Politics

Massachusetts House Speaker Bob DeLeo is reportedly planning to step down

DeLeo has been speaker since 2009.

Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo last October at the State House. John Tlumacki / The Boston Globe

December 16, 2020

Massachusetts House Speaker Bob DeLeo’s historic run on Beacon Hill is reportedly about to come to an end.

DeLeo, the longest-serving House speaker in state history, plans to step down to take a job at his alma mater Northeastern University, according to a report Wednesday evening by NBC Boston’s Alison King.

BREAKING NEWS: @SpeakerDeLeo is going to leaving his post on Beacon Hill to go @Northeastern

— Alison King NBC10 Boston (@AlisonNBCBoston) December 16, 2020

While the Winthrop Democrat won reelection last month to a sixteenth term, the news comes amid growing chatter around the State House about the 70-year-old’s future. Less than 30 minutes before King’s tweet, the State House News Service reported that “sources inside and outside the building” increasingly believe DeLeo was readying himself to make a move.

Following the reports, his office provided a statement to the State House News Service asserting that DeLeo had not been in contact with Northeastern, but did not deny that he is planning to step down.

“The Speaker has had no such talks with, much less does he have any agreement with, Northeastern University,” Catherine Williams, a spokeswoman for DeLeo, told the State House News Service in a statement, which did not otherwise address his future.

In an email, a Northeastern spokeswoman declined to comment.

DeLeo, who was first elected in 1990, became House speaker in 2009, after his predecessor Sal DiMasi resigned amid a federal corruption investigation (in fact, the previous two Massachusetts House speakers also resigned amid federal probes, and DeLeo is the first speaker who hasn’t been indicted since 1991). This past February, he became the longest-serving House speaker in Massachusetts history (after leading a successful push to abolish term limits for the position).

According to several reports, House Majority Leader Ron Mariano of Quincy or Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad of Fall River are viewed as the top contenders to succeed DeLeo.