Governor of Massachusetts

The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is an elected constitutional officer, the head of the executive branch and the highest state office in Massachusetts. The governor is popularly elected every four years by a plurality and is not subject to terms limits.^[1]

Like most other state officers, senators, and representatives, the governor was originally elected annually. In 1918 this was changed to a two-year term, and since 1966 the office of governor has carried a four-year term.

See also: Massachusetts State Legislature, Massachusetts House of Representatives, Massachusetts State Senate

Current officeholder

The current officeholder is Charles D. Baker (R). He was first elected on November 4, 2014, and succeeded Deval Patrick (D) on January 8, 2015.^[2]

Authority

The state Constitution addresses the office of the governor in Chapter 2, the Executive Department.

Under Chapter 2, Section I, Article I:

There shall be a supreme executive magistrate, who shall be styled, The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and whose title shall be -- His Excellency.

Qualifications

State Executives
Current Governors
Gubernatorial Elections
2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010
Current Lt. Governors
Lt. Governor Elections
2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010

A candidate for the governorship must be a registered elector in the state and have been a resident for at least seven years before taking office.

Elections

Massachusetts elects governors in the midterm elections, that is, even years that are not presidential election years. For Massachusetts, 2018, 2022, 2026, 2030 and 2034 are all gubernatorial election years. Legally, the first day of the political year is always the first Wednesday in the January following an election and the gubernatorial inauguration occurs at noon the first Thursday in January.

Under Article VII of the Amendments to the Constitution, once the Governor has taken the oath of office, no further oath or affirmation shall be required before he executes any his duties.

Results

2014

See also: Massachusetts gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2014

Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Charles D. Baker/Karyn Polito	48.4%	1,044,573
	Democratic	Martha Coakley/Steve Kerrigan	46.5%	1,004,408
	United Independent	Evan Falchuk/Angus Jennings	3.3%	71,814
	Independent	Scott Lively/Shelly Saunders	0.9%	19,378
	Independent	Jeffrey McCormick/Tracy Post	0.8%	16,295
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.1%	1,858
Total Votes				2,158,326
Election results via Massachusetts Secretary of State

Term limits

See also: States with gubernatorial term limits

Massachusetts governors do not face any term limits.

Partisan composition

The chart below shows the partisan breakdown of Massachusetts governors from 1992 to 2013.

Vacancies

See also: How gubernatorial vacancies are filled

Details of vacancy appointments are addressed under Article LV of the Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution. When it was passed, Article LV annulled and replaced Article VI of Section III of Chapter II.

The established line of succession for any gubernatorial vacancy is currently:

• the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts

• the Massachusetts Secretary of State

• the Attorney General of Massachusetts

• the Massachusetts Treasurer (alternate title for Receiver-General)

• the Massachusetts Auditor

When the lieutenant governor takes over, her official title is 'Lieutenant Governor, Acting Governor'. Regardless of the officer who takes over as acting governor, that individual shall have all the powers and rights of the elected governor, if not the title.

If a governor-elect dies without taking office, the individual elected on the same ballot as the lieutenant governor shall take office and serve as the governor.

Any time a sitting Governor communicates in writing to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of House of Representatives that he unable to discharge the office, that action shall be taken to consider the office of the governor vacant. At any time, the Chief Justice and a majority of the Associate Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Court may deliver an opinion to the Senate and House that they have found the governor or unfit to discharge the office; in such an instance, the governorship shall also be considered to be vacant.

Whether a governor declared himself temporarily unfit or the courts found him unfit, the governor may deliver, to the legislature, his written statement that he is fit to return to office. Unless the Supreme Court contests that declaration, the governor shall return to office within four days. If the Supreme Court does challenge the governor's return to office, Article XCI of the Amendments to the Constitution lays out a process for hearing and a final decision.

Regardless of who initiated the decision about the governor's disability, if that disability continues for six months and if more than five months remain until the next biennial election, a special election shall be held for the remainder of the governor's term.

Duties

As one of America's oldest constitutions, many of the original duties assigned to the governor have been annulled or superseded by over two centuries of amendments. Under the organization of the Massachusetts Constitution, all amendments are listed separately in Articles of Amendment, Massachusetts Constitution, which itself runs to 120 discrete items.

Massachusetts' governor is the commander-in-chief of the state's militia, which he may assemble for training and parade as well as for actual military functions. Within legal parameters, the governor may also give periodic advice on the organization and regulation of the militia.

