Where Healey and voters aligned — and where she breaks with the Legislature

Massachusetts voters were good to Gov. Maura Healey last Election Day in the obvious way, handing her a second term by a 27-point margin over her deep-pocketed challenger. 

They also gave her some more subtle wins, voting how the Arlington Democrat preferred on a majority of ballot questions.

Healey staked out clear-cut positions on seven of the record-tying nine ballot questions (she didn’t publicly weigh in on letting public defenders and staff at the Committee for Public Counsel Services unionize and didn’t give a yes or no on Question 5’s push for more frequent tax refunds. Of those seven, she lost at the polls on just one. 

The defeat is on an issue Healey saw as linked with the affordability agenda she promoted on the campaign trail, while one of the winning initiatives could put her in an awkward spot politically — between voters and legislative leaders.  

Healey and a majority of voters agreed on expanding the public records law to cover the governor’s office and the Legislature, rejecting an all-party primary system, adopting Election-Day voter registration, creating a new fund for nature preservation, preserving retail cannabis sales and upholding Massachusetts’ 2024 gun law. 

They diverged on the one housing-related proposal that made it to this year’s ballot, intended to make it easier to build starter homes in the state. In September, when Healey endorsed Question 7, she said the proposal to set a standard minimum lot size for single-family homes would help advance her administration's work to build more homes and lower costs and "make the dream of owning a home a reality for more residents." 

Healey and her team will have to move that work forward on their own, after the question narrowly failed.

While Healey pitched the question as a complement to her efforts on housing, municipal leaders who opposed the initiative see it differently.

Local government officials told the Healey administration at meeting this week that the will of the voters backs up the idea of building starter homes through state-municipal collaborations like Healey's "Move-In Mass" modular home program, rather than — as Marlborough City Council President Mike Ossing put it —  "statewide zoning preemptions" like the ballot question. 

And that's not the only issue where Healey could find herself in the middle. 

For voters, the public-records question was a no-brainer, supported by 86%. But lawmakers seem poised to test whether Healey meant it when she said she’d veto any bill that mitigates its language. 

In the days after that overwhelming vote, Senate President Karen Spilka signaled continued interest in changing the specifics of records access, saying there are still “details to be worked out.” And one of her top deputies, Majority Leader Cindy Creem, said senators heard the voters and aren’t “tone deaf,” but still have constitutional concerns they want to address. 

A Healey veto could ultimately end up just a talking point — voters lined up with Healey on most of the ballot, but they also maintained the veto-proof Democratic supermajorities (and actually grew the one in the House) that often vote in lockstep with Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano.

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8:30 | Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association hosts its Healthcare Safety & Violence Prevention Summit, which comes as legislation remains tied up in conference committee to stiffen penalties for assaults against healthcare workers. Middlesex DA Marian Ryan gives a keynote address about strengthening the legal response to violence in healthcare | MHA Conference Center, 500 District Ave., Burlington

9:00 | Health Connector Board meets. Open enrollment for 2027 is underway at the health insurance exchange, and executive director Audrey Morse Gasteier has predicted a "unique" cycle due to federal eligibility changes | Livestream

9:00 | DCR Stewardship Council meets. Agenda includes a report from DCR Commissioner Nicole LaChapelle and a presentation about the DCR Land Acquisition Program | Agenda and Zoom

10:00 | Cannabis Control Commission meets, its first since voters rejected a ballot question that would have banned retail sale of adult recreational use marijuana | Union Station at 2 Union Square, Worcester | Info and Access

10:30 | MASSPIRG Students, scientists and other advocates gather for a "Save the Whales" day of action, featuring people in whale costumes and a 10-foot inflatable whale | State House steps

10:30 | Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association hosts the 2026 Law Enforcement & Corrections Awards Ceremony | Great Hall

11:00 | Senate meets in an informal session | Senate Chamber

11:00 | House meets in an informal session | House Chamber

11:00 | Mass. Council of Military Interstate Commerce Commission meets virtually. The council supports students of active duty military families | More Info and Access

1:00 | Lt. Gov. Driscoll attends groundbreaking for Energizar energy storage facility | 150 Willoughby Street, Chelsea

1:00 | Board of Early Education and Care meets | 50 Milk Street, 5th Floor, Boston | Livestream

2:30 | Lt. Gov. Driscoll attends Strategies for Children’s 25th anniversary celebration | Room 428, State House

5:00 | Boston Globe, ABCD, and MassINC host a discussion on wealth, economic mobility, and pathways to the middle class, featuring research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the MassINC Policy Center | Roxbury Community College Media Arts Center, 1234 Columbus Ave., Roxbury | Register

6:00 | Energy Efficiency Advisory Council holds another virtual public listening session about the next Three-Year Plan for Mass Save, which would cover 2028 through 2030 | More Info and Access

6:00 | MassDOT holds a virtual design public hearing to present the design for the proposed superstructure replacement of the North Street Bridge (T-03-013) over I-495 in Tewksbury | More Info and Register

6:30 | Lt. Gov. Driscoll attend Raise the Roof Gala honoring Ed Augustus Jr., the Healey administration’s former housing secretary | 1657 Worcester Rd, Framingham

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HOLDING THEM RECOUNTABLE: Both candidates in the disputed Second Plymouth House race, Republican Rep. John Gaskey and Democratic challenger Sarah Hewins, are pursuing recount options. | State House News Service (gift link)

WILL OF THE VOTERS: On the heels of using her executive power to prevent suspension of the state's new later-term abortion law while a repeal bid moves toward the 2028 ballot, Gov. Healey says she'll "respect what the voters do" on the referendum. Healey's move met pushback from the state's Catholic leaders. | Boston Herald

UNCAPPING THE CASH: The Senate plans to vote at some point in the future on a bill that would lift the $1 million cap on the taxpayer-funded payouts exonerated prisoners can receive for their wrongful convictions, instead offering a set rate per year. | Eagle-Tribune

STRIKE OFF: A deal reached late last night averts an open-ended strike of more than 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital, who had been set to walk off the job this morning. The Mass. Nurses Association says the tentative agreement with Mass General Brigham, which still needs to be ratified, addresses their main priorities. | CBS Boston

LOOKING BACK AT THE DATA: The idea of building a data center in Sutton was first publicly discussed more than a year before the Kraft Group's $16 billion proposal sparked a community uproar this week. A select board member brought up the concept at a March 2025 meeting, but floated a data center of a more modest size. | Boston Globe

2027 ARRIVES: South Boston's Rachel Pearson, a nonprofit leader and substitute teacher, plans a run next year against Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn. Pearson says she'd like to see "more collaboration" at City Hall. | GBH News

BURYING THE HAT-CHET: Marblehead Select Board Chair Dan Fox and Board of Health member Tom McMahon admitted fault on both ends and agreed to swallow their pride after their "hat-gate" dispute — where the Board of Health was barred from using the select board's meeting space over McMahon's baseball cap-wearing — "escalated much faster than anyone would have thought or wanted." | Marblehead Current

THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM: MBTA Communities Act holdout Dracut approved a multifamily zoning district to comply with the law, after twice rejecting previous versions at town meeting. Noncompliance has blocked the town from discretionary state grants, a financial loss the select board chair says is equivalent to a fine of $2,700 a day. | The Sun

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