Talk:Massachusetts General Court

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United States: Massachusetts / State Legislatures High‑importance

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List of officeholders

Any reason the officeholders couldn't be added here like at DKosopedia's MGC page? PhilipR 03:17, 19 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I added them. But I'm not sure if the one vacancy mentioned in this article predates or postdates DKos' tally (7 GOP, no vacancies). Looks like Wikipedia's version was changed more recently. Will research this. And my addition of DKos as a link in no way is intended to endorse their political take -- if there are other good active US political wikis with pages for MA government, I'll add them too. -- PhilipR 14:14, 19 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Middle Initials

In hacking the names in from DKosopedia and updating them from the official page, my new policy is to remove middle initials except for common or known-ambiguous names (Scott Brown or Richard T. Moore, not to be confused with other Scott Browns or a specific Richard Moore). My assumption is, the simplest unambiguous name for a future Wiki page, the better. I'm not too adamant about that though so feel free to dispute the issue here.

PhilipR 14:21, 20 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Counties (edit of 26 May 2007)

It's a small change but it gets a long explanation: First off, there are no "former counties" in Massachusetts (at least not in the sense meant by this article -- the only one I can think of is "York County," i.e., the territory that now forms Maine, although I think there may have also been some colonial-era counties that have since been wiped off the map). There are "former county governments," but the fact that county government functions have been absorbed by the state does not mean the geographic division is now meaningless. There is no Worcester County government, but there sure as heck is a Worcester County Jail. If Worcester is a "former county," then what county is Sturbridge in?

Second change: Senators (and reps, for that matter) are not elected on a county-wide ballot. Therefore the districts are named for the counties in which they lie, not the counties they represent. The previous phrasing gave the mistaken impression that the Worcester-Norfolk senator represents all of Worcester and all of Norfolk counties. _``` _W i k i _W i s t a h _W a s s a p _``` 04:44, 26 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Benjamin Robbins Curtis

Help needed. This gentleman was elected to the legislature. His article needs the appropriate information/succession boxes, classifications, etc. I am trying to get a DYK, and could use some assistance in getting the bytes up soon. Thank you. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 01:20, 29 March 2010 (UTC) Stan[reply]

External links modified (January 2018)

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A proposal for additional information I have

Under the section about the courts history, where you mention an act restricting who were considered "freemen" I wanted you to know that the date this was passed, was May 18th, 1631 )^[1]--AlienReprisal (talk) 00:38, 20 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Carruth, Gorton (1987). The American Encyclopedia of Facts and Dates (eighth ed.). New York: Harper & Row Publishers. p. 14. ISBN 0-06-181143-2. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

Wikidata items for Senate and House districts

Massachusetts Senate's 40 current districts are in Wikidata here.
Massachusetts House of Representatives' 160 current districts are in Wikidata here. -- M2545 (talk) 10:51, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021-2022 legislators

List of elected legislators in Wikidata: < https://w.wiki/qZe >. -- M2545 (talk) 23:30, 14 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Edits to infobox on 17 December 2024 by User:Therequiembellishere

What follows below is adapted from Talk:State legislature (United States). I am merely raising this issue on this talk page and not fixing it at this time. This article is not a priority for me. Therefore, I am not going to waste my time cleaning up User:Therequiembellishere's mistakes.

User:Therequiembellishere made a massive number of edits to state legislature infoboxes on 17 December 2024: namely, changing "president of the Senate" to "Senate president" and "speaker of the Assembly" to "Assembly speaker".

A native American English speaker actually familiar with domestic press coverage of state legislatures or who studied political science at the postsecondary level would not make such edits. (I was not a poli sci major, but because I was thinking about pursuing a legal career at the time, I did take introductory courses in political science and political philosophy with a lecturer who earned his doctorate in political science from Stanford University.) It is true that "Assembly speaker" is becoming a bit more common (though still rather informal), but Senate president is definitely not in common use. Overall, the longer phrasings of both terms are still the more common usages, especially in formal written English.

Here is what I already posted to that user's talk page:

"Unfortunately, it looks like your massive number of edits on 17 December 2024 are going to require a mass revert. The fact that all those infoboxes are using (and have always used) the longer titles should have been a clue that your proposed shorter titles are not the prevailing forms in formal written English. Google Ngram Viewer shows that "president of the Senate" is more common than "Senate president" and "speaker of the Assembly" is more common than "Assembly speaker"."

I have already reverted the relevant edits to the infoboxes for the legislatures in California, Nevada, New York, and Pennsylvania. However, as a working attorney, I have better things to do with my time than fix such poorly thought-out edits. But I am raising the issue here and now so that anyone else interested in state legislatures can either manually fix those edits or take them to the administrators' noticeboard for a mass revert. --Coolcaesar (talk) 01:08, 31 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Carruth, Gorton (1987). The American Encyclopedia of Facts and Dates (eighth ed.). New York: Harper & Row Publishers. p. 14. ISBN 0-06-181143-2. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

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