In 1766, before we were even a country, the Massachusetts House of Representatives built a viewing gallery in their state house so that the public could watch their elected officials engage in debates and legislative proceedings. It was the first of the thirteen colonies to do this and according to historian Gordon Wood in his book “Power & Liberty” this was “an important step in the democratization of American Political culture.”
To say things have gone downhill since then would be an understatement. Instead of continuing to lead the nation Massachusetts today has one of the worst records in the nation when it comes to government transparency and, judging by the response (or lack thereof) from the few people who actually run the state, it doesn’t look like that’s about to change any time soon.
We had reason for optimism last year when candidate Maura Healey promised to make the Governor’s office open and transparent, finally ending its exemption from Open Meeting Laws. Once elected, Governor Healey seems to have had a change of heart, and so our Executive Branch is apparently going to keep that exemption and there’s little indication that our Legislative Branch is going to step up and do the right thing either.
It’s not for any lack of trying and credit should go out to the small number of legislators who try to improve our dismal record on transparency, including the tiny number of Republicans that attempt to do this at the start of every two-year session. In an excellent example of how politics makes for strange bedfellows, a few very progressive Democrats often join Republicans in trying to make even the most sensible and mundane changes to House rules, like maybe giving legislators adequate time to actually read a bill, or making committee votes and testimony available to the public. Not exactly radical stuff, and every other state has found a way to do this without the sky falling.
Even far left groups like Act On Mass, which is certainly supportive of Democrats keeping their huge majorities, have admirably made this a major issue and acted on it by going through the very difficult and arduous process of getting a non-binding question on the ballot in 36 districts across the state,
The ballot question asked voters if they wanted to instruct their representatives to update House rules to make committee votes public. The bill passed in all 36 districts, with an average of 86 percent support.
This commonsense transparency measure clearly has wide, bipartisan support but, as Act On Mass states on their website, one man has all the power, the Speaker Of The House, and few in his party dare to cross him.
As they also state on their website, Democrats in the House vote with the Speaker 90% to 100% of the time. The reason for this is a combination of both cowardice and greed.
If a State Rep marches to the Speaker’s orders they’re rewarded with leadership or chairmanship positions that come with a giant raise in pay along with bigger offices, more staff, and of course a much larger pension. Doing the right thing by standing up to the Speaker gets a Rep demoted.
Someone who knows that better than anyone is our new State Auditor, Diana DiZoglio, who is trying to audit the legislature for the first time in a hundred years. Full disclosure: DiZoglio has been a friend of mine since we both came into the legislature at the same time over ten years ago. More disclosure: we both have a similar chip on our shoulders when it comes to House leadership as we both have reasons to believe we were very unfairly treated by this corrupt and secretive group.
It's one thing for a Republican like me to call out corruption on Beacon Hill but a far more difficult and courageous thing for a Democrat like DiZoglio to do the same. She’s young and will most assuredly run for office again, and now she’ll have to do it without the support of her party leadership and former colleagues, many of whom came out against her in her race for Auditor. A look at campaign donations and endorsements tells the story.
To give you an idea of how much the establishment dislikes her, and of just how small and petty they are about it, they deliberately left her off the list of officials seated in the House Chamber when Healey was sworn in as our new Governor. They gave her some BS excuse about how she wasn’t yet sworn in as Auditor, but other state officers were given seats despite being not sworn in. As is her nature, she didn’t back down until they finally provided her a chair so she could take her rightful place at the rostrum.
Making committee votes public may sound like inside baseball, an insignificant detail that is not worth fighting over, but this “Beacon Hill blackout” has a big effect on how things get done in this state, or if they get done at all. Voters and taxpayers never know how their elected officials vote on bills, or where they stand on issues. By not making committee testimony public we never know if lobbyists or special interest groups gave incorrect or misleading information to a committee, or if they were allowed to dominate the dialogue on a particular issue.
We don’t even know if State Reps attend committee hearings, or if they voted at all on any of the bills brought before them, and it’s very apparent that they don’t want us to know. Few in the media will make a real issue out of this but one person who does is none other than Jim Braude, the very progressive and very partisan host on the Jim & Margery show on Boston Public Radio.
I seldom agree with Braude but I have to applaud the way he asks every Beacon Hill pol that goes on his show if they’re going to end this exemption from Open Meeting Laws, and while he hasn’t got anyone to actually do that he did nail down the reason why earlier this month: “because they’re not afraid of losing their jobs.”
This is the inevitable and unfortunate outcome in any state that has to many years of entrenched one party rule, and Braude also explained how it can end: “when the media relentlessly reminds voters” of just how corrupting this lack of transparency is.
I hope Jim does his part, and with your help and support I’ll certainly do mine, so please consider subscribing! There’s a lot more to come.