Resources

Check out these resources below to learn more about the corruption, secrecy, and dysfunction in our state house and the problems we’re trying to fix: 

Transparency

  • Watch this 2 minute video to understand how our “Democratic” state legislature blocks bills that are supported in the Massachusetts Democratic Party Platform.

  • At the start of the Trump administration in 2025 State House Leadership promised more transparency, but unfortunately they broke their promises and are continuing to kill important legislation without public votes. We need honesty and accountability. 

    “The bloodless murder of legislation.’ After promising more transparency, Mass. Legislature still killing bills without votes” 

  • It’s not just their committees where politicians hide to shirk from accountability. The full votes on the floor of the house are often done via “voice votes” in which politicians don’t actually speak up or vote at all because they just do what State House Leadership tells them to do. Massachusetts has 160 state house districts. Many people wish that their state rep would listen to their neighborhoods and represent the communities in their district, but instead the vast majority of State Reps follow the leader and vote 100% of the time with the Speaker of the House. The immigration justice provisions in the example of this video are still being blocked by State House Leadership, and we don’t know which state reps support these key policies to protect our communities from ICE and Trump.

Stipend Reform

The Boston Globe exposed that many of the “committees” of the legislature have never met or even considered a bill, yet these hand-picked politicians get paid. In fact, Massachusetts is home to the highest paid state legislators in the entire country. Special bonuses for these committees come with clear expectations of loyalty to State House Leadership, and unfortunately this system leads to an unsurprising and durable status quo of corruption. Of the four immediate Speakers of the House, three were indicted and convicted of corruption, and the fourth was an unindicted co-conspirator. After three Speakers of the House in a row were indicted for corruption, our pro-democracy movement won term limits on the Speaker. But then, powerful politicians undid the term limits. My opponent, Rep Marjorie Decker, voted to repeal the term limits on the speaker. She also voted to increase the pay and number of these “stipends” to establishment politicians. Massachusetts is an extreme outlier compared to all other states in the number of “leadership” positions that receive these stipends, which contributes to the centralization of power within State House Leadership. 

Check out this video from Evan and Former Cambridge/Watertown State Rep Johnathan Hecht about corruption in state house leadership and stipend reform

Learn more about the efforts for stipend reform – ending loyalty pay in the state house 

Public Records

Massachusetts is a wonderful state with hardworking people who believe in honesty and accountability. The small clique of State House Leadership blocks us from having a state government we can be proud of. They insist on being dead last in government transparency, and right now Massachusetts is the only state where the legislature, governor, and judiciary have all exempted themselves from public records laws. The legislature could fix this by passing a bill, yet this loophole from basic oversight is by design. They aren’t even open or honest about their defense of secrecy – when the Boston Globe tried to ask about very incremental reforms to bring Massachusetts in line with other states, powerful politicians refused to go on the record about public records reform. We believe that Massachusetts shouldn’t be dead last. Thus, we have to do a ballot question because State House Leadership has dug their heels in to defend their ability to be the least transparent state in the entire country. 

Check out this instagram video from Evan and State Auditor Diana DiZoglio about public records reform.

Platform

We are proud to be part of a statewide movement for a state government we can be proud of, one that presents a positive counterexample to the Trump administration and meets the needs of our neighbors, from housing to childcare, from protections for our neighbors and loved ones to climate justice. Check out the Progressive MA platform, including the Good Government and Strong Democracy Agenda to see a model agenda for good governance.

The following are longer written reports about the dysfunction, secrecy, and corruption on Beacon Hill. Start off with the summary and dive into the details:

Inside ICE

287(g) agreements: “Inside ICE’s Only Contract with a Blue State”. Right now, Massachusetts is the only Blue state with a voluntary cooperation agreement with ICE. When Democrats flipped Virginia and created a new Democratic trifecta (woohoo!) they ended this exact same ICE contract on Day 1 of the new Democratic administration. The policy fix we want is very basic. Our state’s 287(g) agreement is damaging to immigrant justice organizers in Red states, Purple states, and more conservative parts of the country. In those places, pro-deportation politicians point to the Massachusetts contract with ICE to say that voluntary collaboration with ICE isn’t a bad thing. They use our state’s progressive reputation yet conservative actions to endanger immigrants throughout our country. Unfortunately, once again State House Leadership operates on dishonesty and secrecy. There is no public majority of legislators who support this 287(g) agreement collaboration with ICE. Instead, this ICE contract remains while politicians can publicly make empty promises about how they support immigrants and oppose Trump and ICE.

How the State House Operates

“Former state house  lobbyist reveals how the state house really works”

“That moment, I broke an unspoken but absolutely firm rule among lobbyists: never criticize the State House political system.  “Let me be clear,” I asserted. “Don’t confuse what goes on in this building with democracy.”” 

This broken status quo from State House Leadership persists because State House Leadership utilizes Trumpian tactics of intimidation, retaliation, dishonesty, and harassment to maintain their power and terrorize anybody who doesn’t acquiesce to their corruption and reign of power. 

Many people who engage with Beacon Hill know how broken it is, but they fear for their livelihoods if they publicly acknowledge this. State House Leadership wants as few people to know about their rotten behavior as possible which is why they retaliate in such underhanded manners. Reporters can get frozen out. Lobbyists can have the door slammed in their face. Constituents get ignored. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Thank you to the author for honesty about the State House status quo. 

Here’s a preview: “One year, I sat in the gallery, naively watching a fascinating exchange on repealing the state’s sales-tax exemption for airplane parts. (It’s true: we don’t tax airplane parts.). Numerous representatives spoke convincingly that this was a giveaway to the wealthy (duh!). One representative (who had a small airport in his/her very wealthy district) said that these aircraft owners would simply fly their private planes to New Hampshire, and we would lose all our airplane repair businesses. Others pointed out that our sales tax is hardly enough reason to cause someone to spend part of their vacation in another state, and that the cost of detours or extra flights would exceed the dollar amount of the sales tax. Only one representative wanted to keep the exemption. It was obvious how the vote would go. Or so I thought. But there was no vote. The bill failed on a so-called “voice vote.” We still don’t charge sales tax on airplane parts.”