Twitter Rankings: Massachusetts State Representatives (November 2018)

On Twitter this election season, I’ve had incredibly different experiences interacting with candidates for office: real conversations with Jay Gonzalez, Democratic candidate for governor, and Tommy Vitolo, my candidate for state representative; silence from Charlie Baker, incumbent Republican candidate for governor.

I wondered: could I compute a score to gauge how likely it would be for an elected official to converse with his or her constituent on Twitter? How many officials use Twitter merely as 280-character press releases, and how many truly engage with the public?

I’ve started with our state representatives, since they each represent about 40,000 residents, and the total numbers of tweets was a reasonable number to fetch with the free version of Twitter’s API.

Representatives of the 190th General Court (2019-2020)

All members

Click any column heading to re-sort with that column’s data. Anyone listed without a link to his or her Twitter feed doesn’t have an account (or I just can’t find it).

Name Assumed Office District Party Tweets, Last 90 Days Tweets /day Replies, Last 90 Days Replies /day
Whelan, Timothy 2014 Barnstable 01 R 163 1.81 14 0.16
Crocker, William 2016 Barnstable 02 R 200 2.22 12 0.13
Vieira, David 2010 Barnstable 03 R 0 0.00 0 0.00
Peake, Sarah 2006 Barnstable 04 D 10 0.11 0 0.00
Hunt, Randy 2010 Barnstable 05 R 25 0.28 0 0.00
Fernandes, Dylan 2016 Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket D 107 1.19 7 0.08
Barrett, John 2017 Berkshire 01 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Mark, Paul 2010 Berkshire 02 D 47 0.52 4 0.04
Farley-Bouvier, Tricia 2011 Berkshire 03 D 7 0.08 0 0.00
Pignatelli, Smitty 2002 Berkshire 04 D 95 1.06 21 0.23
Barrows, F. Jay 2006 Bristol 01 R 18 0.20 0 0.00
Hawkins, James 2018 Bristol 02 D 3 0.03 0 0.00
O'Connell, Shaunna 2010 Bristol 03 R 9 0.10 3 0.03
Howitt, Steven 2010 Bristol 04 R 40 0.44 2 0.02
Haddad, Patricia 2000 Bristol 05 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Fiola, Carole 2013 Bristol 06 D 24 0.27 3 0.03
Silvia, Alan 2008 Bristol 07 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Schmid, Paul 2010 Bristol 08 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Markey, Christopher 2010 Bristol 09 D 7 0.08 1 0.01
Straus, William 1992 Bristol 10 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Hendricks, Christopher 2019 Bristol 11 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Orrall, Norman 2019 Bristol 12 R 0 0.00 0 0.00
Cabral, Antonio 1990 Bristol 13 D 8 0.09 0 0.00
Poirier, Elizabeth 1999 Bristol 14 R 0 0.00 0 0.00
Kelcourse, James 2015 Essex 01 R 69 0.77 0 0.00
Mirra, Leonard 2013 Essex 02 R 17 0.19 3 0.03
Vargas, Andres 2017 Essex 03 D 284 3.16 49 0.54
Hill, Bradford 1999 Essex 04 R 49 0.54 0 0.00
Ferrante, Ann-Margaret 2009 Essex 05 D 20 0.22 1 0.01
Parisella, Jerald 2011 Essex 06 D 35 0.39 0 0.00
Tucker, Paul 2015 Essex 07 D 278 3.09 6 0.07
Ehrlich, Lori 2007 Essex 08 D 81 0.90 7 0.08
Wong, Donald 2011 Essex 09 R 26 0.29 0 0.00
Cahill, Daniel 2016 Essex 10 D 23 0.26 4 0.04
Capano, Peter 2019 Essex 11 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Walsh, Thomas 2016 Essex 12 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Speliotis, Theodore 1997 Essex 13 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Minicucci, Christina 2019 Essex 14 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Campbell, Linda 2007 Essex 15 D 13 0.14 0 0.00
