Alison Kuznitz, “Eight-year term limit eliminated for Mass. Senate President Karen Spilka,” MassLive, February 9, 2023.
Jonathan Cohn, policy director at the grassroots activist organization Progressive Mass, said the lack of floor debate Thursday likely stems from senators’ fear of retaliation from Spilka, particularly as committee assignments have yet to be released.
Yet should senators eventually elect a “very conservative” president, Cohn warned “you’re stuck with them for a long because there’s no fail-safe.”
“When you give one person that level of power- and agenda-setting for the body, it also just slows things down because you’re the one person and you’re in charge indefinitely for the future,” Cohn told MassLive. “It makes it clear that everything needs to run through you, and there are only 24 hours in the day. That centralization that exists in both House and Senate is something that causes a lot of the inertia that exists in the building.”
