Senate · Democrat

Eileen M. Donoghue

Former member, served 2015–2018 in the sessions covered here · First Middlesex

Data through FY2026; built October 19, 2026.

Residence

Lowell

First elected

Senate 2010

Prior public offices

Mayor of Lowell, Lowell City Councilor

Occupation

Attorney

Left office

left to take office: City Manager of Lowell, Massachusetts (term began April 11, 2018) (April 11, 2018)

Seats held, General Courts 189–194 (the FY2017–FY2026 budgets)
Session	Chamber	District	Lines	Note
189th (2015–16)	Senate	First Middlesex	2011 lines
190th (2017–18)	Senate	First Middlesex	2011 lines

Posts and stipends

Eileen M. Donoghue was paid $72,635 in leadership and committee stipends from 2016 to 2018.

Posts and stipends by session (stipends by calendar year)
Session	Posts	First year	Second year
189th (2015–16)	Chair, Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies; Vice chair, Senate Committee on Rules	not available	$15,000
190th (2017–18)	Assistant Majority Leader	$45,000	$12,635

Posts: the Legislature’s leadership and roster records as compiled for this project; where those name no post, the member’s committee chair, vice-chair and ranking roles from the Legislature’s member profiles. Stipends: additional compensation in the Comptroller’s payroll data (CTHRU dataset 9ttk-7vz6), 2016–2026; 2026 is the year to date. Stipends for 2015 are not available. Base salary is not included.

The district

First Middlesex on its 2011 lines: 6 cities and towns, 178,854 residents (2020).

Lowell 65% · Westford 14% · Tyngsborough 7% · Pepperell 6% · Groton 6% · Dunstable 2%

Percentages are each place’s share of the district’s 2020 residents; for a town split between districts, the share of the town inside this one follows.

Population-weighted Fairness Index of the district’s cities and towns: 62 for all state aid and 54 for discretionary money (50 is a fair share).

Local earmarks are counted three ways. District money uses the first, clauses that name a place in the district; the second table adds organizations located in the district (placed in the district) and state facilities located there (everything placed). Three ways to count a local earmark.

District money, first measure: enacted earmarks in clauses naming a place in the district, by session (district money, not the member’s)
Session	District	Dollars	In corrective clauses	Per resident per budget, rank	Without corrective clauses, rank
189th (2015–16)	First Middlesex	$875,000	$0	$4.89 · 8th of 40	$4.89 · 6th of 40
190th (2017–18)	First Middlesex	$2M	$0	$5.56 · 10th of 40	$5.56 · 9th of 40

District money is where enacted earmarks land, by the place a clause names, mapped to districts by 2020 population; it is not attributed to the member and does not include leadership’s base-text money that names no place. Ranks are of district money per resident among the chamber’s districts, 1 = most. “In corrective clauses” is the part carried by a Ways and Means chair’s corrective amendments, which is leadership’s money; the last column gives the per-resident figure and rank without it. Sessions are labeled by the General Court that enacted each budget. Per-resident figures use the district as drawn for each session (2011 lines through the 192nd General Court, 2021 lines from the 193rd), so they will not equal a session’s dollars divided by the resident count above.

The same district on the other two measures, by session (enacted; includes any corrective-clause money)
Session	District	Placed in the district	Per resident per budget, rank	Everything placed	Per resident per budget, rank
189th (2015–16)	First Middlesex	$950,000	$5.31 · 11th of 40	$950,000	$5.31 · 13th of 40
190th (2017–18)	First Middlesex	$2M	$5.70 · 16th of 40	$2.3M	$6.39 · 13th of 40

Budget amendments

Eileen M. Donoghue sponsored 40 budget amendments in FY2017–FY2026, asking for $14.1 million in all.

Amendments sponsored

FY2017–FY2026 budgets

Adopted, known outcomes

38%

15 of 40

Chamber rate, same ask sizes

39%

expected at the chamber’s rates

Of the 40 with a known outcome, 15 were adopted (38%). At the chamber’s adoption rate for amendments of the same size, about 15 (39%) would have been.

Largest enacted items matched to an amendment Eileen M. Donoghue filed (strong text matches)
Year	Amount	Enacted budget text (excerpt)	Amendment
FY2018	$200,000	“the Lowell Community Health Center, Inc. to provide the training necessary to expand its medication-assisted treatment and peer-to-peer support…”	S3 #330
FY2018	$200,000	“a matching grant program to be administered by The Lowell Development and Financial Corporation that shall match program funds to startup companies…”	S3 #591
FY2017	$200,000	“a matching grant program to be administered by the Lowell Development and Financial Corporation that shall match program funds to start-up companies…”	S4 #85
FY2018	$100,000	“costs associated with technological upgrades for the public school district of the town of Westford”	S3 #120
FY2018	$100,000	“the Massachusetts Food Trust Program established in section 65 of chapter 23A of the General Laws”	S3 #593

Strong matches: 5 enacted items, $800,000 (the member’s share where several amendments claim one clause).

For 5 amendments the sponsor is the first mover named in the amendment text, because the Legislature’s record listed none. Ask size is the larger of the earmark dollars and the line-item change an amendment requests; bands: no dollar amount, under $50,000, $50,000–$250,000, $250,000–$1 million, $1–5 million, $5 million or more. Leadership’s unattributed base-text and corrective-amendment money is never assigned to a member. The comparison describes outcomes; it is not a measure of merit.

