There’s a sense among some Massachusetts political watchers, including the state’s top elections official, that this cycle has lacked a certain spark.
One possible culprit? The Boston Red Sox’s midsummer surge.
At least, that’s one tongue-in-cheek theory from Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who suggested that voters may have more on their minds than September primaries.
“I don’t sense that there’s any great excitement about the election in September,” Galvin said in an interview Thursday. “Now, you can offer a lot of other reasons for that. … There are other things people are paying attention to. First, we had all the World Cup stuff. Now we’re getting the revival of the Red Sox. There are a lot of distractions.”
Whether baseball is actually siphoning off attention from politics is another question. But Galvin’s broader point reflects a reality of this year’s campaign season: With just weeks until voters head to the polls, there hasn’t been the same buzz that accompanied previous statewide primaries despite a handful of contested congressional races and a (sort of) nationally watched US Senate Democratic primary at the top of the ticket.
It’s an election cycle that feels “pretty flat,” Galvin said — and an unusually early pre-Labor Day primary that aligns with the annual Sept. 1 move-in rush across Greater Boston doesn’t help. That said, Galvin said he expects participation to land roughly where it has in past mid-term election cycles, which also didn’t set ballots ablaze.
As of Thursday morning, more than 570,000 voters had requested mail-in ballots, and roughly 46,000 had turned them in, according to Galvin. The number the state sent out is similar to 2022, the last statewide election year, when nearly 480,000 people ultimately voted by mail, accounting for nearly half of the 1 million ballots cast in those September primaries, according to data from Galvin’s office.
Galvin expects Republican and Democratic primary turnout this year is likely to resemble that year and 2018, despite the calendar shuffle. Lawmakers regularly move up the state’s primary to address logistical concerns tied to overseas and military ballots or to avoid primary day landing on religious holidays — a maneuver that this year is creating a campaign calendar that’s compressed even further.
Past primaries also featured marquee races that naturally drew more attention. In 2018, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s reelection campaign doubled as an unofficial preview of her eventual presidential bid. Four years later, while the governor’s race was largely settled before primary day, competitive contests for attorney general, lieutenant governor, and state auditor gave voters additional reasons to tune in.
Of course, in 2020, the US Senate primary between Senator Ed Markey and Representative Joe Kennedy III drew national attention and helped juice turnout, which topped 1.7 million that Sept. 1. The COVID-19 pandemic also prompted lawmakers to expand — and voters to embrace — mail-in voting that year.
The ballot this year is filled with challengers, but relatively few races have emerged as true toss-ups. None of the state’s six statewide constitutional officers, Galvin included, face any primary challenge, and even for the high-profile incumbents who do, voters say they’re having a hard time getting jazzed about their choices.
Take Markey’s challenge this year from Representative Seth Moulton. More than a dozen voters told the Globe’s Anjali Huynh and Samantha J. Gross that they’re either turned off or largely disinterested in the contest.
“People are just sick and tired and exhausted from the last couple of years,” said Lynn Chenevert, 65. “You just put your head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening.”
THE ACE UP HIS SLEEVE? Republican gubernatorial hopeful Brian Shortsleeve spent the opening stretch of his campaign putting some distance between himself and Charlie Baker — the popular former governor who elevated Shortsleeve to lead the MBTA, but who some Massachusetts Republicans view as a liability in a GOP primary.
Now, with less than four weeks until the Sept. 1 primary against fellow GOP hopeful Michael Minogue, Shortsleeve is embracing the Baker brand.
Shortsleeve’s campaign on Friday rolled out an ad leaning hard on the candidate’s ties to the former governor, whose approval ratings routinely topped national rankings.
The spot, dubbed “Roll Up,” packs in nearly as much Baker as it does Shortsleeve, featuring photos of the duo shaking hands at a press conference, standing shoulder-to-shoulder for the camera, and sitting around a conference table looking suitably serious. (Baker, to be sure, hasn’t endorsed Shortsleeve nor has he gotten involved in the gubernatorial primary.)
“The T was in crisis and Charlie Baker called me,” Shortsleeve, a venture capitalist who served as the MBTA’s chief administrator, says in the 30-second spot.
It would be an obvious general election pitch; Baker left office four years ago still broadly popular with Massachusetts voters. But in a Republican primary, the calculation is trickier.