Devers, Marcos 2019 Essex 16 D 44 0.49 0 0.00
Moran, Frank 2013 Essex 17 D 124 1.38 3 0.03
Nguyen, Tram 2019 Essex 18 D 225 2.50 70 0.78
Blais, Natalie 2019 Franklin 01 D 82 0.91 25 0.28
Whipps, Susannah 2015 Franklin 02 U 67 0.74 21 0.23
Smola, Todd 2004 Hampden 01 R 0 0.00 0 0.00
Ashe, Brian 2008 Hampden 02 D 21 0.23 3 0.03
Boldyga, Nicholas 2011 Hampden 03 REPUB 9 0.10 0 0.00
Velis, John 2014 Hampden 04 D 1 0.01 0 0.00
Vega, Aaron 2013 Hampden 05 D 134 1.49 8 0.09
Finn, Michael 2011 Hampden 06 D 1 0.01 0 0.00
Petrolati, Thomas 1986 Hampden 07 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Wagner, Joseph 1990 Hampden 08 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Tosado, José 2015 Hampden 09 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
González, Carlos 2015 Hampden 10 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Williams, Bud 2017 Hampden 11 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Puppolo, Angelo 2006 Hampden 12 D 82 0.91 0 0.00
Sabadosa, Lindsay 2019 Hampshire 01 D 118 1.31 18 0.20
Carey, Daniel 2019 Hampshire 02 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Domb, Mindy 2019 Hampshire 03 D 1150 12.78 97 1.08
Harrington, Sheila 2011 Middlesex 01 R 1 0.01 0 0.00
Arciero, James 2009 Middlesex 02 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Hogan, Kate 2009 Middlesex 03 D 160 1.78 11 0.12
Gregoire, Danielle 2009 Middlesex 04 D 215 2.39 36 0.40
Linsky, David 1999 Middlesex 05 D 10 0.11 4 0.04
Robinson, Maria 2019 Middlesex 06 D 394 4.38 200 2.22
Lewis, Jack 2017 Middlesex 07 D 1 0.01 0 0.00
Dykema, Carolyn 2009 Middlesex 08 D 38 0.42 12 0.13
Stanley, Thomas 2001 Middlesex 09 D 30 0.33 1 0.01
Lawn, John 2011 Middlesex 10 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Khan, Kay 1995 Middlesex 11 D 41 0.46 4 0.04
Balser, Ruth 1999 Middlesex 12 D 14 0.16 1 0.01
Gentile, Carmine 2015 Middlesex 13 D 10 0.11 0 0.00
Gouveia, Tami 2019 Middlesex 14 D 68 0.76 5 0.06
Ciccolo, Michelle 2019 Middlesex 15 D 207 2.30 5 0.06
Golden, Thomas 2003 Middlesex 16 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Nangle, David 1999 Middlesex 17 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Mom, Rady 2015 Middlesex 18 D 21 0.23 0 0.00
Robertson, David Allen 2019 Middlesex 19 D 66 0.73 0 0.00
Jones, Bradley 2003 Middlesex 20 R 6 0.07 0 0.00
Gordon, Kenneth 2013 Middlesex 21 D 44 0.49 10 0.11
Lombardo, Marc 2011 Middlesex 22 R 102 1.13 12 0.13
Garballey, Sean 2008 Middlesex 23 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Rogers, David Middlesex 24 D 1 0.01 0 0.00
Decker, Marjorie 2013 Middlesex 25 D 267 2.97 35 0.39
Connolly, Mike 2017 Middlesex 26 D 1081 12.01 49 0.54
Provost, Denise 2006 Middlesex 27 D 17 0.19 3 0.03
McGonagle, Joseph 2015 Middlesex 28 D 17 0.19 2 0.02
Hecht, Jonathan 2009 Middlesex 29 D 19 0.21 4 0.04
Haggerty, Richard 2019 Middlesex 30 D 110 1.22 12 0.13
Day, Michael Middlesex 31 D 137 1.52 22 0.24
Brodeur, Paul Middlesex 32 D 386 4.29 70 0.78
Ultrino, Steven 2015 Middlesex 33 D 34 0.38 0 0.00
Barber, Christine 2015 Middlesex 34 D 144 1.60 17 0.19
Donato, Paul 2001 Middlesex 35 D 48 0.53 1 0.01
Garry, Colleen 2003 Middlesex 36 D 7 0.08 3 0.03
Benson, Jennifer 2009 Middlesex 37 D 138 1.53 27 0.30
Ayers, Bruce 1999 Norfolk 01 D 52 0.58 0 0.00
Chan, Tackey 2011 Norfolk 02 D 7 0.08 0 0.00
