By Bob Katzen
The House has held 129 roll calls in 2024. Beacon Hill Roll Call tabulates the number of roll calls on which each representative was present and voting, and then calculates that number as a percentage of the total roll call votes held. That percentage is the number referred to as the roll call attendance record.
In the House, 67.3 percent (107 representatives out of 159) did not miss any roll calls and have 100 percent roll call attendance records; while 32.7 percent (52 representatives out of 159) have missed one or more roll calls.
The worst roll call attendance record belongs to Rep. Alan Silvia (D-Fall River) who missed 69 roll calls for a roll call attendance record of only 46.5 percent.
Rounding out the representatives with the top five worst records were Reps. Brian Ashe (D-Longmeadow) and Dawne Shand (D-Newburyport) who each missed 23 roll calls (82.1 percent roll call attendance record); Smitty Pignatelli (D-Lenox) who missed 18 roll calls (86.0 percent roll call attendance record); and John Rogers (D-Norwwod) who missed 13 roll calls (89.9 percent roll call attendance record.)
The next representatives with the worst records are Reps. John Barrett (D-North Adams) and Carol Doherty (D-Taunton) who each missed 11 roll calls (91.4 percent roll call attendance record); Ruth Balser (D-Newton), Dave Rogers (D-Cambridge) and Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) who each missed ten roll calls (92.2 percent roll call attendance record); Marjorie Decker (D-Cambridge) who missed nine roll calls (93.0 percent roll call attendance record; and Patrick Kearney (D-Scituate), Tom Stanley (D-Waltham), Chynah Tyler (D-Roxbury) and Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville) who each missed eight roll calls (93.7 percent roll call attendance record).
Beacon Hill Roll Call contacted all of these representatives to ask why they missed some roll calls. Only six of the 15 responded. The other nine were contacted three times by Beacon Hill Roll Call but did not respond. The list of nonrespondents consists of Reps. Ashe, Barrett, Balser, Decker, Stanley, Tyler, Uyterhoeven, Kearney, and Dave Rogers.