The House Is In Order
As expected, Sal DiMasi was reelected to a third term as Speaker of the House. According to Politicker’s unstoppable Jeremy Jacobs, DiMasi received a standing ovation and an unanimous vote. For those of you keeping tabs on the process, James Fagan did the honors of nominating the Speaker.
Also, the Republicans, all 16 of them, decided to keep Brad Jones as minority leader, in a tight 9-7 vote against Lewis Evangelidis.
So, the house moves along with the status quo.
The DiMasi vote wasn’t surprising in that, as Matt Visser pointed out in the Globe today, support for the Speaker could mean the difference between getting a chairmanship or an office in the basement. Better for the backbenchers to simply let everything play out then take a principled stand. But the overwhelming support for the Speaker seemed catch him off guard.
“I grew up thinking that everybody was going to love me,” DiMasi said. “I’ve come to the realization that that’s never going to happen.”
DiMasi has proven to be an effective legislator, and one who doesn’t always do the expected. He has a record that deserves praise, but one can’t help but think that this isn’t the beginning, it’s the beginning of the end.
UPDATE: The vote was 135-24 for DiMasi, a fairly overwhelming majority. State House News has the eight Democrats who voted “present” or for themselves (congratulations William Greene of Billerica!). It’s subscription required, but Politicker has the list. (Quick plug: State House News is a great resource and well worth the investment).
