Just as important are the feedback loops that legislative boss rule creates. “If you want that earmark for a senior center in your district,” says Diana DiZoglio, a former renegade legislator who is now state auditor, “you had better not challenge the leadership.” A few members do choose to play the role of outsider, but they rarely accomplish anything. To cross the Speaker is to have your extra pay and staff taken away, and your office abruptly moved to the basement. He can do this for more than half of the 160 members of the House, by naming them committee chairs, vice chairs, and other honorary leadership positions. To further entrench boss rule, the Speaker can augment the $73,654 base pay of state reps, by sums ranging from $7,095.60 to $88,694.99. Jamie Eldridge, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and is a rare effective progressive. It’s a culture of comfort that often trumps the interests of the working people who we represent and serve,” says state Sen. “You are not supposed to make anybody uncomfortable. It’s called “spotting,” and is considered an unfriendly act. Outing a fellow member to “take a difficult vote” even has a uniquely Beacon Hill term of opprobrium. Technically, a member can demand a roll call, and it does happen once in a while. Full texts of bills are often unavailable, and final passage on the floor is usually by voice vote. There are no recorded votes in House committees, where legislation is often sent to die, making it impossible to hold representatives accountable. The leadership and lobbyists make deals behind closed doors. And the Massachusetts legislature has procedures to ensure total leadership control that would make Boss Tweed blush. He’s the Speaker of the state House of Representatives. The most powerful politician on Beacon Hill remains a 77-year-old state representative named Ron Mariano, who was elected by exactly 10,085 voters in Norfolk County. It’s also corporate Democrats in one-party states.īut hold on, didn’t voters just elect reformers to the top posts? Not quite. If you unpack why this is the case, you appreciate that it isn’t only right-wing Republicans who undermine both democracy and popular faith in democracy. But on policy, Massachusetts continues to lag far behind other Democratic trifecta states. Polls confirm that Bay State voters are resolutely progressive on a range of issues. House member for Boston and some inner suburbs, Ayanna Pressley, is the first Black representative from Massachusetts and one of the most left members of Congress. The state auditor, the state treasurer, and the lieutenant governor are also women. To succeed Healey as AG, voters chose a crusading progressive, Andrea Campbell, the first African American woman in the position. Then in 2022, Democrat Maura Healey, the former attorney general and an out lesbian, was elected governor. In 2021, Michelle Wu, a 36-year-old progressive Boston city councilor, was elected Boston mayor, the first woman and the first Asian American to hold the post. And in the past two years, voters have rejected the long era of clubby, male, centrist, white-ethnic politics. House and Senate, including progressive champions Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. It sends an all-Democratic delegation to the U.S. Subscribe here.Īt first glance, Massachusetts seems to be among the bluest states in the nation. This article appears in the December 2023 issue of The American Prospect magazine.
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