2008 Massachusetts Ballot Measures
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2008 Massachusetts Ballot Measures
The Massachusetts general election, 2008 were held on November 4, 2008 throughout Massachusetts. Among the elections which took place were those for the office of President of the United States, John Kerry's seat in the Senate, all ten seats in the Massachusetts delegation to the House of Representatives, all eight seats in the Massachusetts Governor's Council, and all of the seats of the Massachusetts Senate and Massachusetts House of Representatives. There were also three ballot questions: to eliminate the commonwealth's income tax; to decriminalize possession of a small amount of marijuana; and to prohibit greyhound racing. Numerous local elections also took place throughout the state. President United States Senate U.S. Senator John Kerry (D) defeated Democratic challenger Edward O'Reilly in the primary on September 16, 2008. He defeated Republican Jeff Beatty and Libertarian Robert Underwood in the general election. The seat was considered safe for John Kerr ...
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2008 United States Elections
Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008, during the war on terror and the onset of the Great Recession. It was considered a Wave elections in the United States, Democratic wave election, with Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeating Senator John McCain of Arizona by a wide margin, and the Democrats bolstering their majorities in both chambers of United States Congress, Congress, thereby marking the first time since 1992 United States elections, 1992 in which the Democrats won Congress and the presidency in one election, and would not do so again until 2020 United States elections, 2020. Obama won his party's presidential nomination after defeating Senator Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2008 Democratic primaries. With Republican Party (United States), Republican President George W. Bush term-limited, Senator John McCain of Arizona won the Republ ...
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John Olver
John Walter Olver (September 3, 1936 – February 23, 2023) was an American politician and chemist who was the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 1st congressional district from 1991 to 2013. Raised on a farm in Pennsylvania, Olver graduated from college at the age of 18 and went on to earn a PhD in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later taught chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for eight years. He served in both chambers of the Massachusetts General Court, being elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1968 and the Massachusetts Senate in 1972. He ran in a 1991 special election to succeed 17-term Congressman Silvio O. Conte, who died in office. He was the first Democrat ever to represent the . Olver announced he would not seek re-election in 2012 and retired at the end of his eleventh term in Congress. He died at home in 2023 at age 86. Early life, education, and career Olver was born on September 3, 1936 ...
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Bristol County, Massachusetts
Bristol County is a county in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 579,200. The shire town is Taunton. Some governmental functions are performed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, others by the county, and others by local towns and cities. The county is the sixth most populous county in Massachusetts. Bristol County is part of the Providence metropolitan area, which is also included in Greater Boston. The county is adjacent to the state of Rhode Island. It is geographically adjacent to the Massachusetts counties of Plymouth, Norfolk, and Dukes (via water), and the Rhode Island counties of Bristol, Newport, and Providence. History Bristol County was created by the Plymouth Colony on June 2, 1685, and named after its "shire town" (county seat), Bristol. The Plymouth Colony, along with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Maine Colony and several other small settlements were rechartered in 1691, by King William III, t ...
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Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Barnstable County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 228,996. The county seat is Barnstable, Massachusetts, Barnstable. The county consists of Cape Cod and associated islands (some adjacent islands are in Dukes County, Massachusetts, Dukes County and Nantucket County). Barnstable County was formed as part of the Plymouth Colony on June 2, 1685, including the towns of Falmouth, Massachusetts, Falmouth, Sandwich, Massachusetts, Sandwich, and others to the east and north on Cape Cod. Plymouth Colony was merged into the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691. History Giovanni da Verrazzano Cape Cod is described in a letter from the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano to Francis I of France, relating the details of a voyage to the New World made on behalf of the French crown in the ship Dauphine, the only surviving of a fleet of four. Sailing from Madeira in 1524, the Dauphine ...
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Probate
In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy that apply in the jurisdiction where the deceased resided at the time of their death. The granting of probate is the first step in the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person, resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under a will. A probate court decides the legal validity of a testator's (deceased person's) will and grants its approval, also known as granting probate, to the executor. The probated will then becomes a legal instrument that may be enforced by the executor in the law courts if necessary. A probate also officially appoints the executor (or personal representative), generally named in the will, as having legal power to ...
