Boston.com has a list of 86 House members apparently committed to voting for Robert DeLeo as the next speaker. It’s unclear where they got it, but one assumes the DeLeo camp released it.
Names that jumped out at me on quickly perusing the list: Jen Benson (D-Lunenburg), Will Brownsberger (D-Belmont), Lori Ehrlich (D-Marblehead), Linda Dorcena Forry (D-Dorchester), Jonathan Hecht (D-Watertown), Jay Kaufman (D-Lexington), Kay Khan (D-Newton), Jason Lewis (D-Winchester), David Linsky (D-Natick), Elizabeth Malia (D-Jamaica Plain), Carl Sciortino (D-Medford), Frank Smizik (D-Brookline), Alice Wolf (D-Cambridge). That’s a pretty solid bloc of progs.
Do you see anyone you didn’t expect — or vice versa?
Please share widely!
Sean Garballey (D-Arlington), one of the NKOTB, and Marie St. Fleur (D-Boston), DeLeo’s second-in-command at Ways & Means.
(R)
No matter. The kid (Garballey) is busy trying to make DeLeo and Rogers BOTH love him. Perhaps he has found a way to give a half vote to both candidates!
since its effectively the progs getting DeLeo over the hump, he’ll keep running the House from the left as well. Lots more lefties on the list than just the names you mentioned. There’s a lot of very smart people on this list, so I’m hopeful. Would be nice to get some of these folks in leadership positions, too.
He voted against the SSM ban at the last con-con, and according to Bay Windows, he’s a co-sponsor of the transgender non-discrimination bill. (Both facts are true for Rogers as well).
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p>I think anyone who wants to lead in Massachusetts has to realize that they need to play ball with the left to be successful.
Many pieces of good legislation never made it to the floor under DiMasi’s “leadership” — I believe that will change under DeLeo. So, for that reason alone, I say, “Hurray!” although there are a lot of other reasons to be thankful, as well.
And that DeLeo has fought for and supported and is proud of this child. I remember a very thorough article about the DeLeos and Special Olympics some years back. So, Micheal Forbes Wilcox may be right.
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p>It is my understanding that issues concerning special education and the disabled community are core issues with Rep. DeLeo – so there is, as ever, always room for hope.
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p>No legislator will ever be equally interested or informed about everything – that is human nature and where, as here, 6000+ peices of legislation were filed, I am told, even sorting the valuable from the dreck for further review is a very big job indeed.
If, as the Boston Herald reports, Rogers’ supporters are saying things like, “People are leaning our way because they’re concerned that DeLeo . . . may be involved (in).” Then my money is safely on DeLeo. See Boston Herald: http://www.bostonherald.com/ne…
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As one progressive on the list, I think that the main thing that people need to know about Bob Deleo is that he is going to work with everyone and truly respect all of his colleagues.
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p>I feel very comfortable based on my experience working with Bob and his staff over the past two years, that he is going to be accessible and responsive. The people that a leader hires say a lot about who he is and how he will govern: Bob’s senior staff members at Ways and Means stand out in their consistent attention to the concerns of members — bills to be moved, letters to be written, calls to be made. They not only accept responsibility but they follow through and communicate well. And the Chairman himself has been fully accessible as needed to wrestle with harder issues.
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p>Yes, the ideology of the speaker matters, but, a good speaker channels the will of the House. The speaker needs to trim the burgeoning branches of unproductive debate, but he or she does not make the big decisions alone. Bob will be at least as progressive as the active membership of the House. If progressives work hard (and generally, progressive legislators tend to work hard) they will be effective under Bob’s leadership.
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p>To speak directly to the question of Bob’s philosophical orientation, my sense, watching Bob’s decisions as Ways and Means Chair, is that Bob is a pragmatic person who genuinely cares about people — both people that he knows and people that he doesn’t know. It’s that caring about people that he doesn’t know that makes him fundamentally a progressive.
Anti-bullying advocates are nervous that prospects for passage of the legislation put forward by the Anti-Defamation League might be dim under DeLeo. I haven’t read anything here that allays those concerns.
It’s more a function of the committee than the chair. The legislature leaves far too much to be done at the end of the session and literally is not able to process all of it in time.
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p>I don’t know whether or not DeLeo had a hand in stalling this anti-bullying legislation, but just because a bill dies in that committee doesn’t mean the chairman had it in for it.
Isn’t there a true progressive available for the job?
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p>DeLeo’s record frightens me. Check out Mass Scorecard:
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p>2003-2004
http://www.massscorecard.org/M…
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p>2005-2006
http://www.massscorecard.org/M…
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p>He may have shifted over on SSM, but he seems more aligned with Finneran! I’m surprised at the list of potential supporters. Seems like this will take us backwards, or at least slow the progressive movement down.