One of Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s top deputies plans to resign this month, according to people familiar with the decision, a move that would also remove from House leadership a chief advocate for a casino in Revere.
Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein, first elected to the House in 1998, plans to step down to accept a post as government affairs manager for the Boston Beer Company, said people with knowledge of her decision….
Reinstein’s decision comes at a pivotal time in the ongoing debate about where to site a Massachusetts casino. The Revere Democrat has been a vocal proponent for Suffolk Downs and a Mohegan Sun facility in Revere, after East Boston residents last year voted down such a venue in their neighborhood.
The timing is indeed interesting in terms of the casino debate. One wonders whether the anti-casino forces in Revere can put forth a serious candidate to replace Reinstein, and whether that race might inform the Suffolk Downs issue.
We owe her the Fluff Festival.
…I sometimes wonder why we bother with a regular election cycle. Incumbents who seek re-election almost always get it and they set their own departure anyway.
With less than half the term left, is there a need for a special election? Can’t they just not have a rep until the new one is elected in the Fall? Can’t remember the rules on that. (Where’s Dennis Newman when you need him for such info?)
though I don’t know what the parameters are. I recall that something like that did happen in the last cycle. But I think the powers-that-be are (correctly) leery of leaving constituents without someone representing them for too long.
When Rep. Brownsberger was elected to replace Steve Tolman in a special election it was January 2012 and it was for the old district that included Allston, Brighton, Watertown, Belmont, and North and West Cambridge. Basically we voted in a state senator knowing he would not be our state senator for long, since it was already assumed we would be redistricted. His district then gained the Fenway and Back Bay from Sen. Chang-Diaz and lost North and West Cambridge which went to Jehlen’s district. So we voted for a State Senator in January who was no longer representing our district come November. Not sure if there is a better way of doing it but it sure seems like an oddity.
until the Nov 2012 election. Maybe they will let this one sit empty until Nov 2014.
…is that it is up to the legislature to set the parameters within the law. I had asked him in the context of what if, for example, Jason Lewis wins Katherine Clark’s seat, but that is still a ways away. For a resignation happening this month I am almost certain there will be a special, and there is not the issue of redistricting present here that jconway brings up in his comment.