If you are like most Massachusetts voters, the chances are you don’t give much thought to the Governor’s Council.
But if you must, think of this colonial-era throwback as the Bay State’s political equivalent to Schrödinger’s Cat.
In other words, you know it’s there, and it’s probably doing stuff. But you still need to crack the lid now and then to make sure.
The elected body, also known as the Executive Council, serves a low-profile, but very important purpose in state government: It acts on pardons and commutations; confirms judicial nominations, and gubernatorial appointments to a host of boards and commissions, according to the state’s website.
Those boards include the state Parole Board, Appellate Tax Board, Industrial Accident Board, and Industrial Accident Reviewing Board; as well as notaries and justices of the peace, according to that same state website.
So what is it anyway?
The council traces its roots to Massachusetts’ colonial era, according to a history posted on the Secretary of State’s website:
“From 1692, under the provincial charter, a Council of twenty-eight was elected annually from its membership by the General Court, again with dual legislative and executive roles,” the account reads. “In August 1774, it was displaced by councilors appointed by royal writ of mandamus to serve under Gov. Thomas Gage, until the British evacuated Boston in March 1776. Meantime, the General Court, discharged by Gage in Sept. 1774, and reconvening in July 1775, after an interim of three successive provincial congresses, elected its own Council to serve as its upper house and as executive body without governor.”
But wait, there’s more:
In 1780, the council took on the form (more or less) that it has today: An executive body, presided over by the governor and assembled at his or her discretion.
Its members included the lieutenant governor and nine members chosen by the General Court (as the Legislature is formally known). Subsequent revisions of the state’s Constitution provided for the popular election, every two years, of the council’s members from eight districts.
So who’s on it now?
The council’s current membership consists of Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and eight, elected councillors from across the state.
District 1: Joseph C. Ferreira, Swansea
District 2: Vacant
District 3: Marilyn M. Petitto Devaney, Watertown
District 4: Christopher A. Iannella, Boston
District 5: Eileen R. Duff, Gloucester
District 6: Terrence W. Kennedy, Lynnfield
District 7: Paul M. DePalo, Worcester
District 8: Tara J. Jacobs, North Adams
The 2024 election
Four members of the council — Ferreira, Kennedy, DePalo, and Jacobs, are running without Democratic primary opposition this year, according to a listing on the Secretary of State’s website.
Four Democrats are running in the primary for the open District 2 seat. They are Tamisha L. Civil, of Stoughton; Muriel Elaine Kramer, of Hopkinton; Sean Murphy, of Bridgewater, and David S. Reservitz, of Needham. Republican Francis T. Crimmins, of Stoughton, also is running.
In District 3, Petitto Devaney, a Democrat, faces an intraparty challenge from Mara Dolan, a public defender from Concord.
In District 4, Iannella faces an intraparty challenge from Stacey K. Borden, of Boston, and Ronald Primo Iacobucci, of Quincy.
In District 5, Democrat Eunice Delice Zeigler, of Methuen, is seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Duff, who is running to become Essex County’s elected register of deeds. A Republican, Anne M. Manning-Martin, of Peabody, is seeking the GOP nomination for the open seat.
In District 7, Republican Andrew J. Couture, of Fitchburg, is challenging DePalo, according to the Secretary of State’s website.
