Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Massachusetts Democratic Establishment

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Lots of people talk about a Massachusetts Democratic establishment, despite a string of four Republican governors.  How long has this establishment supposedly existed?  Governors switched back and forth pretty equally for most of the 20th century.  Sure, the legislature’s been pretty Democratic, but when does it (did it) become an “establishment”?  Post WWII?  With the Kennedy clan? Before that?

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  1. “Man of the House.”  He gives a pretty good account of how the Democrats took over state legislature in the 1940s. He became the first (at least since the Civil War) Democratic Speaker of the House in 1949. I’m not certain if the Republicans have ever taken back the House since that time. From then on it took a decade to build up a Democratic super-majority. I would suggest that if you wanted to pick a date, the party solidified its hegemony (at least in the legislature) in the 1960 and 1964 elections. 

    • I looked this up in my Historical Atlas of Massachusetts, an excellent reference from the UMass press (though it only goes through 1989).

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      In the 1920 election, no doubt swept up in admiration for Noho’s own Governor Coolidge who was being elected national VP, Mass. elected a 35-5 GOP senate and 188-52 GOP house.  1926 was about the same.  The dems worked their way back, and Governor Curley in the 1934 election faced a 21-19 GOP senate and 124-116 GOP House.  Through the war Gov. Saltonstall had larger majorities to work with.  The 1948 election brought in Gov. Paul Dever, a 20-20 tie in the  senate, and the first Dem house (122-118) since 1900, when my chart starts.

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      The GOP got the senate back in 1950 and both houses back in 1952.  They lost the house again in 1954 and have never gotten it back.  They held the senate 21-19 until the 1958 election (24-16 senate, 145-95 house). 

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      The GOP size went down steadily until the election that brought in Gov. Dukakis in 1974 (33-7, 191-49).  The house cut and the dem split in 1978 left it as 34-6, 130-30 and it stayed about the same through the King and Duke II periods.  I know there was a big GOP gain in the anti-Duke pogrom of 1990, giving Weld the ability to sustain vetoes in his first two years (I think the Senate was 24-16 Dem).  Then it went back to the current state of roughly 80% Dem in each chamber.

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