Feeling Better, Spilka Working Away From State House

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Despite not participating in a Monday meeting with Gov. Charlie Baker and House Speaker Ronald Mariano this week, Senate President Karen Spilka's office said Tuesday that she is "feeling much better" after her recent illness which disrupted her schedule in the waning days of formal sessions last month.

Baker and Mariano met during the 2 p.m. hour this Monday, a window traditionally reserved for the semi-regular "leadership meetings" which also include Spilka and other officials. The two politicians may have talked about the governor's actions on the $4 billion COVID-19 relief bill which he was preparing to release that afternoon.

Baker had dipped his pen into the inkwell hours earlier, signing the bill and his vetoes and amendments at 11:40 a.m.

Mariano emerged from the governor's office at 3:05 p.m., and within three minutes, a Baker staff member was ferrying the spending package — along with Baker's edits — down to the Publications and Regulations Division to be officially promulgated.

"I believe she was invited," Mariano said of Spilka, as he walked back to his office. Asked if she participated, he shook his head.

It's at least the second time that the governor and speaker have held their own version of a leadership meeting, after they met privately Nov. 15 in Mariano's office.

Aides to all three officials made clear to the News Service that they did not consider this week's tete-a-tete to categorically be a "leadership meeting." Such a label includes customary implications such as a press availability after the officials have concluded their talks.

"There wasn't a leadership meeting today, and she would have participated if there was a leadership meeting, but there wasn't one," a Spilka spokesman said Monday.

The Senate president, who had often been spotted at the State House prior to the middle of November, has not been at the State House in more than a month, during a time period that included illness and holiday celebrations.

"The Senate President is feeling much better after her illness last month," the same spokesman said in a statement Tuesday. "She's fully engaged in the work of the Senate and regularly working with State House leadership, advocates, district leaders and her colleagues."

Spilka most recently traveled to the State House on Nov. 10, her office confirmed, when she presided over passage of the so-called Nero's Bill dealing with emergency aid to injured police dogs.

The Ashland Democrat had two events on her calendar the following Monday, Nov. 15, which she jettisoned in order to attend an infrastructure bill-signing at the White House, a trip she then cancelled due to an illness.

The Senate president remained at home recovering during the year's final formal session on Nov. 17, although she monitored sessions from home and voted remotely, as do a majority of senators during the pandemic. By Nov. 26, an aide reported that she was feeling better, an assessment the aide reiterated this week.

Her office advised this month that she would be honored at an award ceremony Dec. 9 at the Boston Harbor Hotel, but the event's emcee told the crowd that Spilka and Mariano both "had urgent work at the hill" so could not attend the 6 p.m. soirée. They accepted their awards with pre-taped video greetings, as did Baker, although the emcee said that the governor also attended in person.