Senate · Democrat

Jennifer L. Flanagan

Former member, served 2015–2017 in the sessions covered here · Worcester and Middlesex

Data through FY2026; built October 19, 2026.

Residence

Leominster

First elected

House 2004; Senate 2008

Left office

appointed to the Cannabis Control Commission (2017); successor elected in special election December 5, 2017

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

Posts and stipends

Jennifer L. Flanagan was paid $34,742 in leadership and committee stipends from 2016 to 2017.

Posts and stipends by session (stipends by calendar year)
Session	Posts	First year	Second year
189th (2015–16)	Chair, Special Senate Committee on Opioid Addiction Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Options; Vice chair, Joint Committee on Public Health	not available	$15,000
190th (2017–18)	Title not in the roster records; a stipend was paid	$19,742	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

Worcester and Middlesex on its 2011 lines: 11 cities and towns, 169,214 residents (2020).

Leominster 26% · Fitchburg 25% · Gardner 13% · Lunenburg 7% · Townsend 5% · Lancaster 5% · Westminster 5% · Sterling 5% · Clinton 5%, 51% of the town · Bolton 3% · Berlin 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: 55 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)	Worcester and Middlesex	$325,000	$0	$1.92 · 34th of 40	$1.92 · 33rd of 40
190th (2017–18)	Worcester and Middlesex	$797,000	$0	$2.36 · 36th of 40	$2.36 · 36th 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)	Worcester and Middlesex	$599,000	$3.54 · 26th of 40	$649,000	$3.84 · 23rd of 40
190th (2017–18)	Worcester and Middlesex	$1.6M	$4.64 · 23rd of 40	$1.6M	$4.79 · 21st of 40

Budget amendments

Jennifer L. Flanagan sponsored 93 budget amendments in FY2017–FY2026, asking for $74.6 million in all.

Amendments sponsored

FY2017–FY2026 budgets

Adopted, known outcomes

39%

36 of 93

Chamber rate, same ask sizes

37%

expected at the chamber’s rates

Of the 93 with a known outcome, 36 were adopted (39%). At the chamber’s adoption rate for amendments of the same size, about 34 (37%) would have been.

Largest enacted items matched to an amendment Jennifer L. Flanagan filed (strong text matches)
Year	Amount	Enacted budget text (excerpt)	Amendment
FY2018	$1.1M (shared two ways)	“not less than $2,200,000 for municipalities hosting department of correction facilities”	S3 #901
FY2017	$400,000	“not less than $400,000 for the hiring of additional new trial attorneys to handle child welfare cases”	S4 #384
FY2018	$200,000	“the implementation of section 97 chapter 71 of the General Laws to support school districts that are not currently funded by the department of public…”	S3 #305
FY2017	$200,000	“a department of mental health and the executive office of elder affairs elder mental health interagency service agreement for adult home and…”	S4 #387
FY2018	$42,000 (shared two ways)	“the Johnny Appleseed Trail Association”	S3 #595

Strong matches: 8 enacted items, $2 million (the member’s share where several amendments claim one clause). A further three weaker text matches are not listed; attribution is inferred from amendment text and is less certain there.

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

Jennifer L. Flanagan filed 109 bills as lead sponsor in these sessions; four 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	No action	Enacted rate	Chamber median	Cosponsored
189th (2015–16)	Senate	48	3	3	32	9	1	6%	4%	122
190th (2017–18)	Senate	61	1	1	35	20	4	2%	3%	196

Enacted bills as lead sponsor

S1150 (189th): An Act relative to respiratory therapy · Chapter 185 of the Acts of 2016
S2002 (189th): An Act relative to the appointment of assistant city clerks in the city of Gardner · Chapter 382 of the Acts of 2016
S2499 (189th): An Act establishing a commission on malnutrition prevention among older adults · Chapter 325 of the Acts of 2016
S1132 (190th): An Act authorizing the city of Leominster to pay a certain unpaid bill · Chapter 51 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

Jennifer L. Flanagan cast seven yes-or-no votes on the eight accountability roll calls in this file (four yes, three no); recorded as not voting on one.

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	Not voting	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

Jennifer L. Flanagan’s committee reported $61,000 in contributions of $250 or more in years the member served, 2015–2017.

By year (years in the Legislature)
Year	Contributions
2015	$24,000
2016	$23,000
2017	$14,000

By kind of contributor
Kind	Total	Share
Individuals	$35,000	57%
Political committees and PACs	$23,000	38%
Unions and associations	$3,000	5%

Individuals’ money by the employer they reported
Employer reported	Share
A named employer	72%
Self-employed	11%
Retired	9%
Not employed	4%
Not reported or withheld	4%

Not counted as contributions: $13,000 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).

Largest employers and organizations
Employer or organization	Kind	Total	Contributions
NORTH ATLANTIC MEDICAL	individuals, by employer	$4,250	9
ADCARE HOSPITAL	individuals, by employer	$3,000	5
ADCARE	individuals, by employer	$2,000	2
WACHUSETT MOUNTAIN SKI AREA	individuals, by employer	$1,900	3
MA ASSOC OF REALTORS POL ACTION COMM - MA RPAC	committee or PAC	$1,100	3
ALKERMES INC POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE MASSACHUSETTS	committee or PAC	$1,000	2
BOSTON POLICE PATROLMENS ASSOC POL ACTION COMM	committee or PAC	$1,000	2
PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS OF MA PEOPLE'S CTTEE	committee or PAC	$1,000	1
STATE POLICE ASSOC OF MASS POL ACTION COMM	committee or PAC	$1,000	2
UTILITY WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA AFL-CIO LOCAL 369 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: Flanagan Committee (CPF 14196). 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.