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Transition week at the State House begins as new legislators from western Massachusetts take their seats

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The 193rd Massachusetts legislature, or the "Massachusetts General Court" as it is formally known, held its first formal session on January 4, 2023

Two new Senators, two new House members join the western Mass delegation

The new two-year session of the Massachusetts State Legislature that began this morning at the State House in Boston brings with it some new members to the delegation from western Massachusetts.

Paul Mark of Peru and Jake Oliveira of Ludlow, both Democrats, moved from the House to the State Senate.

Taking their seats in the House Chamber for the first time today are Democratic State Representatives Aaron Saunders of Belchertown and Shirley Arriaga of Chicopee.

Legislative redistricting cost the delegation one seat in the House from Berkshire County.

To discuss the political implications for the new western Massachusetts legislative delegation, WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with Matt Szafranski, Editor-in-Chief of Western Massachusetts Politics & Insight.

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.