In this week’s Talking Politics debrief, Saraya Wintersmith, Peter Kadzis, and Adam Reilly size up Andrea Campbell and Rahsaan Hall’s bids for attorney general and Plymouth County district attorney; a new push for reparations in Boston; Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl’s hiring of Trump confidante Corey Lewandowski; and secretary of state Bill Galvin’s push for more transparency in the governor’s office. In the second segment, Adam is joined by Left of Center cofounder Mara Dolan and Jetpac head Mohammed Missouri to analyze Maura Healey’s moderate pitch as she starts running for governor; how it could impact the other Democratic candidates’ campaigns; and what, exactly, it means to be a “progressive” in Massachusetts politics in 2022.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was dealt a blow to her employee-vaccine mandate this week, when a court temporarily halted it from going into effect. But some argue she's still winning the bigger battle. Adam Reilly is joined by the Bay State Banner's Yawu Miller and UMass Dartmouth's Shannon Jenkins on that, their disappointment with the latest voting-rights legislation in the State House, Governor Charlie Baker's final state-of-the-state speech, and another new candidate in the race to replace Baker: Republican businessman and self-described moderate Chris Doughty, who may face an uphill battle in the age of Trump. Also, nearly two years into the pandemic, many parents and caregivers of kids under five are feeling left behind and, in some cases forgotten. What more could policymakers be doing to help them stay afloat, economically and psychologically? Adam is joined by GBH News' Craig LeMoult and Gladys Vega, of La Colaborativa, to discuss.

Ever since the Capitol insurrection, the fight over the future of voting rights has emerged as an issue of paramount importance, with Republican-controlled states taking steps to make voting more difficult and pave the way for the overturning of future elections and congressional Democrats trying, and failing, to advance legislation to create new national standards. So why are voting rights an afterthought at the Massachusetts State House? Adam Reilly talks it through with state Representative Erika Uyterhoeven and Cheryl Crawford, who heads the advocacy group MassVOTE. In the second segment, Adam discusses the increasingly fraught politics of protest with former Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson and former Mass. GOP chair Jennifer Nassour.

For years, the encampments at Mass and Cass embodied some of society’s most intractable problems — addiction, mental health, and homelessness — and constituted a crisis in their own right. Now they’re gone thanks to a new initiative by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. But will her solution hold? And what will the people who called Mass and Cass home do now? Adam Reilly talks it through with Tori Bedford, who’s been regularly reporting on Mass and Cass for GBH News. Next, GBH News senior editor Peter Kadzis and Boston Globe opinion columnist Marcela Garcia tackle those same questions, as well as Governor Charlie Baker’s appearance before the Legislature’s COVID-oversight committee and the possible return of rent control in Boston and beyond. The episode closes with two more GBH News reporters, Saraya Wintersmith and Craig LeMoult, discussing the protests outside Mayor Wu’s home and the impact COVID is having on psychiatric care in Massachusetts.

COVID has been political ever since the pandemic started. But as the omicron variant surges, disputes over authority, policy, and the tension public health and personal autonomy have become especially sharp. Adam Reilly sizes up these fault lines and how they could shift in the future with GBH News political editor PEter Kadzis, state Senator Becca Rausch, and “Java With Jimmy” host James Hills.

On this episode of Talking Politics, Sue O’Connell fills in for Adam Reilly (health and safety protocols). She and the rest of the GBH News political team—Saraya Wintersmith, Mike Deehan, and Peter Kadzis—size up the biggest end-of-the-year happenings, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s plan to address the longstanding crisis at Mass and Cass and Governor Charlie Baker’s refusal (so far) to implement a statewide mask mandate. In the second half of the show, Deehan, Kadzis, and Wintersmith identify the stories they’ll be watching most closely as 2022 begins.

Most of President Biden’s nominees had a much easier path to confirmation than Rachael Rollins, the Suffolk DA-turned-US Attorney for Massachusetts. So what is it about Rollins and her approach that gets Republicans so riled up? How will Rollins’ MO shift in her new role? And as Governor Baker gets ready to pick her replacement, what considerations are top of mind? Adam Reilly unpacks it all with GBH News’s Callie Crossley and Phillip Martin, who also size up the possibility of former state Senator Dianne Wilkerson running for her old seat. Afterward, Elijah Zeh of the Massachusetts Association of College Republicans and Ted Park of the College Democrats of Massachusetts weigh in on a new poll from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government that shows deep despair among members of Gen Z about the future of American democracy.

This week's announcement by Governor Charlie Baker (R-MA) that he won't see a third term threw Massachusetts politics into a state of upheaval. On the Democratic side, current candidates Ben Downing, Danielle Allen, and Sonia Chang-Diaz now face a bevy of prospective new rivals, including former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and former Boston mayoral candidate Annissa Essaibi George — which creates new pressure on another potential Democratic candidate, Attorney General Maura Healey, to finally make up her mind. On the Republican side, former state Rep Geoff Diehl could get company soon too, though the Mass GOP's allegiance to former President Trump and Trumpism seems deeper than ever. In the first episode of GBH News' Talking Politics, Political Reporter Adam Reilly unpacks it all with GBH State House Reporter Mike Deehan, Bay State Banner Senior Editor Yawu Miller, and Boston Globe Columnist Joan Vennochi.