Latest Poll Reveals What Matters Most to Massachusetts Voters Ahead of Elections

In case you were wondering, no one considers replacing the Massachusetts state flag among the most pressing issues facing the Commonwealth. When asked to select from a list of 11 issues which ones they are losing sleep over, no one chose replacing the state flag.

The Disappearing State Flag Commission

I could have told them that. That could be why the special commission charged with designing a replacement flag seems to have evaporated like the morning dew without completing its mission.

What is concerning folks is the cost of living in Massachusetts.

What Is Really Keeping Massachusetts Residents Up at Night?

According to the latest University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB Massachusetts Public Opinion Poll, the cost of living is by far the biggest concern as folks get ready to vote.

Massachusetts Voters Put Cost Of Living Concerns Above All Else

The poll asked respondents to "select the one issue that you would like to see Gov. Maura Healey and the Massachusetts State Legislature address in the coming year." The pollsters are assuming Healey will still be governor next year.

Nearly four in 10 respondents (39 percent) said the cost of living.

Housing was a distant second at 14 percent, followed by immigration (11 percent), health care and taxes (nine percent each), transportation and infrastructure (four percent), climate change (also four percent), homelessness (three percent), and crime and education (two percent each).

Misplaced Priorities in Massachusetts Politics

Notably absent from the poll's choices were providing gender affirming care for kids, energy costs, offshore wind, abortion on demand up until birth, dismantling ICE, rampant fraud in the SNAP program, sweetheart courthouse contract deals for insiders, and lavish travel on the taxpayers' credit cards.

Nah, let's ask them for their opinion on changing the state flag instead.

By the way, the state flag option has received no votes in each of the last five annual surveys by UMass Amherst/WVCB. Perhaps they should drop it from next year's poll.