State House News Service Weekly Roundup: Silent Coup

By Matt Murphy/State House News Service

Sometimes when what you want is within your reach, you just have to grab it, even if it seems a little premature, perhaps presumptive, and even if Terry Murray insists she isn't going anywhere.

That's what Senate Majority Stanley Rosenberg did this week when he declared victory over Ways and Means Chairman Sen. Stephen Brewer in the contest to succeed Senate President Therese Murray, putting the Amherst Democrat a step closer toward etching his name alongside others like Coolidge, Mann and Bulger.

Relatively speaking, Beacon Hill quietly cruised into its August recess this week will little fanfare, making sure shoppers can avoid the sales tax next weekend and shrugging off fresh criticism of recent tax hikes before slipping off to their favorite summer resting spots. And yet, somehow, so much changed.

While Gov. Deval Patrick touched a milestone in both his personal and professional life, the final week of July brought with it a good deal of foreshadowing toward a future still a little blurry. Patrick summoned his Cabinet west to Sweet P Farm for a powwow to maybe bring a little clarity to his remaining goals with 17 months to go and the challenge of avoiding the lame-duck labeling that can begin to creep in.

It's now clear now that while Patrick, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Murray spent the past many weeks counting tax votes, Rosenberg was counting votes of a different kind.
Succession discussions, a favorite inside parlor game at the capitol, have been going on for months quietly in back offices and watering holes around Beacon Hill, but for whatever reason they shifted into a higher gear late last week and throughout the weekend, culminating in Rosenberg's confident declaration that he had a "comfortable margin" of support from Senate Democrats to lead the chamber when Murray leaves.

The only issue is that Murray says she isn't leaving, at least not any time soon. "I'm going nowhere even though you guys have me leaving every other day," Murray said, "you guys" meaning the pestering press corps. Rosenberg also said he's not concerned that the votes he counts today could not be there come 2015 if Murray stays through the end of her term and the 2014 elections alter the makeup of the 36-strong Democratic caucus.

Massachusetts has been on a bit of a role of late when it comes to selecting political leaders, starting in 2006 with the election of the state's first black governor. Following Gov. Patrick's victory, the Senate chose Murray as its first female president, and the House turned to its first Italian-American . . . okay, two out of three ain't bad.

Now, it appears that Rosenberg will become the first openly gay, Jewish Senate president, a feat accomplished by coalescing a blend of western Massachusetts, progressive and bandwagon Democrats to his side. The pledge count is still somewhat of a mystery.

"I won't be the first bald Senate president, although David Bernstein is having fun with that one," Rosenberg said Wednesday, cracking one of the only smiles he allowed himself on what presumably was a celebratory moment in his career.

If something spooked Rosenberg into acting quickly to lock up the votes, he wasn't letting on: "Sometimes these things take on a life of their own," he told the News Service in a brief interview, lacking in much substance beyond what was already known. He has the votes.

Rosenberg went out of his way to not appear to be stepping on Murray's toes, a back-to-the grindstone message that might be necessary if the Senate is to avoid the behind the scenes tumult an early succession resolution was designed to negate.

While Rosenberg was trying to make history in the Senate, Gov. Patrick was making a little of his own when this week he surpassed former Gov. William Weld for days in office to become the longest serving governor since Michael Dukakis and the fourth longest tenured governor in state history.

He hit that milestone on his 57th birthday (coincidentally shared with Weld) and a workday spent presiding over the Governor's Council and watching as his nominee for a Roxbury Municipal Court judgeship fail on a tied 4-4 vote. Where's Tim Murray when you need him?

The governor's birthday also synched with the implementation date of increases in gas, tobacco and software design services taxes, a $500 million tax hike designed to finance transportation and a perfect hook for Republicans to stage press conferences at pumping stations around eastern Massachusetts, driving home an election theme.

In the midst of all that, the House and Senate wrapped formals sessions for the summer with a flurry of votes to override nearly every change Patrick sought to make in the state budget and the passage of a sales tax holiday for Aug. 10 and 11. 

The Senate adjourned after wrapping up debate on a five-year, $1.4 billion housing investment bill, but not before approving Sen. Eileen Donoghue's proposal to create a commission to study the feasibility of bringing the summer Olympics to Massachusetts in 2024.

Critics were quick on social media to both pan and embrace the idea, but Donoghue said her vision is more than just crew races down the Merrimack River. The Lowell Democrat said it could be an opportunity to showcase the entire state, putting Massachusetts on a world stage that could lure business and tourism for years to come. London, she said, used the summer games last year to invest in transit and development that will long outlive the athletes' village.

For a brief time, #olympics was trending on Twitter in Boston.

If Patrick caught one break this week, it was that he got company in the will-he-or-won't-he leave for the Obama administration sweepstakes. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, fresh off his turn in the national limelight after the Boston Marathon bombings, is rumored to be among those under consideration to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

And unlike Patrick, Davis is not categorically disavowing the possibility. 

STORY OF THE WEEK: Stan becomes the man as taxes rise and the bell rings for recess. School's out for the summer.