POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Healey takes a hit over shelter crisis
By Kelly Garrity BLAME GAME — The state’s migrant and shelter crisis has consumed Gov. Maura Healey’s first term and strained the state’s resources for the past two years. And Massachusetts residents are starting to pin the blame on her. Twenty percent of Bay Staters surveyed in a new UMass Amherst/WCVB poll out this week said they hold Healey responsible for the strain on the state’s shelter system. That’s more than double the 9 percent who said the same in a poll last May when lawmakers were in the midst of debating how to fund the system in their annual budget. The Legislature is seen as slightly less culpable, with 17 percent laying the blame there — down from 18 percent in May. And many Bay Staters (18 percent) still blame former President Joe Biden. The poll of 700 respondents conducted Feb. 14-20 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points. Last year, the governor, House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President K...