By Bob Katzen
THE HOUSE AND SENATE: There were no roll calls in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports on the percentage of times local representatives voted with their party’s leadership in the 2024 session through September 20.
Beacon Hill Roll Call uses 101 votes from the 2024 House session as the basis for this report. This includes all roll calls that were not quorum calls or votes on local issues. Quorum calls are used to gather a majority of members onto the House floor to conduct business and members simply vote “present” in order to indicate their presence in the chamber.
The votes of the 2024 membership of 24 Republicans were compared with those of GOP House Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading). The votes of the 2024 membership of 132 Democrats were compared to House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy).
THE DEMOCRATS: A total of 112 (84.8 percent) of the 132 Democrats voted with Mariano 100 percent of the time. There were only 20 Democratic representatives who voted differently than Mariano on any roll calls.
The two Democratic representative who voted the most times against Mariano were Reps. Colleen Garry (D-Dracut) who voted with Mariano only 78 times (82.1 percent of the time) and David Robertson (D-Tewksbury) who voted with Mariano only 85 times (84.1 percent). All other representatives voted with Mariano at least 92 percent of the time.
THE REPUBLICANS: A total of five (20.8 percent) of the 24 GOP members voted with Jones 100 percent of the time. The two Republican representatives who voted the most times against Jones were Reps. Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) who voted with Jones only 69 times (74.1 percent of the time) and Nick Boldyga (R-Southwick) who voted with Jones only 71 times (74.7 percent pf the time). All other representatives voted with Jones at least 94.9 percent of the time.
THE UNENROLLED: Rep. Susannah Whipps (U-Athol) is the only unenrolled House member and is not affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic party. We based her voting record on how many times she voted with Democratic House Speaker Ron Mariano.
REPRESENTATIVES’ SUPPORT OF THEIR PARTY’S LEADERSHIP IN 2024 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 20
The percentage next to the representative’s name represents the percentage of times the representative supported his or her party’s leadership so far in 2024 through September 20. The number in parentheses represents the number of times the senator opposed his or her party’s leadership.
Some representatives voted on all 101 roll call votes. Others missed one or more roll calls. The percentage for each representative is calculated based on the number of roll calls on which he or she voted.
Rep. Christine Barber 100 percent (0) Rep. Mike Connolly 97.0 percent (3) Rep. Paul Donato 100 percent (0) Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven 96.8 percent (3)