A good, but not a great, idea from 2008

by John Spritzler

June 26, 2026

 

Back in 2007 I had an idea to put before the voters. It was a good idea, but not a great idea. The idea was to replace the Massachusetts state legislature with randomly selected residents of the state (to be called the Commonwealth Jury), in order to make the legislature be independent of Big $. You can read all about this proposal* and see the vote results for and against it, online here.

​

This idea came to me before the much better idea of egalitarianism described here.

 

--------------------

​

The ballot question read as follows:

​

"Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a proposal to amend the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to replace the state Legislature with 100 randomly selected adult residents of the Commonwealth, each serving a one year term, to be called the Commonwealth Jury and to have all the legislative and other powers of the current Legislature?"

 

[This appeared as Question #5 in the 25th Middlesex (Somerville) state representative district in the November 2008 election.]

​

​

​

​

​