Now in Majority, Massachusetts Democrats Continue Dominance in Congress
MassDems
Cape Cod Times
Paul Crocetti
Boston University Washington News Service
November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 —For the sixth straight Congress, Massachusetts voters have sent all Democrats to the House and Senate.
As a result, the state continues its reign as the most heavily populated in the nation with an all-Democratic delegation.
For the first time in 12 years, though, the Democratic Party will be in the majority in both the House and the Senate. And with that majority comes a great amount of new power for the 12 Massachusetts legislators, especially the longtime members who may ascend to committee chairmanships.
Rep. Barney Frank is likely to become chairman of the Financial Services Committee. Frank is now senior Democrat on the committee.
Sen. Edward Kennedy will probably resume the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Sen. John Kerry is in line to become chairman again of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.
“These are very powerful members of Congress,” said David King, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “They’ve been on the outside looking in.”
Rep. William Delahunt, a member of the International Relations Committee, may take over the chair of its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
“[The chair] will give him considerable power,” King said. “He will have the ability to subpoena and he will conduct real investigations as to foreign policy.”
All 10 of the Massachusetts members of the House, along with Kennedy, won easy reelection Tuesday. Kerry’s term is not up until 2008.
When Kennedy was first elected 44 years ago, he occupied a seat once held by his brother, John F. Kennedy. The last time a Republican held Kennedy’s seat was during the World War I era, when John Wingate Weeks was senator from 1913 to 1919.
The last time Massachusetts Republicans held seats in the House was in the 104th session, when Rep. Peter Torkildsen and Rep. Peter Blute were in office. Current Reps. John Tierney and Jim McGovern defeated those members, respectively, in 1996.
With two senators and two House members each after Tuesday’s elections, Rhode Island and Hawaii have the next largest all-Democratic delegations.
In terms of years of combined service, Massachusetts ranks near the top. The most junior representative, Stephen Lynch, will begin his fourth term next year. As of the end of the current session, current Massachusetts members of Congress will have logged a total of 214 years of service.
Only the much larger Democratic delegations in New York and California have worked more combined years than those from Massachusetts.
Most Southern states historically had all-Democratic delegations, according to Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
“Otherwise it is very rare for large states, and arguably unwise,” he wrote in an e-mail message.
Congressional control in the South began to switch to the Republicans in the 1970s, after President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law.
Now the major Democratic strongholds are in the Northeast and the Pacific West.
A political party can only do so much when it is in the congressional minority.
“The state is in great shape when Democrats are in power, but when the GOP rules the roost, Massachusetts is out in the cold,” Sabato wrote.
King, the Harvard faculty member, noted that Democrats reign in the Massachusetts State House as well.
“It reflects the fact that Massachusetts is a liberal state,” he said. “All regions of the state are fairly liberal.”
Even districts in the state that went for Republican Kerry Healey in the governor’s race, such as parts of Cape Cod and Northeastern Massachusetts, have elected liberals to Congress for some time now.
Kennedy, whom King described as the “unquestioned voice for liberals in the Senate,” is already looking ahead to the next session of Congress.
“The people of Massachusetts make it clear that as our nation continues its march to progress, they want their elected officials to be trying to break down the walls of discrimination, to give all Americans the good schools, good jobs and good health care they all deserve, and to give our troops and veterans the support they need and have earned,” Laura Capps, a Kennedy spokeswoman, wrote in a statement.
In a similar vein, Brigid O’Rourke, Kerry’s Massachusetts press secretary, highlighted Iraq and health care as two key issues for the Democrats.
“This mandate reflects the trust and confidence the voters have placed in the Democratic Party, and Sen. Kerry is eager to get working in the new Congress to help Massachusetts move forward,” she wrote.
But with their new power, Democrats have to be careful about reaching too far to the left.
“They’ve been in the minority the last 12 years, so they know how quickly it can go away,” King said.
The power of the majority could lead to investigations of the Bush Administration, according to King.
Massachusetts Democrats, such as Kerry and Delahunt, are in position to lead the charge.
“The Massachusetts delegation now has tremendous strength,” King said.
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