President of the Massachusetts Senate

The President of the Massachusetts Senate is the presiding officer. In the United States Congress, the Vice President of the United States is the "ex officio" President of the United States Senate. In Massachusetts, however, the President of the Senate is elected from and by the Senators. The President, therefore, typically comes from the majority party, and the President is then the "de facto" leader of that party.

The current President of the Massachusetts Senate is Therese Murray, a Democrat. Democrats have had a majority in the Senate since 1959 ["Boston Globe", September 21, 1988 [http://www.boston.com/news/packages/whitey/globe_stories/1988_the_bulger_mystique_part_4_sidebar_b.htm] ] .

List of Presidents of the Massachusetts Senate

* 1780-1781: Thomas Cushing
* 1781-1782: Jeremiah Powell
* 1782-1785: Samuel Adams
* 1785-1786: Samuel Phillips, Jr.
* 1787-1788: Samuel Adams
* 1788-1801: Samuel Phillips, Jr.
* 1801-1805: David Cobb
* 1805-1806: Harrison Gray Otis (Federalist)
* 1806-1807: John Bacon
* 1807-1808: Samuel Dana (Democrat-Republican)
* 1808-1811: Harrison Gray Otis (Federalist)
* 1811-1813: Samuel Dana (Democrat-Republican)
* 1813-1823: John Phillips (Federalist)
* 1823-1826: Nathaniel Silsbee
* 1826-1828: John Mills
* 1828-1829: Sherman Leland
* 1829-1830: Samuel Lathrop
* 1830-1831: James Fowler
*
* 1835-1837: Horace Mann (Whig)
* ca. 1837: Myron Lawrence
* 1840: Daniel Putnam King (Whig)
* ca. 1842 Josiah Quincy, Jr.
* ? George Smith
* ? Jonathan Field
* ca. 1846 William B. Calhoun
* 1847-1848: Zeno Scudder (Whig)
* …
* 1850: Marshall P. Wilder
* 1851: Charles Henry Warren
* 1852 Henry Wilson (R)
* 1861: William Claflin (R)
* 1862: John Henry Clifford (R)
* 1873-1876: George B. Loring (R)
* …
* 1884: George Anson Bruce (R)
* ca. 1889: Cowdrey Hartwell
* ? George Glover Crocker
* 1892-1893: Alfred S. Pinkerton (R)
* 1894-1896: William Morgan Butler (R)
* 1896-1897: George Pelton Lawrence (R)
* 1909-1911: Allen T. Treadway (R)
* 1911-1914: Levi H. Greenwood (R)
* 1914-1915: Calvin Coolidge (R)
* 1916-1918: Henry Gordon Wells (R)
* …
* 1941: Angier L. Goodwin (R)
* …
* 1946-1947: Donald W. Nicholson (R)
* …
* ca. 1957: Newland H. Holmes (R)
* 1959-1964: John E. Powers (D)
* 1964-1971: Maurice A. Donahue (D)
* 1971-1978: Kevin B. Harrington (D)
* 1978-1996: William Bulger (D)
* 1996-2003: Thomas Birmingham (D)
* 2003-2007: Robert Travaglini (D)
* 2007-present: Therese Murray (D)

References

External links

* [http://www.mass.gov/legis/senrules.htm Senate Rules] (rules 1-5B relate to the President)