Massachusetts

**Massachusetts** is a state in the United States. It is bordered by Vermont and New Hampshire to the north, Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New York to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. It has 12 electoral votes and is a *safe democrat* state.

## Politics

### State House

The Massachusetts State Houseis composed of 160 members, each directly
elected from a state house district. Members serve terms of 2 years.
Elections to all House seats occur during each even-numbered
year.

The House is charged with the passage of state legislation,
known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the
governor for consideration. Any House member may draft bills, which will
 then be assigned to the relevant House committee at the beginning of
the next week. The number of bills any individual member may draft is
unlimited; however, each bill requires 25 hours to draft.

There is a committee system in the Massachusetts House. Committees hold
specialized hearings on relevant bills. A House member must serve on at
least 1 and at most 2 committees. If the member has a sufficient number
of political points, they may choose to serve as the ranking member of
their political party on at most 1 of their chosen committees.

Playable subcommittees include: Appropriations; Tax and Fiscal
Policy; Education; Health Care; Transportation, Infrastructure, Housing
and Community Development; Judiciary, Public Safety, and Corrections;
Commerce, Labor, and Career Development; Energy, Environment, and
Natural Resources; Human Services.

Non-playable subcommittees include: Agriculture; Elections and
General Government; Veteran Affairs and Homeland Security; Ethics.

A committee chair is the ranking member of the House's majority
party within that committee. Above all other members of the House, a
 committee chair has the right of first review over any draft bill that
falls within the purview of the committee. The committee chair may grant
 or refuse a hearing. If the committee chair refuses to grant a hearing
on a bill, that bill can no longer advance. This is true even if the
bill already passed through the Senate.

Once a bill is granted a committee hearing, all ranking and
regular members on the committee have the right to offer amendments and
have those amendments voted on. A tie or majority vote leads to adoption
 of an amendment. After the amendment process is complete, a final
committee vote is held. A tie or majority vote allows the bill to
advance to the floor of the full House. The entire committee phase takes
 one week.

When a bill reaches the House floor, a hearing is held. Any
member of the House may offer amendments, which are immediately voted
on. When the amendment process is complete, a final floor vote is held.
Upon passage by the House, a bill is sent either: (a) to the Senate, (b)
 to the governor, or (c) to conference report. The House floor phase
takes one week.

If the House considers a Senate-approved bill but then passes an
amended version, the bill must be sent for a conference report to adjust
 any discrepancies between the House and Senate versions. After that,
both chambers must hold a floor vote on whether to approve the
conference report.

#### Districts

In default mode (4/15/2020), the State House district
configuration favors the
Democratic Party, although not nearly as much as the state's overall partisan lean of 25% D. Out of 160
districts, 112 lean
Democratic by more than 10%. Another 10 districts lean
Democratic by 5-10%. Twenty-eight
districts lean
Republican by more than 10%, and 2 more lean by 5-10%. Under this configuration, a neutral election
year leads to an average party breakdown of 122D-30R and 8 tossups. To win party control in the State
Senate, the
Republican Party must win at least 29 seats that lean
Democratic by 15%
or more.

### State Senate

The Massachusetts State Senate is composed of 40 members, each directly
elected from a state senate district. Members serve terms of 4 years.
Elections to the Senate are not staggered. Elections to all seats
occur in the same year as U.S. presidential elections.

The Senate is charged with the passage of state legislation,
 known as bills, which, after concurrence by the House, are sent to
 the governor for consideration. Any state senator may draft bills,
which will then be assigned to the relevant Senate committee at the
beginning of the next week. After a bill's hearing on the Senate floor,
any senator may offer amendments, which are immediately voted on. When
the amendment process is complete, a final floor vote is held.

If the Senate amends and passes a bill that began in the House,
the bill will be sent for a conference report to adjust any
discrepancies between the House and Senate versions. After that, both
chambers must vote on whether to approve the conference report.

There is a committee system in the Massachusetts Senate. Committees hold specialized hearings on relevant bills.

A committee chair is the ranking member of the majority party
within a committee. Above all other senators, a
committee chair has the right of first review over any draft bill on an
issue that falls within the purview of the committee. The committee
chair may grant or refuse a hearing. If the committee chair refuses to
grant a hearing on a bill, that bill can no longer advance. This is true
 even if the bill already passed through the House.

#### Districts

In default mode (4/15/2020), the State Senate district
configuration highly favors the
Democratic Party, although not as much as the state's overall partisan lean of 25% D. Twenty-seven out of 40
districts lean
Democratic by more than 10%. Another 6 districts lean
Democratic by exactly 10%. Five
districts lean
Republican by more than 10%. Under this configuration, a neutral election
year leads to an average party breakdown of 33D-5R and 2 tossups. To win party control in the State
Senate, the
Republican Party would have to to win a seat that
leans
Democratic by 19% or more.

### Governor

The governor of Massachusetts is directly elected to terms of 4 years.
Elections to the governorship are held in even years opposite to U.S.
presidential elections. The governor may sign into law or veto any state
 bill that has passed through both houses of the state legislature. The
governor may also draft legislation and send it to the state legislature
 for consideration. Draft bills from the governor almost always begin in
 the House and have to withstand the regular committee process.

### Counties

Below is a table of counties in Massachusetts, included with population, party registration and poverty rates.