Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

The flippers and the floppers

By

Alicea

Atkins

Atsalis

Basile

Binienda

Cabral

Campbell

Clark

Coakley-Rivera

Costello

DeLeo

Dempsey

Donato

Donelan

Ehrlich

Fagan

Falzone

Fennell

Fernandes

Flynn

Forry

Gobi

Golden

Grant

Haddad

Harkins

Honan

Kafka

Kane

Keenan

Khan

Kocot

Koutoujian

Kulik

Linksy

L’Italien

Mariano

McMurtry

Miceli

Moran

Charles Murphy

James Murphy

Nangle

O’Flaherty

Pedone

Peisch

Petrolati

Richardson

Sannicandro

Scibak

Speliotis

Spellane

Speranzo

Harriet Stanley

Story

Straus

Swan

Tobin

Vallee

Wagner

Steven Walsh

Welch

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Comments

  1. I was going to cross post this as a diary, but I’ll just copy/paste here:

    <

    p>Consistent No’s — the heroes who have voted the right way every time.

    <

    p>Balser, Bosley, Brownsberger, Callahan, Conroy, D’Amico, Finegold, Garballey, Guyer, Kaufman, Malia, Patrick, Peake, Pignati, Provost, Rodrigues, Rogers, Rushing, Sanchez, Scaccia, Sciortino, Smizik, St. Fleur, Torrisi, Walz, Wolf, deMacedo, Smola.

    <

    p>They’ve Seen the Light — the extremely courageous people who voted for slots in the past, but saw the light exactly when they faced the most intense pressure to vote yes again.

    <

    p>Curran, Turner, Evangelidis, Polito

    <

    p>Biggest Disappointments: the people who voted against slots in the past, but were too terrified of the Speaker to do the right thing again, when it mattered most.

    <

    p>Note to readers: District residents are still eligible to take out nomination papers, as long as they get their signatures in by April 27th. Just sayin’.

    <

    p>Aguiar, Alicea, Atkins, Basile, Cabral, Campbell, Clark, Coakley-Rivera, Costello, DeLeo, Dempsey, Donato, Donelan, Fernandes, Forry, Golden, Grant, Haddad, Harkins, Honan, Kane, Keenan, Khan, Kocot, Koutoujian, Kulik, Linsky, L’Italien, McMurtry*, Miceli, Moran, Charles Murphy, James Murphy, Kevin Murphy, Nangle, O’Flaherty, Pedone, Piesch, Petrolati, Richardson, Sannicandro, Scibak, Speliotis, Spellane, Speranzo, Harriet Stanley, Story, Straus, Swan, Tobin, Vallee, Wagner, Welch

    <

    p>Freshmen of Honor — our most recent Reps who had the courage to vote no when a powerful Speaker wanted them to do otherwise.

    <

    p>Ashe, Dykema, Hecht, Madden

    <

    p>Submissive Freshman — the House freshman who saw the Speaker growl and immediately fell onto their backs, in the submissive position. Meow.

    <

    p>Arciero, Benson, Bowles, Brady, Cantwell, Dwyer, Gregoire, Hogan, Lewis, Michelwitz, Rosa,

    <

    p>Supreme Flip-Floppers — those who’s votes seem to flip flop every year.

    <

    p>Atsalis, Binienda, Fagan, Fennell, Gobi, Kafka, Spiliotis^, Steven Walsh, Hargraves, Poirier, Ross

    <

    p>The Industry’s Tentacles in the House — those who represent the special interests for slots in the House and always vote for them.

    <

    p>Allen, Calter, Canessa, Creedon, DeLeo^^, DiNatale, Flynn^^, Fresolo, Garry, Koczera, McCarthy, Naughton*, Nyman, O’Day, Puppolo, Quinn, Rice, Rush, Sandlin, Smith, Thomas Stanley, Timilty, Toomey, Wallace, Martin Walsh, Jones, Peterson, Barrows, Frost, Gifford, Hill, Humason, Perry, Webster.

