Two days to Election Day, and the race for governor is a contest over what the question even is.

Governor Maura Healey spent her Saturday in Gloucester in a Scotland soccer jersey and kilt, with a giant traffic cone for company, making the argument she's made all year: this election is a referendum on Donald Trump, and she's the bulwark. "I don't know anybody who's really having a better experience because of Donald Trump the last 20 months," she told a small crowd in a mostly empty school parking lot, about 80 hours before polls close.

Her Republican challenger, former medical device executive Michael Minogue, is working just as hard to change the subject. At a stop in Peabody, he pushed the idea that four years of Healey have made Massachusetts harder to afford, and that the state still lacks real leadership on the issues squeezing household budgets. Political analysts on WCVB's On the Record this weekend largely agreed on the outcome. Democratic analyst Mary Anne Marsh sees Healey winning comfortably, while Republican analyst Rob Gray explored why Minogue has struggled to break through.

Even if the top of the ticket looks settled, the night isn't. A record-tying nine ballot questions (public records, taxes, guns, zoning, marijuana, elections) could change state law outright. Galvin is warning that the ballots run two and sometimes three pages, with some in-person voters already taking 20 minutes to mark a card. If you can, vote early or use a drop box, and if you can't, bring patience.

Full story at Boston Globe →

Brigham nurses set a strike date. Nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital have issued a 10-day notice for an open-ended strike beginning Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7 a.m., after rejecting what the hospital called its "last, best, and final" offer. It would follow a one-day strike in July and a four-day lockout. Both sides return to the table Monday, Nov. 9, which leaves a narrow window to avert it. Boston 25 →

Charlestown High School could close. Boston Public Schools has proposed shutting the school effective June 30, 2028, citing enrollment that has fallen 32 percent in three years, from 820 to 559 students. Councilor Coletta Zapata is asking for a Dec. 2 hearing and wants to know whether investments or changes to student assignment could turn things around. Boston 25 →

An opinion fight over Boston's schools. A CommonWealth Beacon op-ed argues the "State of the Schools" Mayor Michelle Wu described doesn't match the data, noting that roughly seven in 10 BPS third- and eighth-graders aren't at grade level in reading or math. It also criticizes the mayor's reaction to a billboard campaign by the advocacy group Next Chapter Boston. It's one side of a heated debate, but one the Charlestown proposal will only sharpen. CommonWealth Beacon →

Lindsay Clancy returns to court Monday. Clancy, accused in the 2023 deaths of her three children in Duxbury, has a motion hearing in Plymouth as the district attorney weighs a second trial. Her summer trial ended in a mistrial with a reported 11-1 jury split in favor of acquittal, and prosecutors argue the mistrial was legally justified. WCVB →

Local data center pushback is growing. Amherst officials have begun weighing a ban or size limits on data centers, a request co-sponsored by nine of 13 councilors and modeled on a ban already adopted in Holyoke. Kingston Town Meeting banned data centers in all zoning districts last week. The worries are electricity and water use, a theme that will keep surfacing from the Pioneer Valley to the South Shore. Daily Hampshire Gazette →

Hingham votes Tuesday on school roofs. Town Meeting unanimously backed roof replacements at South Elementary ($8.58 million) and Plymouth River Elementary ($16.37 million), but both need debt exclusion approval on the Nov. 3 ballot. Town Meeting also added $1.115 million for design work on a high school roof and HVAC project now estimated at $90 to $110 million. South Shore News →

• Tuesday, Nov. 3: Election Day, with a long ballot to plan for. Mail-in voters can track their ballots through the Secretary of State's online tools. WCVB →
• Monday, Nov. 9: Brigham nurses and Mass General Brigham return to contract talks, three days before the strike deadline. Boston 25 →
• Saturday, Dec. 5: Cohasset voters decide on a $20.9 million debt exclusion to convert 135 King Street into a police station, after last year's plan failed at the ballot. South Shore News →

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Yesterday's Biggest Contributions

Big Spending This Week

Data from the MA Office of Campaign & Political Finance

Full hearing schedule →

Recent filings with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance:

Candidates

• Robert Barcellos — Mayoral, Fall River — Filed: 10/30/2026
• Daniel Wong (Democratic) — City Councilor, Somerville — Filed: 10/27/2026

Ballot Question Committees

• Voter Choice for Massachusetts — N/A, N/A — Filed: 10/27/2026

Change of Purposes

• Luz Villar — Mayoral, Brockton → City Councilor, Brockton — Filed: 10/29/2026

OCPF →

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