If it seems like the same people are running over and over again on Beacon Hill, it’s because they are. House Speaker Ron Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, has been in his seat for 35 years. He won a special election in 1991, joining freshman lawmakers like Reps. Antonio Cabral and William C. Galvin. They’re all still in their seats.
But the award for longest tenure in the Legislature goes to Rep. Kevin Honan, a Democrat from Allston/Brighton who’s been in his seat since 1987 — a run of nearly four decades.
Year after year, there’s little competition for seats in the state Legislature. This year is no exception. Just 25 incumbents — 14% of those running for reelection — are facing primary challengers. About a quarter will face an opponent in the general election.
With strong Democratic Party power and low-turnout primaries, experts say there’s little incentive to run new candidates. They argue that hurts the democratic process down the road if lawmakers don’t feel a need to be transparent or accountable to their constituents in order to keep their seats. But dissatisfaction with the status quo, and Massachusetts’ one-party rule, can be seen in the ballot questions that will be put before voters this fall.
When the party holds the power, they tend to stick with who wins. And financial and public support isn’t up for grabs, giving challengers an even tougher hill to climb.
“Party competition makes you try to bring in new constituencies,” said Erin O’Brien, a professor of political science at UMass Boston. “If you don’t fear losing out at the ballot box, then they go to the same old candidates, and people stay for an incredibly long time.”
Democrats have held a supermajority in both branches of the Mass. Legislature for most of modern memory, and that makes it hard for any outsider to come in and unseat an incumbent.
With good compensation and strong winning streaks, experts say lawmakers have limited incentive to leave office, meaning newcomers to the Legislature are few and far between.
“It’s not necessarily that Democrats are sitting in a room and saying, ‘We don’t want diverse candidates,’” O’Brien said. “But the good old boys picked the good old boys, and the good old boys kept winning.”
As a result, the primary is often where a race is won or lost — but those races bring fewer voters to the polls. In the last federal midterm elections in 2022, 22% of registered voters cast a ballot in the primary — compared to more than 50% in the general, according to state election officials.
“I think the lack of competition kind of goes right to the heart of challenges we face,” said Danielle Allen, a Harvard professor who’s leading the charge on a ballot question that would bring party-free primaries to the commonwealth.
“We have fewer candidates running for statewide office than other states,” she added. “That includes fewer members of the state Legislature who try for higher office because it’s so restrictive. That means fewer open seats, right? And then that means you’re not drawing candidates into the pool, and the whole sort of ethos of competition just declines.”
Allen and O’Brien agree that, with the lack of turnover and few challengers, legislators aren’t afraid of losing their seats. Consequently, they’re often able to work with minimal transparency or responsiveness to public opinion.
“Not being immediately beholden to the voters’ every whim isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you want to get through something complicated like the budget,” O’Brien said. “But it’s a deeply unpopular argument to make to say: ‘We’re insulated from the voters a bit, so we can take some tough votes against them.’”
Open seats tend to draw in more competition. Cambridge and Somerville could see significant shake-up in who’s representing them after state Sen. Pat Jehlen announced she wouldn’t run for reelection. Two state representatives and two local city councilors are vying for her seat in the progressive stronghold.
With no Republicans or third-party candidates on the ballot, the race will effectively be decided in the primary this September.
That is why people like Allen are trying to get people to vote “yes” on Question 3 this November. The ballot question would allow for everyone to be listed on the primary ballot, with the top two candidates — regardless of party — moving on to the general election.
As Allen argues, if Massachusetts changes how it structures its elections, it could set up a competitive state Senate contest in the general where more people will have a say, not just registered Democrats and independents who choose to vote in the Democratic primary.
“We have to solve our competitiveness crisis. And the all-party primary addresses that by jumpstarting competition in the state,” Allen said.
Some elections already work that way: In Boston, for example, the mayoral primary election is actually a “preliminary,” with the top two candidates advancing to the final regardless of party. But Question 3, if passed, would expand this approach to legislative elections as well as statewide races for posts like governor and attorney general. Supporters hope it would diversify candidates as soon as the next election cycle, and even more in the next decade.
But O’Brien says — once again — there’s little reason for the political establishment to support that kind of overhaul.
“They have no incentive to change the nominating process,” said O’Brien. “Political parties have very little incentive to do so, because they serve the politicians that are in office.”
GBH News interns Jack Siciliano and Genevieve Morrison contributed reporting.
