Springfield is a highly conservative part of the state, voting 40% Republican in the most Liberal State east of the Mississippi, and was home of Smith & Weston gun manufacture until recently. Gonzalez is the president of the Latino Chamber of Commerce in the state, a member of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus.

The Rep. from Chelsea is brand new this session, and fairly young. She easily beat a Republican and faced 2 male opponents in a state that was heavily pushing in this election to a move towards women across the state in legislative and higher office. She has very little track record on voting as yet so no way to judge whether this is typical or if Gonzalez pretty much reached out to her to co-sponsor what is probably a bad piece of legislation.

Chelsea has a LARGE Latino population and this may be a matter of getting her name on it to get backing for some other bills she may want to introduce. Generally you need a co-sponsor to get a bill into the process in this state from what I have heard so this may be a favor for favor deal by a new person to get something in to the system for consideration.

Republicans are less than 20% of the legislature in our state and falling... as are Republican voters. Generally if you want to achieve office here you run as a Democrat. There is only 1 Legislative member who is listed as an independent, but there are MORE Independent/Unenrolled voters in the state than the combined number of Republicans and Democrats.

I agree that the Modern Democratic Party in general needs to introduce some gatekeeping in regards to its membership when it comes to it's platform.

But it is also important to understand that there was several swap off's over the past one and three quarter centuries in regards to position. The Republicans of today have zero connection to the Republicans of Lincoln, Grant, Roosevelt or Eisenhower; the same can be said of the Democrats today and the Democrats of the Post Civil War period.

Additionally the population here is under transition. We are a state with a large immigrant and immigrant descended population (there are, as I have been reminded, 90 different languages spoken by residents here in MA). Only New York and CA are as diversified as we are, I am told.

That is why we have such a large number of persons who belong to neither party (including myself) and why we have had a number of 3rd parties (Libertarian, Green, Green-Rainbow, Pirate, Socialists, etc. (there are 32 recognized parties, only 3 of which appeared on the state office ballots this past year I'm told).

It's also possible for a bill here to be introduced via a Constituent in a district in this state, filed by the rep but not supported by them in any way (and we have even had bills so filed that are not supported by those who file them in order to kill them in committee).