calculating when the state hits its self-imposed limit on how much it is allowed to collect in taxes, which proponents said would lead to higher and more frequent rebates for taxpayers.
Proponents, including conservative Boston thinktank Pioneer Institute, joined forces to donate $1.9 million for the “yes” campaign on Question 5. Cambridge city councillors scorned the idea in an Oct. 20 policy order that said passage would jeopardize city budgets that rely on state funding “to provide quality education, affordable housing, and other resident services, particularly to low- and middle-income families.” The order also said that higher local taxes or budget cuts could occur as a result to make up shortfalls and asked voters to reject the question. Some 74 percent of Cambridge voters did so.
Such totals drew the ire of the measure’s supporters, who sent a statement accepting defeat even though it had not been called. “Cambridge, Newton, Brookline, and Somerville voted down a measure that would have provided an average rebate of $700. Springfield, New Bedford, Chicopee, and Lawrence voted for it,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of Pioneer Institute. He called the split a difference between the “haves and have-nots.”
The closest vote is Question 5, a measure to reduce minimum lot sizes to encourage the building of new single-family “starter” homes. As of publication time, 50.6% of votes cast were against. The measure is of little consequence in Cambridge and Somerville, as neither city has a minimum lot size requirement.
On the individual races, the main drama probably lies ahead and in Washington. The scope of the Democratic victory nationally means U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., is in line to become the first woman to serve as House majority leader. Clark is currently the House minority whip.
Clark represents Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District, which covers most of the western half of Cambridge and stretches from Winthrop to Framingham. She ran unopposed in this year’s general election, winning her eighth term.
Ruth Tam and Michael F. Fitzgerald contributed to this story.
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