Thursday, 4:30 PM
Influential politician to leave Senate, take lobbying job
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
State Senator Robert A. Havern, a 20-year legislative veteran and the Senate's assistant majority whip, is resigning to take a position with a high-powered lobbying firm, ML Strategies.
His departure sets the stage for a scramble by local politicos who want to take over his southern Middlesex County seat.
The 57-year-old Havern, an Arlington Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 1990, confirmed this afternoon he plans to submit his resignation to the Senate clerk tomorrow morning.
He said will serve until the end of this month. Senate President Therese Murray is expected to announce a special election schedule shortly, with a primary sometime in November and a general election five weeks later.
Already a host of local politicians are moving to position themselves for a potential race for the seat.
According to local political observers, they include Democratic state representatives James J. Marzilli, Jr. of Arlington, Charles A. Murphy of Burlington, and Patrick M. Natale of Woburn. Another potential candidate is Selectwoman Dianne Mahon of Arlington.
Havern, who served two terms in the House before moving to the Senate, was the long-time Senate chair of the Legislature's Committee on Transportation, which made him a key player during the state's development of such major projects as the Big Dig, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and the Logan International Airport expansion.
He also oversaw the passage of bonds to pay for billions of dollars of transportation construction.
"It has been 21 years in the Legislature and it is time to make a change,"Havern said. "I loved what I was doing but there is a time to change everything."
He said the offer from ML Strategies was an "opportunity I didn't want to pass up."
"The timing was great," he said.
Havern joins a host of other lawmakers who have left for high-paying lobbying jobs in recent years. They include former Senate president Robert Travaglini and former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran.
Havern will serve as president of ML Strategies's Massachusetts Government Relations Practice. ML Strategies is the consulting affiliate of the Boston law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo.
