As is tradition on Beacon Hill, lawmakers who won’t be returning for the next session for one reason or another made farewell speeches on the floor this week. From calls to action to wacky anecdotes, here are the highlights:
Rep. Tami Gouveia, one of our movement’s greatest allies, took this opportunity to call out the legislature’s inaction on a number of critical issues. She also reiterated her support for the State House staffer’s union, which Senate leadership refuses to recognize. Heck yes, Tami. You will be sorely missed by all of us who dream of a more democratic, accessible, and bolder State House.
“As we make our way through the pain of the last three years, we have failed sometimes to support our most economically vulnerable residents. We have failed to engage our young people and our working people by letting same-day voter registration die. We failed to support families of incarcerated individuals by allowing no-cost calls to become a political bargaining chip in the final hour. We cannot continue to fail those who elected us to serve.”
Sen. Sonia Chang Diaz spoke boldly about the tradeoff she made in order to fight for her landmark education bill, the Student Opportunity Act–a tradeoff no legislator should ever have to make.
"I don't regret kicking off the campaign for the Student Opportunity Act in 2019 by making it clear that my first loyalty was to students and not to Senate leadership. I know what these things cost: political safety, a committee chairmanship, my position in leadership, probably many thousands of dollars in pension benefits. But I also know what they helped win. I know there are kids in our state whose schools have been able to hire social workers that they never had the budget for before. I know that there are kids who have access to diversion programs instead of incarceration. And I know that I would make those trades again, every time."
On a very different note, Rep. Paul Tucker used his farewell speech to tell an anecdote about going to a conference in Arkansas with his colleague Rep. Joseph McGonagle. Then-Speaker Robert DeLeo told Tucker not to let McGonagle “out of his sight” during the trip. And apparently, it was for good reason: the moment the two were separated, McGonagle was lost. "I searched those streets for about two hours, dejectedly went back to the hotel not having found him […] I hit the button to open the elevator, and there was the gentleman from Everett, surrounded by a flock of pink lawn flamingos."
No, we don't have any idea either.