Mariano, Ronald 1991 Norfolk 03 D 11 0.12 1 0.01
Murphy, James 2001 Norfolk 04 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Cusack, Mark 2011 Norfolk 05 D 15 0.17 0 0.00
Galvin, William 1991 Norfolk 06 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Driscoll, William 2017 Norfolk 07 D 58 0.64 4 0.04
Kafka, Louis 1991 Norfolk 08 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Dooley, Shawn 2014 Norfolk 09 R 0 0.00 0 0.00
Roy, Jeffrey 2013 Norfolk 10 D 213 2.37 8 0.09
McMurtry, Paul 2007 Norfolk 11 D 35 0.39 0 0.00
Rogers, John 1992 Norfolk 12 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Garlick, Denise 2012 Norfolk 13 D 68 0.76 5 0.06
Peisch, Alice 2003 Norfolk 14 D 2 0.02 0 0.00
Vitolo, Tommy 2019 Norfolk 15 D 790 8.78 167 1.86
Muratore, Mathew 2015 Plymouth 01 R 3243 36.03 12 0.13
Gifford, Susan 2003 Plymouth 02 R 0 0.00 0 0.00
Meschino, Joan Plymouth 03 D 24 0.27 2 0.02
Kearney, Patrick Joseph 2019 Plymouth 04 D 13 0.14 0 0.00
DeCoste, David 2014 Plymouth 05 R 129 1.43 3 0.03
Cutler, Josh 2013 Plymouth 06 D 144 1.60 15 0.17
Sullivan, Alyson 2019 Plymouth 07 R 26 0.29 3 0.03
D'Emilia, Angelo 2011 Plymouth 08 R 0 0.00 0 0.00
Cassidy, Gerard Plymouth 09 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
DuBois, Michelle 2015 Plymouth 10 D 127 1.41 37 0.41
Cronin, Claire 2013 Plymouth 11 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
LaNatra, Kathleen 2019 Plymouth 12 D 75 0.83 0 0.00
Madaro, Adrian Suffolk 01 D 76 0.84 10 0.11
Ryan, Daniel 2014 Suffolk 02 D 78 0.87 13 0.14
Michlewitz, Aaron 2009 Suffolk 03 D 46 0.51 4 0.04
Biele, David 2019 Suffolk 04 D 126 1.40 9 0.10
Miranda, Liz 2019 Suffolk 05 D 280 3.11 25 0.28
Holmes, Russell 2011 Suffolk 06 D 22 0.24 2 0.02
Tyler, Chynah 2017 Suffolk 07 D 70 0.78 6 0.07
Livingstone, Jay 2013 Suffolk 08 D 83 0.92 4 0.04
Santiago, Jon 2019 Suffolk 09 D 100 1.11 7 0.08
Coppinger, Edward 2011 Suffolk 10 D 57 0.63 7 0.08
Malia, Elizabeth 1998 Suffolk 11 D 26 0.29 0 0.00
Cullinane, Daniel 2013 Suffolk 12 D 30 0.33 2 0.02
Hunt, Daniel 2014 Suffolk 13 D 36 0.40 2 0.02
Scaccia, Angelo 1981 Suffolk 14 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Elugardo, Nika 2019 Suffolk 15 D 477 5.30 214 2.38
Vincent, RoseLee 2014 Suffolk 16 D 11 0.12 0 0.00
Honan, Kevin 1987 Suffolk 17 D 7 0.08 0 0.00
Moran, Michael 2005 Suffolk 18 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
DeLeo, Robert 1995 Suffolk 19 D 70 0.78 4 0.04
Ferguson, Kimberly 2010 Worcester 01 R 61 0.68 6 0.07
Zlotnik, Jonathan 2012 Worcester 02 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Hay, Stephan 2016 Worcester 03 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Higgins, Natalie 2016 Worcester 04 D 24 0.27 6 0.07
Berthiaume, Donald 2014 Worcester 05 R 0 0.00 0 0.00
Durant, Peter 2011 Worcester 06 R 12 0.13 7 0.08
Frost, Paul 1996 Worcester 07 R 30 0.33 10 0.11
Soter, Michael 2019 Worcester 08 R 1 0.01 0 0.00
Muradian, David 2014 Worcester 09 R 57 0.63 5 0.06
Murray, Brian 2016 Worcester 10 D 0 0.00 0 0.00
Kane, Hannah 2015 Worcester 11 R 81 0.90 7 0.08
Naughton, Harold 1994 Worcester 12 D 47 0.52 5 0.06
Mahoney, John 2010 Worcester 13 D 5 0.06 0 0.00
O'Day, James 2007 Worcester 14 D 62 0.69 9 0.10
Keefe, Mary 2012 Worcester 15 D 44 0.49 8 0.09
Donahue, Daniel 2013 Worcester 16 D 1 0.01 0 0.00
LeBoeuf, David 2019 Worcester 17 D 99 1.10 5 0.06
McKenna, Joseph 2014 Worcester 18 R 9 0.10 1 0.01

