Healey and Minogue trade barbs as the governor's race enters its final week

The sprint to Nov. 3 is a classic setup: the underdog swinging, the incumbent trying to look past him. Republican nominee Michael Minogue spent a recent Friday in Shirley, an exurban town still reeling from the closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the Steward Health Care collapse. He pointed straight at Governor Maura Healey, who was attorney general during Steward's decline. It's a smart place to probe. Dissatisfaction with the cost of living in Massachusetts is widespread in the polling, and the hospital closure is the kind of local wound that makes an abstract complaint feel personal.

The weekend gave Minogue a different kind of test. On Saturday he posted on Facebook asking whether Healey "cut a deal" with State Police for their endorsement, suggesting a contract was traded for political support. The State Police Association of Massachusetts hit back hard, calling the claim "categorically false," noting its contract went through mediation, fact-finding, and arbitration, and correcting Minogue's math: the raise is 11 percent over three years, not 18. The union wants an apology. Healey, asked about it in Framingham today, called it "more lies and nonsense."

Here's the reality check: a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll last week showed Healey and other statewide Democrats leading comfortably. Democrats are using their Sunday rally in Cambridge to cast Massachusetts as the crest of a national wave and Healey as a check on President Trump. So Minogue's challenge is less about closing a gap in the next eight days than about whether any of these attacks stick enough to dent turnout or margins. Expect more of this in the home stretch, and expect the State Police dispute to linger as a "who blinked" story.

Full story at CBS Boston →

Federal prosecutors are putting the state's investigation on trial, too. In the Matthew Farwell trial, prosecutors told jurors just 12 minutes in that State Police detectives working for Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey didn't treat Sandra Birchmore's Canton apartment as a crime scene. They also cited crude remarks from investigators. Because state authorities concluded Birchmore killed herself, federal prosecutors now have to prove both that Farwell killed her and that the earlier investigation got it wrong, a rare dynamic one former homicide prosecutor called "unusual." Boston Globe →

Holbrook officers pull a driver from a burning Jeep. Body camera footage shows Officer Jonathan O'Brien, Sgt. Martin Faherty, and Officer Matthew Richards freeing a 37-year-old man whose foot was pinned and burning after he hit a utility pole around 3:20 a.m. Sunday. They got him out within about a minute, and O'Brien suffered minor burns to his fingers. Police are seeking a summons charging the driver with a second-offense OUI. WBZ / CBS Boston →

A Dorchester mother is charged in her 4-year-old's fentanyl death. Dayanna Familia, 35, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, child endangerment, and evidence-related charges. Prosecutors say she told responders her daughter turned blue drinking milk or got into a roach trap, and that body camera footage shows her trying to destroy a white powder believed to be fentanyl. They argue the lies delayed lifesaving care. She's held on $25,000 bail. Boston 25 →

Nine ballot questions, and yes, you have questions. CommonWealth Beacon's Codcast answers listener questions on the November ballot, including whether an all-party primary could produce a general election with two Republicans and what happens with housing if the zoning measure fails. It's useful homework before you're standing in a voting booth. CommonWealth Beacon →

Question 9 puts Massachusetts' gun laws to a vote. The question asks whether to uphold a 2024 law requiring firearms to be serialized and registered and broadening a ban on "assault-style" guns. It's on the ballot because opponents gathered signatures to force a referendum, and the AP frames it against Idaho, where voters are weighing a nonbinding question on an official state gun. Boston.com →

Westborough's police chief is on leave. Chief Todd Minardi was placed on administrative leave Saturday after Shrewsbury police responded to a call involving him Friday. Town officials say they're hiring an outside investigator, and Deputy Chief Steve Tompkins is running the department day to day. Few details have been released. Boston Globe →

• Nov. 3: Election Day. Nine ballot questions plus the governor's race. Read up first via the CommonWealth Beacon guide →
• Nov. 20: Dayanna Familia's next court date in the Dorchester fentanyl case. Boston 25 →
• Beacon Hill's school phone ban push: Lawmakers are weighing a bill to bar K-12 students from accessing cellphones at school, and Boston Public Schools is considering its own sweeping ban. WBUR →

Track all bills →

Yesterday's Biggest Contributions

Big Spending This Week

Data from the MA Office of Campaign & Political Finance

Full hearing schedule →

Get The Mass Brief every morning

Massachusetts politics, development, and daily life — straight to your inbox.

Powered by South Shore News