In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I write about the surprising emergence of Worcester as an epicenter of political power in Massachusetts.

I can hear you snickering out there.

Worcester has never gotten much respect, but it might be time to readjust that thinking. Tim Murray, Jim McGovern, Guy Glodis and others could be wielding power in the state for years to come.

Over the course of the year I have occasionally remarked that it's typical of Massachusetts Democrats that, in a year where voters are clearly angry at insider Beacon Hill Democrats, the party is rallying around former party chairman Steve Grossman and former Deval Patrick campaign political director Suzanne Bump, for the open statewide offices of treasurer and auditor.

It's time to play Choose The Punchline!

The Guy Glodis campaign for state auditor has sent out a very nice mail piece with this very large banner headline:

"Guy Glodis Will Reign In Wasteful Spending"

Is the punchline:

A) I hope he's better at auditing math than auditing spelling.

B) Wasteful spending, like printing and mailing something with a huge misspelling?

Reading the New York Times yesterday, I sadly accepted that, as a self-declared expert on Republican woman officeholders, I would have to write a blog post about this op-ed about how progressives somehow need to get themselves a Sarah Palin, rather than, oh, I don't know, the many many serious Democratic women who are major political players having a real impact on politics and policy in this country.

For my obsessive interest in the ongoing extinction of elected Republican women, the big news from yesterday's primaries was the apparent defeat of incumbent US Senator Lisa Murkowski. Apparent, because it's close and Alaska is a wacky state where votes come in from the hinterlands by sled or something. But as of this moment it sounds like she's going to lose (and could not get her name on the ballot as an independent).

Not that I want to support the return of former Speaker Tom DeLay to the public forum, but I'll note that he makes an interesting point about the Democratic Party's national grassroots organization efforts, which he says will mitigate some of the potential for Republican gains in the US House.

He might be right -- although it remains to be seen how effective that operation proves to be in a year when Democrats seem less enthused than they did in the last two election cycles.

Oh, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie....

Scot Lehigh followed up with Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker the other day about his appearance at a Bill Hudak event, figuring that he's now had enough time, since I wrote about it, and since Scot first asked him about it, to have forged a serious response.

I can't say that his response strikes me as very serious:

Once upon a time, like back in February when Bill Delahunt announced his retirement, there was a lot of thinking that Republicans could win the race this November for his replacement in the 10th District. After all, it's one of the least-Democratic districts in the state, and in January its voters went gaga over Scotto Brown.

Way, way, back last November, I blogged that...

...there is a realistic, if slim, possibility that Democrats could hold all six New England governorships come January 2011. According to my extensive research -- OK, scrolling through Wikipedia, mostly -- I believe this would be the first time that has happened ever, in the 200+ years of the party (including when it was called the Democratic-Republican Party).

Just before I went on vacation, Diane Black narrowly won the GOP primary in the Tennessee 6th congressional district, making her the very likely successor to retiring Democrat Bart Gordon in that Republican-leaning district. Black thus becomes the first likely female member of the 2011 Republican freshman class. Not quite justifying the whole "Year of the Republican Woman" claims, but hey, it's a start.

I've been on vacation for the past week, but I'm back and ready to offer my two cents on things swirling around the local political scene.

--Charlie Baker's campaign put out an optimistic top-page pollster memo, from a two-week-old poll showing the same thing other polls from that time showed: Deval Patrick ahead by about 7 points, with Tim Cahill's support refusing to die.

Bill Hudak, Republican congressional candidate in John Tierney's district, has not been universally embraced by mainstream Massachusetts Republicans -- in fact, when Hudak announced that Scott Brown had endorsed him, Brown quickly denied it and forced a retraction.

That cold shoulder is due to some rather disturbing and, some might say, nutty opinions Hudak has expressed, such as once suggesting to journalists that he had documentation proving that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

Let me start by saying, as I often do, that Massachusetts remains ahead of the San Francisco Bay area as a liberal icon for the disdain of conservatives, and those jealous left coasters are desparately trying to regain some cred by getting their gay marriages back.

Anyway... Yesterday's ruling overturning the "Prop 8" ban on same-sex marriage made me think of a conversation I had with a leader of a religious anti-gay organization in the South, right after the Goodrich ruling in Massachusetts in November 2004.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- online and in print now -- I write about the end of the Massachusetts legislative session last week, which of course was dominated by the ultimately failed attempt (at least, as of this writing) to pass an expanded gaming bill.

I suggest that those with the most experience at working in these kinds of high-stakes Beacon Hill showdowns were the ones who fared best: senate president Therese Murray most notably, but to some degree Governor Deval Patrick and Treasurer/gubernatorial candidate Tim Cahill as well.