For Beacon Hill, a slow week signals its marathon is just beginning

Mass General Brigham’s commitment to improving community health beyond hospital walls continues as we address food insecurity. Through our partnership with the Greater Boston Food Bank, we’re expanding access to nutritious food across the communities we serve.

If the Legislature had run the Boston Marathon this week, it would probably still be stuck in Hopkinton — with school vacation week grinding legislative activity nearly to a halt.

Or maybe Framingham is the better mile marker, given Thursday's quick burst of action as negotiations got underway on the $1.8 billion surtax supplemental budget. Regardless of Nike's tolerance level for slowness, the Legislature moves at its own pace.

Mentally, Auditor Diana DiZoglio seems to be at the Wellesley Scream Tunnel with a new filing begging for her office to secure access to independent counsel after a marathon stalemate with Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

Gov. Maura Healey was stationed at the finish line on Boylston Street on Monday, as John Korir and Sharon Lokedi each secured back-to-back Boston marathon wins. In a tweet, Healey thanked runners, volunteers and spectators for "making all 26.2 miles unforgettable."

On Tuesday, dozens of runners were showing off their jackets and medals as they strolled throughout Back Bay and Beacon Hill. But as Patriots' Day celebrations ended and with a major law signed, Healey quietly passed the baton to Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and jetted off to California to handle business for the Democratic Governors Association.

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A day before 4/20, an unofficial holiday for marijuana culture, Healey signed a law that overhauls the structure of the scandal-riddled Cannabis Control Commission and doubles the amount of marijuana individuals can legally possess from one to two ounces. The governor now faces a May 19 deadline to appoint three commissioners to the scaled-back CCC.

While on the West Coast, Healey also planned to spend time encouraging business leaders to move and grow their operations in the Bay State. The governor may want to encourage existing Bay Staters to stay put too.

Some 26% of young adults ages 20 to 30 years old are planning to leave the Greater Boston area within the next five years, though half expect to move elsewhere in Massachusetts, per a new survey from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. As for those exiting the state, roughly half are considering relocating to regions with cheaper costs of living like the southeast and southwest.

With Healey away, NCAA president Charlie Baker captured the spotlight here Thursday as he spoke to the Boston College Chief Executives Club. Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy amped up the audience early as he cracked a joke, welcoming the popular former Republican governor to the "first exploratory committee" of "Baker for America." Loud cheers and applause erupted at the Boston Harbor Hotel.

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During a Q&A portion of the event, one attendee also tried to egg on potential presidential ambitions, telling Baker, "Thank you, Mr. President ... I actually did not have a question. I just wanted you to hear what it sounds like in a big room when someone calls you, Mr. President." Once again, cheers broke out.

Baker declined to grade the performance of his successor, telling a reporter he couldn't answer the question about Healey based on the amount of time he's spent outside of Massachusetts in recent years.

He didn't shy away from praising his old boss and mentor, former Gov. Bill Weld who was also at the event. When Baker was "very young and impressionable," Weld taught him how to not take things personally.

"Bill Weld was a master at sort of blocking out the noise and focusing on the task at hand and the work to be done," Baker said. "And he got the fact that we live in a distributed decision making model, which meant sometimes you won and sometimes you lost. But at the end of the day, it was all about the relationships and the opportunities because you never knew, direct quote, you never knew where your next coalition was coming from."

On May 4, Massachusetts REALTORS® unite as one powerful voice at the annual Margaret C. Carlson REALTOR® Day on Beacon Hill. This year, REALTORS® are fighting to increase housing access by advancing zoning reform, housing production, fair housing education, funding for crumbling concrete foundations, and pre-service board & commission training—and opposing real estate transfer taxes and rent control.

In its own type of endurance race, the frayed relationship between DiZoglio and Campbell intensified again this week. At least the auditor can count on the House GOP Caucus to have her back in court.

Legislative leaders have long warned an audit could violate constitutional separation of powers — an argument that DiZoglio's office and ally, attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, flipped on its head this week. In a new filing with the state's highest court, DiZoglio's office contended that Campbell's motion to strike down DiZoglio's lawsuit would strip the judiciary of its authority to decide whether a legislative audit is constitutional or not.

Campbell says her office is the "gatekeeper" for interbranch governmental disputes. While the AG insists she's still open to representing DiZoglio if she receives sufficient information, the auditor's filing says Campbell's office has engaged in a "maddening, year-plus cycle of asking questions of the OSA, ignoring the OSA's thorough responses, and repeating the same exact questions over and over."

Another duo, the House and Senate budget chiefs, may need to lean on each other as they summit their own figurative Heartbreak Hills during their eighth budget go-around together. 

Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues met Thursday as the conference committee they're helming dove into the supp, telling reporters they don't have any non-negotiables. Only the House carved out $10 million for FIFA World Cup funding, and the games are just under 50 days away.

"He knows my priorities. I know his priorities," Rodrigues said with a chuckle. "We know each other really well. It allows for us to have an open, frank conversation."

Join legislators and thought leaders for a timely forum on the AI revolution in Massachusetts. Explore the challenges and opportunities of AI policy on Thursday, May 7, at the MCLE (Boston). RSVP!

KELLER AT LARGE: 8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV. Political analyst Jon Keller's guests are the Boston Globe’s Kelly Garrity and yours truly. We discuss Sen. Ed Markey versus Seth Moulton, the state of the MassGOP and Gov. Maura Healey’s reelection efforts. 

@ ISSUE SIT DOWN: 9:30 a.m., NBC 10. Reporter Matt Prichard interviews Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters.

ON THE RECORD: 11 a.m., WCVB. The guest is New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

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