Regarding vetoes, if the governor communicates his objection to a bill and the legislature adjourns before he is able to deliver his objections, that bill shall not take effect or have any force of law. The governor may not veto a law passed by the voters, through the General Court may amend or repeal such a law.

Other duties and privileges of the office include:

• Making appointments, including notaries public and judicial officers. Additionally, if the legislature is in recess when an office they appoint becomes vacant, the governor may make a vacancy appointment. With consent of the legislature, the governor may also remove previously appointed notaries and judicial officers. Also, the governor may retire appointees for reasons of mental or physical health

• Decennially, working with legislators, reapportioning the number of Senators and Representatives each district shall have

• Granting all military commissions made by the state of Massachusetts

• Making recommendations concerning the general appropriations bills, supplementary budgets, and details and terms of loans taken on by the state to the legislature. The governor also has a line-item veto on the appropriations bill.

• Convening special sessions of the legislature

• Granting pardons, except in cases of impeachment where the individual has been tried in the House and convicted in the Senate

• Requiring legal opinions on important judicial matters from members of the Massachusetts Supreme Court

• Preparing and presenting, to the legislature, plans to reorganize the executive branch, including establishing and abolishing departments and offices

• Presenting a budget to the legislature each year, and compelling any board, commission, or office to provide information deemed necessary in preparing a budget

Divisions

Note: Ballotpedia's state executive officials project researches state official websites for information that describes the divisions (if any exist) of a state executive office. That information for the Governor of Massachusetts has not yet been added. After extensive research we were unable to identify any relevant information on state official websites. If you have any additional information about this office for inclusion on this section and/or page, please email us.

State budget

Role in state budget

See also: Massachusetts state budget and finances

The state operates on an annual budget cycle. The sequence of key events in the budget process is as follows:^[3][4]

1. Budget instruction guidelines are sent to state agencies in July of the year preceding the start of the new fiscal year.
2. State agencies submit their budget requests in September.
3. Agency hearings are held in August and September.
4. The governor submits his or her proposed budget to the state legislature on the fourth Wednesday in January.
5. The legislature typically adopts a budget in June. A simple majority is required to pass a budget. The fiscal year begins July 1.

Massachusetts is one of 44 states in which the governor has line item veto authority.^[4]

The governor is legally required to submit a balanced budget proposal. Likewise, the legislature is legally required to pass a balanced budget.^[4]

Governor's office budget

The budget for the offices of governor, lieutenant governor and the governor's council for the 2013 fiscal year was $4,993,342.^[5]

Compensation

See also: Comparison of gubernatorial salaries and Compensation of state executive officers

The Massachusetts Constitution states that the governor should have a fixed and permanent salary, decided upon by the State Legislature, which would be revisited if the salary was deemed insufficient.^[6] However in 1998, the Massachusetts State Legislators Compensation Amendment was passed, prohibiting state legislators from altering the base pay of the governor, and other state public officials. Since January 2001, compensation for public officials instead is adjusted (increased or decreased) every two years corresponding with changes in median household income for Massachusetts’s residents.^[7]

In 2014, a seven-member Special Advisory Commission was created by Section 239 of the Articles of Amendment to the Constitution to review and compare the compensation of Massachusetts’s public officials to other states.^{[8] [9]}

2016

In 2016, the governor received a salary was $151,800, according to the Council of State Governments.^[10]

2015

In 2015, the governor received a salary was $151,800, according to the Council of State Governments.^[11]

2014

In 2014, the governor earned a salary of $151,800, according to the Council of State Governments.^[12]

2013

In 2013, the governor's salary was $139,832.^[13]

2010

In 2010, the governor was paid $140,535 a year, the 16th highest gubernatorial salary in America.

Historical officeholders

There have been 75 Governors of Massachusetts since 1789. Of the 75 officeholders, 34 were Republican, 17 were Democrat, eight were Democratic-Republican, six were Federalists, five were Whig, two were Republican/Whig, one was American/Know-Nothing, one was Democrat/National, and one was Adams Republican.^[14]