Baker spent his final years in office openly feuding with the conservative wing of the state GOP and breaking with the national party as President Trump’s rise reshaped it. He ultimately opted against seeking reelection and fighting through a primary against a Trump-aligned Republican. And even out of office, he’s continued to dabble in Massachusetts politics — and not always on the Republican side.
Which may help explain why Shortsleeve wasn’t always eager to campaign as Baker’s political heir. Pressed earlier this year on whether his politics more closely aligned with Baker or former Governor Mitt Romney — another moderate Republican whom Shortsleeve long supported — Shortsleeve told WBUR that he was his “own man.”
His new ad, which Shortsleeve’s campaign says it’s putting $1 million behind, also milks Shortsleeve’s last name for all it’s worth. It includes the phrases “long sleeves” and “no sleeves,” and Shortsleeve says he’s a guy who’s been “rolling up [his] sleeves.” It then pivots to his a résumé reel: He pitches himself as a Marine veteran and MBTA budget-slasher who Baker recruited to help get the T’s finances under control.
OPENING ARGUMENTS: Suffolk County district attorney candidates face off in fiery forum by Griffin Gonzalez and Mike Pescaro, NBC10 Boston: Three candidates for Boston’s top prosecutor faced off in a tense forum Thursday in Roxbury. Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, former Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins and former Suffolk County assistant district attorney Linda Champion made their cases to voters ahead of the Democratic primary.
“You only know Kevin because I left to become your U.S. attorney,” Rollins said Thursday.
“This person left her job, and now she wants it back, cause nothing else worked out for her, and it didn’t work out for her because of her lack of ethics and integrity,” Hayden fired back.
COURTHOUSE CONTROVERSY, CONTINUED: Attorney General urges judge to allow courthouse construction to move forward by Jeanette DeForge, The Republican: Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell is urging the courts to reject a demand to stop the state from entering into a contract with the selected developer for a new Springfield courthouse, calling the complaint of a flawed bidding process a “fever dream of imagined malfeasance.”
In a strongly worded brief filed late Wednesday, Campbell asked for the request for a preliminary injunction be rejected so the work to build a new courthouse can move forward. She disputed the argument that one of the principals in the Liberty Junction team selected as the preferred developer had a conflict of interest, so the project should not have been considered.
John Barros, the head of the Massachusetts convention center authority who was involved in the winning bid, said last month that he was “divesting” from the controversial $2 billion contract.
POT HOLE: Newton ordered to repay over $2m to marijuana companies after it spent the money on unrelated projects by Yogev Toby, The Boston Globe: A judge this week ordered Newton to pay back the $71,734 it spent on “Officer Leo,” a golden retriever who helps keep kids off drugs, along with another $2 million it collected from licensed marijuana companies.
The city, the judge ruled, improperly spent the money on projects unrelated to regulating their businesses.
BLUES TRAVELER: ‘Blue Line, best line’ no more? Delays, downed wires are testing the T’s long-steady subway. by Diti Kohli, The Boston Globe: Once the darling of a beleaguered system for its reliable service, the six-mile track between downtown Boston and Revere has been hamstrung by persistent problems with overhead wires and the electrical power system.
Passengers have been diverted from stalled trains at least four times this summer. A small fire broke out in July. And one rider escorted from a train Monday told a local television station they saw a “shower of sparks” and smelled “burning metal” from a downed cable.
LANE CHANGE: Lynn’s mayor says redesign of Lynnway is a safety issue. Commuters call it a ‘nightmare’ by Diane Adame, GBH News: The state-funded Route 1A project, which was first introduced in May 2025, is a partnership between the MBTA and state transportation and recreation agencies. The project proposes cutting the number of lanes from six to four and adding bus and bike lanes.
Quabbin Reservoir towns take funding fight to Beacon Hill amid extended drought by Jordan Wolman, CommonWealth Beacon.
Littleton shut down Flock surveillance cameras on public roads. Without telling the town, Flock turned them back on. by Yogev Toby, The Boston Globe.
Mass. education chief responds after Globe report found Black students in Milton were disproportionately investigated by John Hilliard, The Boston Globe.
Citing his oversight role, U.S. Rep. Neal visits ICE facility in Mass. by Daniel Jackson, The Republican.
39 plaintiffs unite in sweeping Gabriel House fire lawsuit by Dan Medeiros, The Herald News.
Thanks for reading The Scrum.
This newsletter was edited and produced by Matt Stout.
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Kelly Garrity can be reached at kelly.garrity@globe.com.