Ruth Balser

Latest Articles

Tea Party Progressives?

Outsiders are trying to crash the gates of the state’s Democratic establishment — and are starting to succeed
When Democrat Peter Smulowitz celebrated his victory in the special-election primary for State Senate earlier this month in the back room of Masala Art restaurant in Needham, no bigwigs from his party were in attendance.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 03, 2010

Taking sides

The US Senate election is forcing Massachusetts pols to choose their team. Plus, Pagliuca’s plan, and the state GOP tries to get serious.
The stakes are high in the battle for Massachusetts’s first new US senatorship in a quarter-century.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 04, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

DiMasi’s sheep

How Stepford politics rule Beacon Hill
DiMasi’s overwhelming victory in the recent casino vote — in which only 34 of 140 Democrats voted against his plan to banish the bill for further study — was actually, as meager as it was, an unusual show of dissent.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | June 15, 2011

Can Obama lasso the Bay State?

Once considered sure Clinton country, the Massachusetts primary is now a shootout
Nobody around here forgets that Deval Patrick swiped the gubernatorial nomination from the establishment-backed Tom Reilly.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 23, 2008