List of Former Officeholders from 1789-Present
#	Name	Tenure	Party
1	John Hancock	1789 - 1793	Federalist
2	Samuel Adams	1793 - 1797	Democratic-Republican
3	Increase Sumner	1797 - 1799	Federalist
4	Caleb Strong	1800 - 1807	Federalist
5	James Sullivan	1807 - 1808	Democratic-Republican
6	Levi Lincoln	1808 - 1809	Democratic-Republican
7	Christopher Gore	1809 - 1810	Federalist
8	Elbridge Gerry	1810 - 1812	Democratic-Republican
9	Caleb Strong	1812 - 1816	Federalist
10	John Brooks	1816 - 1823	Federalist
11	William Eustis	1823 - 1825	Democratic-Republican
12	Marcus Morton	1825 - 1825	Democratic-Republican
13	Levi Lincoln	1825 - 1833	Adams Republican
14	John Davis	1834 - 1835	Republican, Whig
15	Samuel Turell Armstrong	1835 - 1836	Whig
16	Edward Everett	1836 - 1840	Whig
17	Marcus Morton	1840 - 1841	Democratic-Republican
18	John Davis	1841 - 1843	Republican, Whig
19	Marcus Morton	1843 - 1844	Democratic-Republican
20	George Nixon Briggs	1844 - 1851	Whig
21	George Sewall Boutwell	1851 - 1853	Democratic
22	John Henry Clifford	1853 - 1854	Whig
23	Emory Washburn	1854 - 1855	Whig
24	Henry Joseph Gardner	1855 - 1858	American /Know-Nothing
25	Nathaniel Prentice Banks	1858 - 1861	Republican
26	John Albion Andrew	1861 - 1866	Republican
27	Alexander Hamilton Bullock	1866 - 1869	Republican
28	William Claflin	1869 - 1872	Republican
29	William Barrett Washburn	1872 - 1874	Republican
30	Thomas Talbot	1874 - 1875	Republican
31	William Gaston	1875 - 1876	Democratic
32	Alexander Hamilton Rice	1876 - 1879	Republican
33	Thomas Talbot	1879 - 1880	Republican
34	John Davis Long	1880 - 1883	Republican
35	Benjamin Franklin Butler	1883 - 1884	Democratic, National
36	George Dexter Robinson	1884 - 1887	Republican
37	Oliver Ames	1887 - 1890	Republican
38	John Quincy Adams Brackett	1890 - 1891	Republican
39	William Eustis Russell	1891 - 1894	Democratic
40	Frederic Thomas Greenhalge	1894 - 1896	Republican
41	Roger Wolcott	1896 - 1900	Republican
42	Winthrop Murray Crane	1900 - 1903	Republican
43	John Lewis Bates	1903 - 1905	Republican
44	William Lewis Douglas	1905 - 1906	Democratic
45	Curtis Guild	1906 - 1909	Republican
46	Ebenezer Sumner Draper	1909 - 1911	Republican
47	Eugene Noble Foss	1911 - 1914	Democratic
48	David Ignatius Walsh	1914 - 1916	Democratic
49	Samuel Walker McCall	1916 - 1919	Republican
50	John Calvin Coolidge	1919 - 1921	Republican
51	Channing Harris Cox	1921 - 1925	Republican
52	Alvan Tufts Fuller	1925 - 1929	Republican
53	Frank G. Allen	1929 - 1931	Republican
54	Joseph Buell Ely	1931 - 1935	Democratic
55	James Michael Curley	1935 - 1937	Democratic
56	Charles Francis Hurley	1937 - 1939	Democratic
57	Leverett Saltonstall	1939 - 1945	Republican
58	Maurice Tobin	1945 - 1947	Democratic
59	Robert Fiske Bradford	1947 - 1949	Republican
60	Paul Andrew Dever	1949 - 1953	Democratic
61	Christian Archibald Herter	1953 - 1957	Republican
62	Foster John Furcolo	1957 - 1961	Democratic
63	John Anthony Volpe	1961 - 1963	Republican
64	Endicott Peabody	1963 - 1965	Democratic
65	John Anthony Volpe	1965 - 1969	Republican
66	Francis Williams Sargent	1969 - 1975	Republican
67	Michael Stanley Dukakis	1975 - 1979	Democratic
68	Edward Joseph King	1979 - 1983	Democratic
69	Michael Stanley Dukakis	1983 - 1991	Democratic
70	William Weld	1991 - 1997	Republican
71	Argeo Paul Cellucci	1997 - 2001	Republican
72	Jane Maria Swift	2001 - 2003	Republican
73	Mitt Romney	2003 - 2007	Republican
74	Deval Patrick	2007-2015	Democratic
75	Charles D. Baker	2015-present	Republican

History

Partisan balance 1992-2013

See also: Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States and Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States, Massachusetts

From 1992-2013, in Massachusetts there were Democratic governors in office for the last seven years while there were Republican governors in office for the first 15 years. During the last seven years of the study Massachusetts was under Democratic trifectas.

