Senate · Democrat
James E. Timilty
Data through FY2026; built October 19, 2026.
Residence
Walpole
First elected
Senate 2004
Occupation
Legislator
Left office
resigned (April 28, 2017); successor elected in special election October 17, 2017
| Session | Chamber | District | Lines | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 189th (2015–16) | Senate | Bristol and Norfolk | 2011 lines | |
| 190th (2017–18) | Senate | Bristol and Norfolk | 2011 lines |
Posts and stipends
James E. Timilty was paid $25,731 in leadership and committee stipends from 2016 to 2017.
| Session | Posts | First year | Second year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 189th (2015–16) | Chair, Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security; Vice chair, Joint Committee on Revenue | not available | $15,000 |
| 190th (2017–18) | Title not in the roster records; a stipend was paid | $10,731 | not available |
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
Bristol and Norfolk on its 2011 lines: 9 cities and towns, 166,850 residents (2020).
Attleboro · Walpole · Mansfield · Norton · Foxborough · Seekonk · Medfield · Rehoboth · Sharon
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: 39 for all state aid and 23 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.
| Session | District | Dollars | In corrective clauses | Per resident per budget, rank | Without corrective clauses, rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 189th (2015–16) | Bristol and Norfolk | $297,000 | $0 | $1.78 · 35th of 40 | $1.78 · 35th of 40 |
| 190th (2017–18) | Bristol and Norfolk | $752,000 | $12,000 | $2.25 · 37th of 40 | $2.22 · 37th 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.
| Session | District | Placed in the district | Per resident per budget, rank | Everything placed | Per resident per budget, rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 189th (2015–16) | Bristol and Norfolk | $147,000 | $0.88 · 39th of 40 | $297,000 | $1.78 · 38th of 40 |
| 190th (2017–18) | Bristol and Norfolk | $552,000 | $1.65 · 40th of 40 | $752,000 | $2.25 · 40th of 40 |
Budget amendments
James E. Timilty sponsored 35 budget amendments in FY2017–FY2026, asking for $5.4 million in all.
Amendments sponsored
35
FY2017–FY2026 budgets
Adopted, known outcomes
40%
14 of 35
Chamber rate, same ask sizes
33%
expected at the chamber’s rates
Of the 35 with a known outcome, 14 were adopted (40%). At the chamber’s adoption rate for amendments of the same size, about 11 (33%) would have been.
| Year | Amount | Enacted budget text (excerpt) | Amendment |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | $1.1M (shared two ways) | “not less than $2,200,000 for municipalities hosting department of correction facilities” | S4 #1031 |
| FY2017 | $150,000 | “the creation of a roadway at the former Medfield State Hospital property in the town of Medfield” | S4 #883 |
| FY2017 | $50,000 | “not less than $50,000 to develop a pilot program in Norfolk county to incentivize independent home health care nurses to work with patients with rare…” | S4 #398 |
| FY2017 | $25,000 (shared four ways) | “the Children's Advocacy Center of Worcester County” | S4 #399 |
Strong matches: 4 enacted items, $1.3 million (the member’s share where several amendments claim one clause). A further two weaker text matches are not listed; attribution is inferred from amendment text and is less certain there.
For 2 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
James E. Timilty filed 196 bills as lead sponsor in these sessions; one was enacted on its own. In completed sessions, 0.5% 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.
| 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 | 97 | 1 | 1 | 40 | 42 | 1 | 12 | 1% | 4% | 75 |
| 190th (2017–18) | Senate | 99 | 0 | 1 | 66 | 31 | 0 | 1 | 0% | 3% | 62 |
Enacted bills as lead sponsor
- S2096 (189th): An Act relative to the membership of the Underground Storage Tank Petroleum Cleanup Fund Administrative Reuse Board · Chapter 280 of the Acts of 2016
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
James E. Timilty cast eight yes-or-no votes on the eight accountability roll calls in this file (five yes, three no).
| 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
James E. Timilty’s committee reported $58,000 in contributions of $250 or more in years the member served, 2015–2018.
| Year | Contributions |
|---|---|
| 2015 | $28,000 |
| 2016 | $16,000 |
| 2017 | $7,100 |
| 2018 | $7,050 |
| Kind | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals | $34,000 | 58% |
| Political committees and PACs | $22,000 | 37% |
| Unions and associations | $2,750 | 5% |
| Employer reported | Share |
|---|---|
| A named employer | 69% |
| Self-employed | 14% |
| Retired | 6% |
| Homemaker or at home | 8% |
| Not reported or withheld | 4% |
Not counted as contributions: $600 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 $6,050 in years the member was not in the Legislature (2019, 2020), for example while running for another office. Those receipts are not in the totals above.
| Employer or organization | Kind | Total | Contributions |
|---|---|---|---|
| MA STATE POLICE | individuals, by employer | $9,000 | 18 |
| NORFOLK COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE | individuals, by employer | $2,000 | 4 |
| COHEN AND MULSTEIN | individuals, by employer | $2,000 | 2 |
| MA & NORTHERN NE LABORERS' DISTRICT COUNCIL POL ACTION COMM | committee or PAC | $1,500 | 3 |
| BEER DISTRIBUTORS' PAC | committee or PAC | $1,000 | 2 |
| BOSTON FIRE FIGHTERS LOCAL 718 PAC | committee or PAC | $1,000 | 2 |
| CHAPTER 25 ASSOCIATED THE NAT'L DRIVE PAC OF THE INT'L BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS | committee or PAC | $1,000 | 2 |
| ELEVATOR CONSTRUCTORS LOCAL 4 PEOPLE'S CTTEE | committee or PAC | $1,000 | 2 |
| MA CORRECTION OFFICERS FEDERATED UNION PAC M C O F U PAC | committee or PAC | $1,000 | 2 |
| RETIRED PUBLIC EMPLOYEES PAC | committee or PAC | $1,000 | 2 |
Source: Office of Campaign and Political Finance, itemized receipts of $250 or more since 2015; OCPF filer record: Timilty Committee (CPF 13244). 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.
- Massachusetts Legislature, members, districts and roll calls
- Budget amendments and enacted budgets, FY2017–FY2026
- CTHRU payroll, Office of the Comptroller (stipends)
- Office of Campaign and Political Finance
- District lines: Acts of 2011 and 2021; Census 2020 block populations
- Official profile (prior offices, occupation)
- Election statistics (first elected, residence)
- Leaving office (press/secondary: Wikipedia)
- Leaving office (election statistics)
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.