Massachusetts House of Representatives

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Seal of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts.svg
Massachusetts State House

The House of Representatives from Massachusetts ( Massachusetts House of Representatives ) is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court , the legislature of the US state of Massachusetts . The parliamentary chamber consists of 160 members, each representing an electoral district. The MPs are each elected for two-year terms. The House of Representatives boardroom, along with the State Senate, is located in the Massachusetts State House in the capital, Boston .

stand-in

Historically, MPs were appointed by the city. A deputy was approved for the first 150 people. As the urban population grew, so did this size ratio. The largest number of MPs reached the chamber in 1812 with 749 representatives (214 of these came from the District of Maine ). After Maine became a state in its own right in 1820, the chamber only reached a corresponding size of 637 MPs in 1837. Subsequently, the original system of proportions was changed to the current regional population system in the 20th century. By 1978 there were 240 members in the Chamber, a number that resulted from the fact that there were electoral districts that sent several MPs to the House of Representatives. Today there are 160, each representing an electoral district. Each of the representatives corresponds to an average of 40,000 inhabitants. The districts are named after the counties in which they are located. They tend to stay within a county, although the constituencies occasionally cross counties.

The Sacred Cod

The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts hangs inside the House of Parliament . The five foot long pine carving of a cod was made in 1784 by MP John Rowe to commemorate the economy and history strongly associated with the sea. Two previous cod carvings had been destroyed during the legislative colonial era, the first in a fire in 1747 and the second during the American Revolutionary War . The Sacred Cod had been present at nearly every Cabinet meeting since 1784. It was finally moved to its current location in 1798 when the Chamber began to assemble in the State House.

As part of a prank, members of the Harvard Lampoon stole the carving in 1933 . The theft then sparked a nationwide search by Boston and Massachusetts State Police . After a storm of indignation in the newspapers and in the General Court itself, the Cod was returned anonymously.

Structure of the chamber

The Speaker of the House is the Chairman of the House of Representatives . He is first elected by the majority parliamentary group in the chamber before confirmation by the entire parliament follows. The speaker is also responsible for the legislative process and oversees the assignments to the various committees.

Other important office holders are the majority leader and the opposition leader ( minority leader ), who are elected by the respective parliamentary groups.

composition

Political party MPs
Democratic Party 125
Republican Party 35
unoccupied 0
total 160
majority 90

Important members

position Surname Political party
Speaker Robert DeLeo democrat
Majority Leader Ronald Mariano democrat
Opposition leader / minority leader Bradley Jones republican

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Massachusetts State House. Pp. 110, 111. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston 1953.
  2. ^ League of Women Voters of Massachusetts. - Where We Stand. (PDF, Legislature p. 22).
  3. ↑ See amendment CI in the Massachusetts Constitution, adopted by voters in 1974.

Web links