Some hints of state house battleground
This is the time of year for State of the State addresses, which offer plans for the future and glimpses of the battles to come in state houses around New England. Governor John Baldacci of Maine pledged to generate 5,000 new jobs and purchase laptops for high schoolers, but Republican legislators wondered where the money would come from. Governor James Douglas of Vermont proposed a corporate tax reduction, along with the closing of loopholes that allow out-of-state companies to avoid taxes. In some states, the speeches are making waves before they're delivered: Governor Craig Benson of New Hampshire angered legislators by moving his speech on Thursday from the State House in Concord to Plymouth State University. And Connecticut residents may be wondering whether Republican Governor John Rowland will be around to deliver his message on Feb. 4. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week indicated that 68 percent of voters polled say Rowland should resign after ethics violations; nearly half of the state's Republicans think he should go.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: For the past 11 presidential elections, the honor of casting the first vote in the nation's first presidential primary went to Neil Tillotson, the town moderator of Dixville Notch, N.H. Tillotson died in 2001, just before his 103d birthday, and senior Selectman Stephen Barba said the honor will now go to whomever among the town's 26 voters wins a raffle tomorrow night. At midnight tomorrow, the 16 independents and 10 Republicans will step into individual voting booths. "Every eligible voter is registered, and once every registered voter votes, the supervisor says `no more' and closes the polls, then we announce the results," said Barba. Dixville Notch's first-in-the-state tradition, Barba said, began in 1960 when Associated Press regional director Walter Green was searching for a media-appropriate locale. Dixville Notch had only six voters, but it had what other rural towns lacked and reporters needed: a good hotel and plenty of phones.
E-LECTIONS: Today, it's access to the Internet that counts. The Massachusetts House overrode a veto last week to restore $6.8 million to upgrade the Legislature's website. Citizen groups, including Common Cause and Citizens for Limited Taxation, say the upgrade is essential. "The legislative website is back in the Stone Age, crafted in the 1980s," said Pam Wilmot, director of Common Cause Massachusetts. "Until pretty recently, you had to go to a committee chairman even to get access to the Internet." Darrell West, head of Brown University's Taubman Center for Public Policy, said Massachusetts scored tops in the nation in his 2003 study of state websites. But, he adds, states could do much more to use the Web to enhance democracy, like webcasting hearings and putting voting records online. "Planners have a service mentality," West said, "and they're not using the Internet to improve responsiveness and accountability."
EVERYBODY'S A CRITIC: In 1999, the town of Amherst drew national attention for canceling a high school production of "West Side Story" over claims that it was racist toward Hispanics. Now school administrators are in the spotlight for allowing a performance of "The Vagina Monologues" by students. So far, Amherst-Pelham Regional is the only high school in the country to host a performance of the play, a series of funny and heartbreaking -- but also sometimes cringe-inducing -- testimonials about sexuality, rape, and gender identity. Writes conservative online columnist Amber Pawlik: "Why would the school board reject [`West Side Story'] and accept `The Vagina Monologues?' They're perverts, that's why." Bill O'Reilly has called (twice), as has Time magazine. There are likely to be more monologues at the school committee meeting Tuesday night; said local opponent Larry Kelley, "I hope to God they cave."
B.J. Roche, who writes from Western Massachusetts, can be reached at peaks@globe.com.
