When the top Republican in the Massachusetts House, Minority Leader Brad Jones, announced Monday he won’t run for another term in the seat he’s held for decades, it kicked off a round of speculation on Beacon Hill over who might emerge as his successor.
Jones, of North Reading, has led the GOP caucus since 2002, long enough that only one other Republican state representative has worked with any other minority leader. His departure in January means GOP House lawmakers will face a fresh choice over how they want to define their caucus for at least the next two years, and possibly a much longer stretch.
Jones, 61, has described himself as a “Reagan guy” and someone who believes in finding common ground. House Speaker Ron Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, on Monday called Jones someone who “preferred compromise over obstructionism.”
One question facing the 25 Republicans currently in the House is what kind of balance they might want to find, moving forward, between compromise and obstruction.
“I think for Republicans, it’s always a balancing act in terms of whether it’s the right opportunity to be pushing back or to be working for the advancement of their members, and that’s something that I think only the Republican members themselves can determine, when’s the right time to be pushing back, when’s the right time to be negotiating,” Massachusetts Republican Party Chair Amy Carnevale said. “It’s not really a black-and-white equation all the time.”
Democrats set the policy agenda in the Massachusetts House and Senate, with control over which bills come to the floor and majorities that are strong enough in number to pass legislation without a single Republican vote.
But Republicans in the Legislature have the ability to push for debate on their priority issues, to force votes where each lawmaker’s stance is recorded, and to delay legislation they disagree with. They also use legislative sessions to raise their transparency and process concerns, highlighting the amount of time they get to review complex bills before voting or that top Democrats continue to resist an audit voters approved in 2024.
At times over the years, Jones faced criticism from more conservative members of his caucus for his willingness to work with Democrats. Rep. Marc Lombardo of Billerica, who tried last year to unseat Jones as minority leader, has described Jones as “part of the machine here on Beacon Hill.”
Lombardo told CommonWealth Beacon Monday that a run for minority leader next year was not on his “immediate radar.”
Jones’ number two in the House, Assistant Minority Leader Kimberly Ferguson, is also not seeking reelection, taking her out of the running for the top GOP spot.
Along with the extra influence, the post comes with a major pay boost: Minority leaders earn an extra stipend of nearly $90,000, on top of lawmakers’ $82,000 base salary.
It may be too soon to get a full picture of which House Republicans are likely to throw their hat in the ring, since the potential contenders don’t yet know who would be voting for them. The decision will be made after this year’s elections, once the new class of legislators gets sworn in in January.
“The caucus itself could look different post-November, as compared to what it looks like today,” Carnevale said. “Obviously we’re working to try to grow that caucus and have more members elected. My hope is that with the retirement of Leader Jones, perhaps we’ll have some ambitious legislators thinking about becoming more active and helping more Republicans get elected.”
While Republicans hold only a small slice of the seats on Beacon Hill, their exact share of the pie has fluctuated over the years.
The 25-member House GOP caucus is down from 35 members a decade ago. In the Senate, Republicans hold five of 40 seats, up from three at the start of the 2023-2024 term.
Like Jones, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr has had a long tenure — he’s been at the helm of his caucus since 2011.
