Political Round-Up: Walsh ‘feeling good’ about home-rule on liquor licenses

Leadership has extended Tuesday’s deadline for the House to advance Rep. Russell Holmes’s liquor license home rule bill to the final day of this legislative session, although Mayor Martin J. Walsh still “feels good” about the prospects for reform – despite dwindling days for action.

“I had a conversation with some leadership the other day, I’m hopeful that something will happen, though there’s nothing yet,” Walsh told the Reporter on Monday, declining to go into specifics. “With the legislative process, there’s nothing concrete there. That’s not a slap, we just have to figure it out. I feel pretty confident that we’ll get something.”

In the meantime, the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure is waiting to see what happens to the sister amendment to Holmes’s bill in the Senate because of “very similar language,” according to Peter Antonellis, the committee’s chief of staff. The upper body’s amendment was tacked onto the Senate economic development bill last week by Democrat Sen. Thomas P. Kennedy of Brockton .

As of today, lawmakers have 16 business days to determine what exactly Walsh’s “something” will be.

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In campaign news, the two Daniels of Dorchester (state Reps. Daniel Cullinane and Daniel Hunt) endorsed Steve Kerrigan for lieutenant governor on Tuesday. Kerrigan, a longtime state Democratic figure, is facing competition from Cambridge City Councilor Leland Cheung and Mike Lake, the CEO of the Boston-based urban public policy initiative Leading Cities who was recently endorsed by Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson.

For his part, Cullinane was given an endorsement boost by Congressman Mike Capuano, who rolled into Mattapan Square’s Brothers Deli & Restaurant to chat with the recently elected rep and members of the community. Outlining a number of Cullinane’s achievements in the eight months since he’s been in office with members of the community, Capuano said he was struck by how fiercely the representative goes to bat for his constituents, calling him an “elected official not afraid to roll up his sleeves and do it for himself. Those little things add up to so much more. How many politicians notice trash barrels?”

Cullinane is being challenged by fellow Democrats Corey J. Allen, Carlotta M. Williams, and Ruthella J. Legan-Cruz for the 12th Suffolk Houe seat.

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How many Bay State politicians play guitar? Catch former mayoral candidate Bill Walczak as one half of the Bill Walczak Combo shredding some country, folk, and Irish riffs, “kinda like Down Home meets Donegal,” at the Hyde Park branch library on Thursday evening and consider it a fulfillment of a campaign promise. “Last year at a mayoral forum, when asked what I’d like to be doing if I weren’t running for mayor, I said I’d like to be playing music with a
group,” Walczak said in an email invite. “Well, this is it!”

The Codman Square Health Center founder, on the cusp of turning 60, will perform with Rob Atterbury. The free concert starts at 6:30 outdoors on the children’s reading green.

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In his attempt to become a lawmaker, Suffolk County Sheriff candidate Douglas Bennett apparently became a law breaker on Monday. As reported by Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin, Bennett was ticketed for posting a campaign sign on public property. Bennett did not return the Reporter’s request for comment. The hand-painted “Vote for Sheriff Bennett (Democrat)” sign was hung on the chain-link fence lining Beacon Street over the Massachusetts Turnpike and reported to the city by an anonymous user on the Citizens Connect app, who wrote “Ummm...no no no. Another public space just like the on Southampton St. I sent yesterday. When will these signs stop? Been over six months.”

In just under two months, Bennett and sitting Suffolk County Sheriff Steven F. Tompkins will battle it out in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary. There are no Republican challengers.


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