Kelly Garrity, “The perils of one-party rule,” POLITICO, July 24, 2023.
“There’s a sense of complacency in the Massachusetts Legislature,” Jonathan Cohn, political director for Progressive Massachusetts, told Playbook. “When you have a situation where most of them never face any type of electoral challenge — primary or general — if you don’t finish something, you can get the band back together in the next legislative session.”
“Mass. lawmakers have two bosses, heed one (hint: it’s not the voters),” Boston Globe, June 8, 2023.
The article “Lawmakers show little concern over sleepy start” (Page A1, May 30) astutely captured the problem of worsening inertia on Beacon Hill, with few bills, few votes, and almost no debate in the session so far. As the article points out, the over-centralization of power on Beacon Hill is a key culprit.
I often underscore that the State House suffers from a “two bosses” problem. In most jobs, the person who can hire and fire you is the same as the person who controls your pay. But for legislators, we — the public — are the ones who can choose, through our votes, to hire and fire elected officials, and legislative leadership, through committee chairs and other perks, are the ones who control the pay, with a scale that has become even more hierarchical in recent years.
With Massachusetts having the least competitive elections in the country, it’s no surprise which “boss” speaks loudest to legislators, but we all lose out from the lack of urgency around the many crises our state faces, from the growing costs of child care to the affordable housing crisis to a transit system in desperate need of care.
Jonathan Cohn
Boston
The writer is policy director of Progressive Massachusetts.
Happy Sunshine Week!
Sunshine Week is an ongoing initiative from the News Leaders Association to raise awareness about the importance of open government.
We could certainly use some sunshine in Massachusetts, as our state regularly ranks at the bottom of lists about government transparency.
Let your legislators know that you value open government and urge them to do the following:
Can you write to your legislators today?
Hybrid access for local meetings has helped increase participation and has removed obstacles facing working people, parents of young children, other caregivers, people with disabilities, people with limited transportation, among many other populations.
There are countless stories out there about the positive impact of such increased access. And the stories might include YOU.
Personal stories are a powerful tool to move legislators to take action. Has remote or hybrid access to public meetings enabled you to more fully participate in local government? If so, please use this form to share your story with the ACLU for this important campaign.
Today is Valentine’s Day, a great opportunity to give some love to the bills on our 2023-2024 Legislative Agenda.
These bills would…
What’s not to LOVE?
Please reach out to your state legislators about our new legislative agenda for the session!
Write to your legislators here!
Read more about all the bills we’re supporting.
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The Common Start Coalition is looking for volunteers to help communicate about the Common Start agenda (affordable, high-quality early education and child care for all Massachusetts families) in local newspapers, cable access TV programs, and radio stations across the state.
Are you interested in writing a letter to the editor about Common Start in your local newspaper and/or going on a local cable access TV or radio program in your community to talk about Common Start? Please fill out this formto express your interest in communicating about Common Start!
Affordable high-quality public higher education is essential to expand opportunity in all of our communities and create a more equitable and prosperous Commonwealth. Higher Ed For All is advocating for fully funded community colleges, state universities, and UMass campuses to knock down the barriers that too many potential college graduates’ encounter.
The Higher Ed for All coalition will be having an Advocacy Day at the State House on Tuesday, February 28. Never been to a lobby day before? There will be trainings in advance.
Have a few minutes for a quick action? Call Governor Healey and leave a message about why it’s time to put a pause on new prisons and jails: bit.ly/massmoratoriumguide.
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.”
Jonathan Cohn, political director for the left-wing grassroots group Progressive Massachusetts, voiced concern that eliminating term limits for the Senate president would be another step moving the Senate closer to the House in the way it does business.
The past few years have seen “what I would call a House-ification of the Massachusetts Senate,” said Cohn, “operating with a greater concentration of power that we have, in recent years, more attributed to the Massachusetts House, and now possibly embracing its style of governance.”
Eight years ago, then House Speaker Bob DeLeo was able to get the MA House to repeal term limits for the Speakership, further concentrating power in the Speaker’s Office.
Now, MA Senate leaders are looking to follow, eliminating the term limits that still exist for the Senate President.
When one tries to diagnose the reasons for inertia in the Massachusetts State Legislature, where a commanding supermajority of Democrats end up passing too few bills and taking too long to pass them, one of the key underlying problems is the over-concentration of power. When too few people are in control of too many things, you get bottlenecks: things don’t get done. When those too few people also have the ability to retaliate against anyone who speaks out (demotion from committee leadership, lower salary, fewer staff, smaller and more remote office), then the quality of debate declines. And our democracy weakens.
Tell your state senator to oppose eliminating term limits for Senate President.
Massachusetts wants a small “d” democratic Senate. Amendment #23 to the Senate Rules package (S17) would take us in the opposite direction.
Last Tuesday marked the end of the 192nd Legislative Session (2021-2022) in Massachusetts. New and returning legislators were sworn in, and soon, bills will be filed, committees assigned, etc., etc.
But before diving into the new session, let’s take a look back at the one that just passed with our Final 192nd Session Legislator Scorecard.
How did your legislators do? Find out by visiting our scorecard website here, or looking at the charts on our website (here & here).
Six returning legislators — 3 state senators and 3 state reps — had As on our scorecard for the past session.
The 3 senators were Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), Sen. Pat Jehlen (D-Somerville), and Sen. Becca Rausch (D-Needham).
.png "192nd Session Senate Honor Roll")
The 3 representatives were Rep. Mike Connolly (D-Cambridge), Rep. Dan Sena (D-Acton), and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville).
.png "192nd Session Senate Honor Roll")
We are looking forward to the new legislative session. At the end of the day, legislators decide what votes we can score by what recorded votes they request and what bills they advance. May the new session be one filled with progressive legislative action.
An outrageous undermining of democracy right here on Beacon Hill
Yesterday, on Wednesday, January 4, state legislators were sworn in for the beginning of the new legislative session in Massachusetts: the 193rd session of the General Court.
But rather than swear in 160 representatives, the MA House only swore in 158.
That’s because Speaker Ron Mariano has refused to seat two Democratic women who narrowly flipped Republican districts.
Margaret Scarsdale won the open race for the 1st Middlesex district by 7 votes. The election was certified after a thorough recount.
Kristin Kassner defeated incumbent Republican Lenny Mirra in the 2nd Essex district by 1 vote. The election was certified after a thorough recount.
Rather than seat Scarsdale and Kassner, Mariano chose to delay and appoint a three-member legislative commission to review pending Republican lawsuits. This committee is operating without a formal timeline, and the House has chosen to allow Republican Rep. Lenny Mirra to occupy the seat that he lost in the interim — undermining the will of the voters. Indeed, Mirra’s lawsuit has already been thrown out in court.
This is a dangerous precedent for our Legislature to set. Write to Speaker Mariano and his appointees that such a delay is not acceptable and that they should seat Kassner and Scarsdale promptly.