    <

    p>A few footnotes:
    These reps only voted on the 2010 and 2008 bills.
    Representative Katherine Clark was for casinos, before she was against it, before she was for it. She supported them in her initial campaign to win union endorsements, voted against them when DiMasi was in office, now voted for them. By the way, she’s running for State Senator, in case you were curious…
    Harkins technically didn’t vote on the 2010 vote, but had come out on record for it, including on LeftAhead, so I’m including her on the list of Biggest Disappointments.
    Creedon missed the 2010 vote, but voted for them in the past. It’s a stretch to think he would have switched his vote now.
    *Naughton missed the 2006 vote, but voted yes in 2008 and 2010.
    ^Spiliotis didn’t vote in 2010, but she’s in favor of slots in the race tracks and would have almost certainly voted for the bill. She also voted against all the amendments which attempted to make DeLeo’s bill sane (ie posting the odds).
    ^^Flynn and DeLeo only vote for slots, so they voted against Patrick’s 2008 bill.  

    • Of course, I missed the first sentence when copy/pasting, which provided the important context.

      <

      p>My “more comprehensive” list took a look at all the major House votes from the past 3 sessions, coming up with some notable trends from 06, 08 and 2010.

    • Odd how Sean Curran was quoted saying this in the Republican a few days before the final vote:

      <

      p>

      Speaking in favor of the amendment [to require one of the casinos be located in Western MA], Rep. Sean Curran (D-Springfield) said a casino could boost the western region.

      “These are the jobs we need to anchor western Massachusetts,” said Curran, asserting the region had been left out of the expansion of University of Massachusetts, seen billions of dollars poured into the Big Dig in eastern Massachusetts, and failed to capitalize on state investments in the biotech industry.

      <

      p>I think he must have voted against the final bill out of spite that this amendment didn’t get passed.

      <

      p>I can’t see how a casino job could be considered an “anchor”, unless the context is “around the neck of the state”.  

      • That almost makes me want to create a “special case” catagory. Unfortunately, there was no way of quantifying that based on the votes. I wonder how many of the few others who had voted for casinos in the past didn’t vote for it this time because of the lack of a promise for a western mass casino. I was trying to think of why they switched their votes and hadn’t considered the regional issue.  

          • Bear in mind I was manually looking at 3 different votes of every rep at the same time. It took me an hour+ to update the list of previous votes with the new ones, and probably took me another hour or so to write the blog. I fixed it over at Ryan’s Take. Can’t edit here. Thankfully, I think the et tu comment on David’s first post covered it.

            <

            p>For disclosure, I did spend a lot of time on her campaign during ’08, but it was an honest mistake. Note I included her in my roll call votes of some of the bad amendments, two of which she voted for, on my BMG diary.

    • …Colleen Garry would tell you she voted her district, and based on what I hear from people around hear she may well be correct.

  2. Tonight at 7:30pm Basic Black will be discussing the impact casinos will have on communities of color, as well as the gubernatorial campaign. You can watch on TV on channel 2, or online at basicblack.org, where you can also join a live chat on the topic. How to see you there!  

    • I see that you mistakenly posted Representative Rush of Boston as being a supporter for casinos on both occassions. If you read the list from the Boston Globe from 2008, he voted No then, and voted Yes now.

      <

      p>My question to Representative Rush is, “Would you like some syrup with that waffle?”

      <

      p>He says he is pro-union and voted for eighty five million dollars in tax breaks for big corporations and our wealthiest residents in 2006 as well. Way to stick up for the working class people you claim to represent.

      <

      p>If I am fortunate enough to get elected, the people of this district will know that I will not waiver from the stands I will take regarding issues that affect all of us in this Commonwealth.

      <

      p>Respectfully Submitted,
      Sincerely,
      Wayne J. Wilson, Jr.
      Democrat for State Senate
      Suffolk & Norfolk State Senate District
      (Roslindale, Hyde Park, West Roxbury, Dedham, Westwood & Norwood)

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