Issues Committee Chair Jonathan Cohn recently penned an op-ed in CommonWealth about the ascension of Majority Leader Ron Mariano as Speaker of the House. Entitled “Don’t Expect Change for the Better under Mariano, it begins:
All signs point to House Majority Leader Ron Mariano being elected the next speaker of the Massachusetts House.
What does a Mariano speakership mean for a progressive policy agenda in Massachusetts? As Reps. Denise Provost and Jonathan Hecht remind us, he shares the same top-down leadership style as Speaker Bob DeLeo, with an even more conservative ideology.
If we want to get a sense of what a Mariano speakership will be like, it’s useful to look at the process and output of the working groups and task forces he has led. And that doesn’t inspire confidence.
You can read the full piece here.
Jonathan was also quoted on the Speaker change in CommonWealth and The Patriot-Ledger.
Shira Schoenberg, “A Deal-Making Speaker,” CommonWealth, 12/29, 2020:
Jonathan Cohn, issues chair of Progressive Massachusetts, a liberal activist group that has been critical of House leadership, said he believes Mariano was one of the driving forces opposing the passage of the Safe Communities Act, which would restrict state law enforcement officials’ ability to cooperate with federal immigration agents. Cohn said Mariano is “often doing the bidding of industry,” citing as an example a debate over drug pricing policy where Mariano took a pro-pharmaceutical company position.
Joe DiFazio, “Longtime Quincy Rep. Ron Mariano becomes Massachusetts House speaker,” The Patriot-Ledger, 12/30/2020:
It has long been assumed that the speakership was Mariano’s once DeLeo left office, a conclusion that Johnathan Cohn said is bad for the House.
“The thing that’s mainly disappointing to me is how it had pretty much all been settled years ago,” said Cohn, co-chairman of the issues committee for Progressive Massachusetts, a liberal activism group. “When it comes to worst-case scenario, it would be that if we end up getting an all-white leadership team that’s even more conservative, and that it becomes even harder to get things through the House, and the House and Senate’s relationship gets worse.”