Most responsive

Some glimmers of hope here—but honestly, these numbers don’t seem great. (If I could afford the Premium Twitter API, I could see how many people mention each representative, and get a sense for how the number of replies compares to the number of opportunities for conversation.) I hope, though, by publicizing these rankings, our officials will be incentivized to respond more to their public!

1 Nika Elugardo
D - 15th Suffolk 		214 replies
2.38/day
2 Maria Robinson
D - 6th Middlesex 		200 replies
2.22/day
3 Tommy Vitolo
D - 15th Norfolk 		167 replies
1.86/day
4 Mindy Domb
D - 3rd Hampshire 		97 replies
1.08/day
5 Paul Brodeur
D - 32st Middlesex 		70 replies
0.78/day

Most talkative

No problem finding active Twitter talkers. Fortunately, some of these folks—Domb, Vitolo, and Elugardo—are responders, too!

1 Mathew Muratore
R - 1st Plymouth 		3243 tweets
36.03/day
2 Mindy Domb
D - 3rd Hampshire 		1150 tweets
12.78/day
3 Mike Connolly
D - 26th Middlesex 		1081 tweets
12.01/day
4 Tommy Vitolo
D - 15th Norfolk 		790 tweets
8.78/day
5 Nika Elugardo
D - 15th Suffolk 		477 tweets
5.30/day

Missing in action

Plenty of reps appear to neglect their Twitter constituencies entirely. (Of course, if I missed one, let me know!)

Vieira, David
R - 3rd Barnstable 		No account
Barrett, John
D - 1st Berkshire 		No account
Haddad, Patricia
D - 5th Bristol 		No tweets in 90-day window
Silvia, Alan
D - 7th Bristol 		No tweets in 90-day window
Schmid, Paul
D - 8th Bristol 		No tweets in 90-day window
Straus, William
D - 10th Bristol 		No account
Hendricks, Christopher
D - 11th Bristol 		No account
Orrall, Norman
R - 12th Bristol 		No account
Poirier, Elizabeth
R - 14th Bristol 		No tweets in 90-day window
Capano, Peter
D - 11th Essex 		No account
Walsh, Thomas
D - 12th Essex 		No tweets in 90-day window
Speliotis, Theodore
D - 13th Essex 		No account
Minicucci, Christina
D - 14th Essex 		No account
Smola, Todd
R - 1st Hampden 		No account
Petrolati, Thomas
D - 7th Hampden 		No account
Wagner, Joseph
D - 8th Hampden 		No tweets in 90-day window
Tosado, José
D - 9th Hampden 		No tweets in 90-day window
González, Carlos
D - 10th Hampden 		No tweets in 90-day window
Williams, Bud
D - 11th Hampden 		No tweets in 90-day window
Carey, Daniel
D - 2nd Hampshire 		No account
Arciero, James
D - 2nd Middlesex 		No tweets in 90-day window
Lawn, John
D - 10th Middlesex 		No tweets in 90-day window
Golden, Thomas
D - 16th Middlesex 		No account
Nangle, David
D - 17th Middlesex 		No account
Garballey, Sean
D - 23rd Middlesex 		No tweets in 90-day window
Murphy, James
D - 4th Norfolk 		No tweets in 90-day window
Galvin, William
D - 6th Norfolk 		No account
Kafka, Louis
D - 8th Norfolk 		No account
Dooley, Shawn
R - 9th Norfolk 		No account
Rogers, John
D - 12th Norfolk 		No tweets in 90-day window
Gifford, Susan
R - 2nd Plymouth 		No account
D'Emilia, Angelo
R - 8th Plymouth 		No tweets in 90-day window
Cassidy, Gerard
D - 9th Plymouth 		No account
Cronin, Claire
D - 11th Plymouth 		No account
Scaccia, Angelo
D - 14th Suffolk 		No account
Moran, Michael
D - 18th Suffolk 		No account
Zlotnik, Jonathan
D - 2nd Worcester 		No account
Hay, Stephan
D - 3rd Worcester 		No account
Berthiaume, Donald
R - 5th Worcester 		No account
Murray, Brian
D - 10th Worcester 		No account