re: #294 Gus

The Willie Horton ad campaign was a big old racist dog whistle.

no. What the intent was to show how soft Dukakis was on crime and sentencing

The State inmate furlough program was actually signed into law by Republican Governor Francis W. Sargent in 1972. However, under Sargent, convicted first-degree murderers were not eligible for furlough. After the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers, the Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill arguing it would ‘cut the heart out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation’.[5