Reply #23: First of all, there are only 12 members from Massachussetts

[NewJerseyDem]

I don't know if they are all millionaires now but Richard Neal was a high school teacher, John Olver was a chemistry professor, Jim McGovern was the son of owners of a packing store, Barney Frank grew up in Bayonne, Martin Meehan's father was a typesetter for a newspaper, John Tierney worked his way through college as a janitor, Ed Markey's father was a milkman, Michael Capuano's grandfather was an immigrant from Italy, Stephen Lynch grew up in the projects and he was originally an ironworker, and and I don't know about Delahunt. So, these congressmen hardly grew up wealthy and if they are wealthy now it is from hard work, not inheritance. Being a millioinaire isn't that impressive anyway.

The state is only 5.0% black and only 6.8% hispanic. Very few states with that small a number of minorities are electing minorities to congress. That may be unfortunate but you could also say the same thing abot how there aren't many white congressmen being elected from heavily black districts.

It is true that Massachussetts hasn't had a female member of congress for 30 years. But, women have only been winning office in large numbers for about a decade. They will elect a woman soon, but it is a reasonable point to raise. It has been about 25 years since a democratic congresswoman was elected in New Jersey and perhaps that is party of internal party politics but it will change in due time.