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Massachusetts Counties
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has 14 counties, though eight of these fourteen county governments were abolished between 1997 and 2000. The counties in the southeastern portion of the state retain county-level local government (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk, Plymouth) or, in one case, ( Nantucket County) consolidated city-county government. Vestigial judicial and law enforcement districts still follow county boundaries even in the counties whose county-level government has been disestablished, and the counties are still generally recognized as geographic entities if not political ones. Three counties (Hampshire, Barnstable, and Franklin) have formed new county regional compacts to serve as a form of regional governance. Abolitions of some county governments Mismanagement of Middlesex County's public hospital in the mid-1990s left that county on the brink of insolvency, and in 1997 the Massachusetts legislature stepped in by assuming all assets and obligations of t ...
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Massachusetts Republican Party
The Massachusetts Republican Party (MassGOP) is the Massachusetts branch of the U.S. Republican Party. Originally, the party was formed in 1854. Soon after its founding, the party quickly became the dominant party in the state with Massachusetts remaining a staunchly Republican state until well into the 20th century. In fact, every single Massachusetts state and federal office was held by a party member until 1876, and it was only until 1874 that the state had any Democratic mayors again (namely William Gaston of Boston). By the 1920s, however, the Massachusetts Republican Party was in decline. Immigrants to Massachusetts made the state increasingly Democratic, as well as the Great Depression and the New Deal. The state began producing a streak of victories for Democratic presidential candidates beginning in 1928, and by the 1950s, the Massachusetts Republican Party's strongholds were reduced to rural Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod. Since then, however, the party has st ...
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Supermajority
A supermajority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fundamental rights of a minority, but can also hamper efforts to respond to problems and encourage corrupt compromises at times when action is taken. Changes to constitutions, especially those with entrenched clauses, commonly require supermajority support in a legislature. In consensus democracy the supermajority rule is applied in most cases. __TOC__ History The first known use of a supermajority rule was in juries during the 100s BC in ancient Rome. In some cases, two thirds of jurors had to confirm they were ready to take a decision before the matter went to a simple majority vote. Pope Alexander III introduced the use of supermajority rule for papal elections at the Third Lateran Council in 1179. In the Democratic Party of the ...
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Massachusetts Democratic Party
The Massachusetts Democratic Party (MassDems) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in Massachusetts. It is chaired by Steve Kerrigan and is the dominant party in the state, controlling all nine of the state's United States House of Representatives, U.S. House seats, both United States Senate, U.S. Senate seats, all six elected statewide offices including the Governor of Massachusetts, governorship, and supermajorities in both houses of the Massachusetts General Court, state legislature. Overview Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee is responsible for publicizing the platform of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, the state affiliate of the United States Democratic Party. According to the party charter, the State Committee is charged with conducting state-level Political campaign, campaigns for the Democratic Party, coordinating efforts to fill vacancies in nominating candidates to Government of M ...
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Ed Markey
Edward John Markey (born July 11, 1946) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Massachusetts, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served 20 terms (18 full, two partial) as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 1976 to 2013. Before his congressional career, he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1973 to 1976. When Patrick Leahy retired in 2023, Markey became the dean of the entire New England Congressional delegation. In 2013, after John Kerry was appointed United States Secretary of State, Markey was elected to serve out the remainder of Kerry's Senate term in a 2013 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts, 2013 special election. Markey defeated Stephen Lynch (politician), Stephen Lynch in the Democratic primary and Republican par ...
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Massachusetts's 7th Congressional District
Massachusetts's 7th congressional district is a congressional district located in eastern Massachusetts, including roughly three-fourths of the city of Boston and a few of its northern and southern suburbs. The seat is currently held by Democrat Ayanna Pressley. Due to redistricting after the 2010 census, the borders of the district were changed, with most of the old 7th district redistricted to the new 5th district, and most of the old 8th district comprising the new 7th district. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of D+34, it is the most Democratic district in Massachusetts, a state with an all-Democratic congressional delegation. According to ''The Boston Globe'' and the latest census data, approximately 33 percent of the population of the district were born outside of the United States, with approximately 34 percent of the population white, 26 percent African American, and 21 percent Latino. In 2019, Ayanna Pressley became the first female and person of color to ...
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John F
John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Epistle of John, often shortened to 2 John * Third Epistle of John, often shortened to 3 John People * John the Baptist (died ), regarded as a prophet and the forerunner of Jesus Christ * John the Apostle (died ), one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ * John the Evangelist, assigned author of the Fourth Gospel, once identified with the Apostle * John of Patmos, also known as John the Divine or John the Revelator, the author of the Book of Revelation, once identified with the Apostle * John the Presbyter, a figure either identified with or distinguished from the Apostle, the Evangelist and John of Patmos Other people with the given name Religious figures * John, father of Andrew the Apostle and Saint Peter * Pope Jo ...
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