Across the country, there were 493 years of Democratic governors (44.82%) and 586 years of Republican governors (53.27%) from 1992 to 2013.

Over the course of the 22-year study, state governments became increasingly more partisan. At the outset of the study period (1992), 18 of the 49 states with partisan legislatures had single-party trifectas and 31 states had divided governments. In 2013, only 13 states had divided governments, while single-party trifectas held sway in 36 states, the most in the 22 years studied.

The chart below shows the partisan composition of the Office of the Governor of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts State Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1992 to 2013.

SQLI and partisanship

The chart below depicts the partisanship of the Massachusetts state government and the state's SQLI ranking for the years studied. For the SQLI, the states were ranked from 1-50, with 1 being the best and 50 the worst. Massachusetts had a period of divided government between 1992 and 2006 before electing a Democratic trifecta in 2007. Between the years 1992 and 2004, Massachusetts remained in the top-10 in the SQLI ranking, hitting its highest spot (3rd) in 2000 under divided government. The state had its lowest ranking (24th) in 2006, also under divided government. During the years 2005 and 2006, Massachusetts fell eleven spots in the SQLI ranking under divided government, which was its largest drop in the ranking during the period of the study. The state has never had a Republican trifecta.

• SQLI average with Democratic trifecta: 14.17
• SQLI average with Republican trifecta: N/A
• SQLI average with divided government: 7.20

Recent news

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Contact information

See also

• Massachusetts state executive offices
• Massachusetts state executive officials

External links

• Office of the Massachusetts Governor

Footnotes

v • e Governors Current Governors Robert Bentley (AL) • Bill Walker (AK) • Doug Ducey (AZ) • Asa Hutchinson (AR) • Jerry Brown (CA) • John Hickenlooper (CO) • Dan Malloy (CT) • John Carney Jr. (DE) • Rick Scott (FL) • Nathan Deal (GA) • David Ige (HI) • Butch Otter (ID) • Bruce Rauner (IL) • Mike Pence (IN) • Terry E. Branstad (IA) • Sam Brownback (KS) • Matt Bevin (KY) • John Bel Edwards (LA) • Paul LePage (ME) • Larry Hogan (MD) • Charles D. Baker (MA) • Rick Snyder (MI) • Mark Dayton (MN) • Eric Greitens (MO) • Phil Bryant (MS) • Steve Bullock (MT) • Pete Ricketts (NE) • Brian Sandoval (NV) • Chris Sununu (NH) • Chris Christie (NJ) • Susana Martinez (NM) • Andrew Cuomo (NY) • Roy Cooper (NC) • Doug Burgum (ND) • John Kasich (OH) • Mary Fallin (OK) • Kate Brown (OR) • Tom Wolf (PA) • Gina Raimondo (RI) • Henry McMaster (SC) • Dennis Daugaard (SD) • Bill Haslam (TN) • Greg Abbott (TX) • Gary R. Herbert (UT) • Phillip Scott (VT) • Terry McAuliffe (VA) • Jay Inslee (WA) • Jim Justice (WV) • Scott Walker (WI) • Matt Mead (WY) Elections 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 Features States with gubernatorial term limits • Election of lieutenant governors • How gubernatorial vacancies are filled • States with gubernatorial recall provisions • Gubernatorial impeachment procedures • Comparison of gubernatorial salaries • Comparison of lieutenant gubernatorial salaries • Residences of the American governors

v • e State executive offices Offices Governor • Lt. Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General • Treasurer • Auditor • Superintendent of Schools • Insurance Commissioner • Controller • Agriculture Commissioner • Natural Resources Commissioner • Labor Commissioner • Public Service Commissioner States Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming Elections 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 Features Chart of state executive officers • Compensation • Gubernatorial power comparison • How gubernatorial vacancies are filled • Irregular office changes • State executive officials serving in home states • State government trifectas • State of the state addresses • Term limits

Curated by the Ballotpedia State Desk: Jackie Beran • Ryan Byrne • Jessica Dravecky • Cindy Kehler • Tyler King • Wes Taliani Project Director: Josh Altic • Project Director: Charles Aull Desk Editor: Joel Williams Contact the desk

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