WESTFIELD – The deadline is January 21 for candidates to submit paperwork with the state for the 4th Hampden District seat in the House of Representatives, held formerly by now-State Senator Don Humason, Jr. (R – Westfield).
Recently inaugurated At-large City Councilor Daniel Allie, a Republican, has been gathering signatures in an effort to challenge city attorney John Velis, a Democrat, who expressed interest in running for the seat even before Humason’s senate victory.
But can an individual serve the City of Westfield as a city councilor and as a state representative?
Susan Philips, the solicitor for the City of Westfield’s Law Department, said she hasn’t looked into the matter and therefore couldn’t comment, but said she wouldn’t doubt that it has occurred elsewhere in the Commonwealth, a state which, as it turns out, has a history of local officials serving double duty in both their home districts and Boston.
“It is not as common a practice as it used to be,” said Brian McNiff, a spokesman for State Secretary William F. Galvin. “But there is no legal or statutory bar to prevent a member of a city’s council from serving in the State House at the same time.”
He added that state senators and representatives holding elected positions back home is more common at different levels of government and that it has considerable precedent, as many cities in eastern Massachusetts have seen instances in which city councilors and even mayors have served their municipalities and the Commonwealth simultaneously.
McNiff cited James McIntyre as a prime example of such a figure, as he held the mayorship in the Norfolk County city of Quincy from 1965 to 1971 while serving as state senator.
McIntyre is often credited with setting in motion such transportation initiatives as the construction of the city’s Burgin Parkway and the extension of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Red Line subway across the Neponset River from Boston to Quincy.
The former mayor also drew sharp criticism however from the Quincy Police Department during his tenure on Beacon Hill for voting for pay increases for Capital, State and Metropolitan District Commission Police forces while neglecting to increase the budget for the city’s own police department, which led to the formation of the Quincy Police Betterment Association, known today as the Quincy Police Patrol Officers’ Association, in 1968.
The Essex County city of Lawrence has also seen a mayoral double dip when they elected State Rep. William “Willy” Lantigua in 2009.
The first elected Hispanic mayor in the state’s history, Lantigua resigned from his fourth term as the State Representative from Essex County’s 16th District in 2010 after serving a year as mayor, a tenure that proved controversial from day one.
The Dominican-born Lantigua faced considerable pressure from his Beacon Hill colleagues to step down from his seat as the House began deliberating a bill in 2010 to enable Lawrence, one of the most impoverished cities in the state, to borrow approximately $35 million to balance its budgets for the next two years.
Lantigua’s four years in office as mayor saw him come under federal investigation into possible corruption among a slew of other accusations, a saga which began in April of 2011.
Elsewhere in the Commonwealth, some elected officials have been able to handle the two gigs successfully, especially if their hometown is within a close proximity to the state capital.
In Middlesex County, State Rep. Timothy J. Toomey Jr. (D-Cambridge) has served on Cambridge’s city council since 1990 and as State Representative for Middlesex County’s 26th District since 1993. He was also elected by the city council in 2006 to a two-year term as Vice Mayor of the city, which sits across the Charles River from Boston.
Preceding Toomey’s tenure, Saundra Graham was elected to the Cambridge city council in 1971 and the State House of Representatives five years later, a seat she held for 12 years.
As a city councilor, Graham, the first African-American woman ever to be elected to the council and the first to represent Cambridge on Beacon Hill, served as Chair of the city’s Housing and Land Use Committee for over ten years, and like Toomey, did a stint as Vice Mayor.
She also served as Chairwoman of the Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus and as a member of the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators.
State Senator James T. Welch (D-West Springfield) was elected to Westside’s City Council in 2004, and served the remaining year of his term despite being elected to represent the 6th Hampden District in the House of Representatives in 2005.
“It’s legal to do. There are several members (in the State House) who’ve done it, so it’s certainly possible,” said Welch, adding that, while he doesn’t know of any western Mass. officials who do it on a regular basis, he wouldn’t be surprised if some have done it for short terms.
“It was a positive experience,” he said. “The reality is, as a legislator, your job is to be cogniscient and aware of whats going on in your district, and serving on a city council gives you that perspective. You have no choice but to know whats going on.”
Welch, who has served as a Hampden County state senator since 2011, said maintaining a presence on both the West Springfield City Council and Beacon Hill was made easier by scheduling and other factors.
“I was younger. I didn’t have kids at the time,” he said. “But it would be different now.”
State Representative Aaron Vega (D-Holyoke) found himself in a similar situation last year, when he was elected to represent Holyoke as the State Representative for the 5th Hampden District, and chose to finish out his term as a city councilor during the first year of his tenure in Boston.
“If you are holding both seats, you file an ethics claim so they know you’re holding a local seat, which may mean you have to abstain from certain votes,” he said, adding that city councilors in Holyoke receive stipends for their service, of which he donated half of his to a scholarship fund, and declined to receive the other half for his final year as councilor.
“I was privy to what was going on in Boston, which helped me when I was with the council,” Vega said.
He also cited the most strenuous aspect of wearing both council and house hats.
“If you hold both seats, you’re always campaigning, because they elect on opposite years,” Vega said.
