Once-exiled representative regains power in State House

Yawu Miller

The beginning of Thomas Finneran’s reign as House speaker saw his arch-opponent Representative Byron Rushing bounced from his wood-paneled second-floor office to a cramped, fifth-floor room. On the way up he lost the extra pay that came with the chairmanship of the Insurance Committee as well as the extra staff.

Midway through Finneran’s reign, Rushing appeared unruffled as he took the helm of a group of progressive legislators and launched a largely symbolic but politically significant challenge to Finneran’s stranglehold on the speakership.

While many progressive legislators in the House cut deals with Finneran to maintain or obtain committee chairmanships or win pork for their districts, Rushing seemed comfortable as the spokesman and leader of a group of 40-or-so representatives who openly opposed the autocratic speaker’s virtual stranglehold on Beacon Hill.

“I’ve served under five speakers,” Rushing said. “I’ve been on both the winning side and losing side of speaker fights.”

Rushing’s commitment to his progressive ideals seems to have paid off after Finneran’s hasty departure last year just ahead of a grand jury indictment on perjury charges stemming from his testimony in a redistricting lawsuit. Finneran’s successor, the more progressive Sal DiMasi, appointed Rushing second assistant majority leader.

Sitting in his spacious office, its bookshelves crammed with tomes on subjects ranging from Biblical studies to black art, Rushing spoke to a Banner reporter about his newly regained power in the House and the growing power of progressives on Beacon Hill.

Rushing is now the highest-ever ranking black House member — the only one to have been elected to a leadership position. His appointment sent a signal to both black lawmakers and progressives that there is a new era of inclusion in the State House.

And while it’s still early to tell, many of the left-leaning causes Rushing and his fellow progressive legislators have championed are finally seeing daylight in the Great and General Court.

Bills on reform of the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information law — which mandates the availability of job applicants’ criminal records to potential employers, in-state tuition rates for undocumented students and bills to close corporate tax loopholes are all making their way through House committees this year.

With the corporate tax loophole bill, Rushing and other progressive legislators backed a different version than the bill backed by DiMasi.

“The speaker let two things happen,” Rushing said. “He let our amendment go forward. Under Finneran, there would have been some funny parliamentary thing and the amendment never would have seen light of day. And he let us vote for it, even though leadership is expected to vote with the speaker.

“He was willing to allow this to be a demonstration of openness and a diversity of opinion inside his leadership.”

On taking office as speaker, DiMasi told representatives that they could feel free to bring issues to the floor and that committees would be allowed the authority to decide when and whether legislation would be brought to the floor for a hearing, according to Rushing.

While Rushing hails DiMasi’s openness, he cautions that progressives will not have a carte blanche to move any legislation they choose. DiMasi’s leadership represents a broad array of political views. For example, Norwood Rep. John Rogers — one of the most conservative legislators in the House — sits on the influential Rules Committee.

“It’s a different ballgame now,” Rushing said. “People will tell you that the proof is in the pudding. We haven’t been able to fix things overnight. But we have the right people in the right places.”

For one, Rep. Marie St. Fleur is vice chairwoman of the Ways and Means committee, affording her a front row seat in House budget debates.

Additionally, five of the 40 progressives who backed Rushing’s bid for speaker now hold leadership positions.

Progressive and conservatives alike will need patience to see their pet projects pass in the House.

The decision of the Education Committee to delay a vote earlier this month on the controversial Dream Act, which would have allowed undocumented children who have graduated from high schools in Massachusetts to pay an in-state tuition rate at state colleges and universities caused a stir in pro-immigrant circles.

But Rushing said he and other progressive lawmakers wanted to wait until they were sure they had a 101-vote majority in support of the legislation — the threshold required to withstand Governor Mitt Romney’s promised veto of the measure.

While there have been a few concrete legislative victories – including a law allowing doctors to dispense so-called emergency contraceptives (later vetoed by Romney) — Rushing points to the budget as evidence that blacks and progressives are doing better under DiMasi. Affordable housing and homeless protection programs are slated for increases, under the House budget.

Issues that were taboo under Finneran, like funding for drug treatment, are again being debated on the floor of the House.

“Drug addiction is a disease,” Rushing said. “People should get treatment when they are willing to ask for help. We know the issue is being taken seriously, now.”

As for his eight years of exile in a cramped, 5th floor office, Rushing says he doesn’t regret having voted for Finneran’s more liberal opponent, Richard Voke.

“If I had it to do all over again, I would have voted the same way,” he said. “As it turned out, Finneran was even more conservative than I imagined.”