Keller @ Large: What to keep in mind as Election Day approaches
BOSTON -- Election Day is one month away. Jon Keller brought in GBH's Katie Lannan and State House News Service's Matt Murphy to help highlight what voters need to know.
Recent polls show Maura Healey leading Geoff Diehl by as much as 26 points. What can Diehl's campaign do to gain traction?
"I think there's a window for Geoff Diehl to talk about economic issues. We've heard him start bringing up things like energy prices and the attorney general's stance on pipelines, saying those things could make it even harder to heat your home this winter," said Lannan. "It is a good issue but I think most of the Democratic candidates up and down the ballot have such a strong lead in the polls. It's going to take something really notable to break through there."
"There's certainly a feeling of inevitability in this race," Murphy said. "Diehl really needs to appeal to those independent voters and as Katie said, he's made some attempts with some of these economic messages around energy and other issues but Maura Healey has also centered her campaign around these same issues. She's not campaigning on far-left progressive issues."
Question 4 is the ballot question that if approved, would keep the law passed last spring by the legislature that allows undocumented citizens to get driver's licenses. Did the migrants' landing in Martha's Vineyard impact public opinion on this question?
"It definitely thrusts the question of immigration policy and how Massachusetts wants to respond really to the top of mind for a lot of people and of course we haven't seen that law take effect yet, so it's an interesting time to be trying to repeal it before its actually coming into play," Lannan said.
"The immigration issue being in the spotlight, I think there has been a lot of feelings of sympathy towards those migrants who got shipped to Martha's Vineyard," said Murphy. "Initially what looked like a split electorate on this issue, we have seen subsequent surveys showing people are inclined to maybe keep this law in effect."
He also pointed out that the way the question is phrased is confusing since yes would keep the law and no would repeal it.
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