Bills sponsored

Eileen M. Donoghue filed 81 bills as lead sponsor in these sessions; three were enacted on their own. In completed sessions, 4% of their lead bills were enacted on their own, against chamber medians of 3% to 4% for the same sessions.

Most bills die in every legislature, and many policies pass inside other bills; the chamber median for the same session is the fair comparison.

Bills filed as lead sponsor, by session and outcome
Session	Chamber	Lead bills	Enacted	Folded into an enacted bill	Sent to study	Reported favorably, then died	Reported adversely or withdrawn	No action	Enacted rate	Chamber median	Cosponsored
189th (2015–16)	Senate	33	2	0	12	16	0	3	6%	4%	73
190th (2017–18)	Senate	48	1	2	25	15	1	4	2%	3%	130

Enacted bills as lead sponsor

S2532 (189th): An Act establishing a sick leave bank for Laura Guillermo, an employee of the Department of Children and Families · Chapter 418 of the Acts of 2016
S2533 (189th): An Act establishing a sick leave bank for Richard Hasbrouck, an employee of the Department of Correction · Chapter 421 of the Acts of 2016
S1125 (190th): An Act amending the charter of the City of Lowell · Chapter 40 of the Acts of 2017

Outcomes are the furthest point each bill reached in the record. “Folded into an enacted bill” means the history names the enacted bill that absorbed it. “Passed both branches; no chapter recorded” means the bill was enacted by both branches and laid before the Governor, with no chapter or veto in the history; in the 194th General Court such bills are shown as laid before the Governor (pending). The 194th General Court is in session until January 2027, so its open bills are pending, not dead, and its rates (*) are not comparable with completed sessions. Chairs and leaders control the calendar, which raises their rates. Source: malegislature.gov bill histories.

Recorded votes on accountability measures

Eileen M. Donoghue cast eight yes-or-no votes on the eight accountability roll calls in this file (five yes, three no).

Roll calls on rules, audits, public records, term limits and pay
Date	Measure	Vote	Chamber result
January 26, 2017	Senate engrossment of the pay-raise bill	Yes	Yeas 31, nays 9
February 2, 2017	Amendment 2.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Matters considered in an informal session	Yes	Yeas 38, nays 0
February 2, 2017	Amendment 3.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Time to consider matters in an informal	Yes	Yeas 39, nays 0
February 2, 2017	Amendment 7.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Provided with text of bills prior to poll	Yes	Yeas 39, nays 0
February 2, 2017	Special orders by majority instead of two-thirds (contested meaning)	No	Yeas 6, nays 33
February 2, 2017	Amendment 11.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Unanimous consent	No	Yeas 6, nays 33
February 2, 2017	Amendment 13.0 (Bruce E. Tarr): Timely Local Aid Notification	No	Yeas 7, nays 32
February 2, 2017	Senate override of the veto of the pay-raise bill	Yes	Yeas 31, nays 9

Votes marked “contested meaning” are rules-package and public-records passage votes; reform advocates were on both sides of them. Descriptions are the project’s plain summaries of each question, or the question as recorded for rules-package roll calls; the official record is on malegislature.gov. Votes are facts; no score is computed.

Campaign money in

Eileen M. Donoghue’s committee reported $75,000 in contributions of $250 or more in years the member served, 2015–2018.

By year (years in the Legislature)
Year	Contributions
2015	$17,000
2016	$26,000
2017	$24,000
2018	$8,300

By kind of contributor
Kind	Total	Share
Individuals	$54,000	71%
Political committees and PACs	$21,000	28%
Unions and associations	$500	1%

Individuals’ money by the employer they reported
Employer reported	Share
A named employer	64%
Self-employed	15%
Retired	7%
Not employed	1%
Homemaker or at home	5%
Not reported or withheld	7%

Not counted as contributions: $7,393 in other receipts of $250 or more in the same years (candidate loans and the candidate’s own money, transfers, refunds, bank interest and aggregated small receipts).

The same committee also reported $0 in years the member was not in the Legislature (2019), for example while running for another office. Those receipts are not in the totals above.

Largest employers and organizations
Employer or organization	Kind	Total	Contributions
TRINITY EMS	individuals, by employer	$2,500	6
IBEW LOCAL 2321 COPE PAC	committee or PAC	$2,000	5
SUFFOLK CONTRUCTION	individuals, by employer	$2,000	2
TRINITY AMBULANCE	individuals, by employer	$2,000	4
ACCUDATA	individuals, by employer	$2,000	4
SUFFOLK CONSTRUCTION	individuals, by employer	$2,000	2
WOMEN WORKING WONDERS FUND	individuals, by employer	$1,600	4
RETIRED PUBLIC EMPLOYEES PAC	committee or PAC	$1,500	3
MA & NORTHERN NE LABORERS' DISTRICT COUNCIL POL ACTION COMM	committee or PAC	$1,500	3
COMMENCEMENT PHOTOS	individuals, by employer	$1,500	3

Source: Office of Campaign and Political Finance, itemized receipts of $250 or more since 2015; OCPF filer record: Donoghue Committee (CPF 12870). Individuals are grouped by the employer they reported; no individual contributor is named, and an employer field that is a person’s name is withheld. Massachusetts bars business contributions to candidates. Employer shows affiliation, not instruction.

Sources

Every figure traces to a public record.

Facts only: posts, stipends, sponsored amendments, enacted items, roll-call votes and district money. No score or grade is computed. Associations shown here are not evidence of cause. Method.