The Blue State that Won't Pass Blue Laws
In the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the Speaker decides which bills live, which ones die, and who gets punished for speaking out. Debate is staged. Outcomes are decided in advance. And the bills YOU voted for (the ones your Representative campaigned on) are buried in silence.
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Shadows on the Hill is a documentary about the real reason common-sense laws don’t pass, even when they’re backed by voters, policy experts, and a supermajority of lawmakers.​
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Democrats control every lever of state government, and the party platform champions bold, popular reforms, like single-payer healthcare and universal pre-K. ​​​And yet, year after year, the Statehouse blocks even the most broadly supported bills...
What It's Like Being a Rank and File Rep
Congratulations, you’ve been elected to the MA House!
​​You knocked on thousands of doors. You promised voters you’d fight for healthcare, housing, and bold climate action. You told them you'd speak truth to power and you're ready to be that voice.​​​ ​
But when you arrive, you find out: your fight for change isn't welcome.​​​
Want to file an amendment to prevent corporate tax loopholes? Leadership ignores you when you try to speak on the floor.​
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Imagine you aren't ignored. That bill — 100+ pages long — was crafted behind closed doors over several months, but you've only had a few hours to read it, draft your amendments, and convince your colleagues to support you before the vote happens later today.
Frustrated with the Speaker’s authoritative approach? If you suggest someone run against him, he can take away your vice chair position and the additional salary that goes with it.
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Keep pushing? The Speaker can move your desk to the hallway.
It’s not just punishments — the speaker has carrots to reward you when you make tough votes against your conscience:
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Don’t mind voting against the government transparency reforms you ran on? You might be rewarded with a paid committee chair position that never even meets.
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Vote against your own bill to stay in good favor with the Speaker? You might get a new staffer hire, allowing you to do your job more effectively.
From your first day in office, you’re told this is just how Beacon Hill works: fall in line, or face the consequences. And here's the thing: it’s all within the Speaker’s power.
Who Wins in
This System?
Powerful lobbyists and industry insiders.
In a healthy democracy, lobbyists have to persuade the public, and lawmakers have to win votes. In Massachusetts, they just need to whisper in leadership’s ear. When one person controls the agenda, backroom deals replace public debate — and the people barely factor in.
Aaron Michlewitz, the Speaker’s top deputy and presumed successor, has amassed more than $1.3 million in campaign funds—even though he hasn’t faced an opponent since 2009.
Who Loses in This System?
YOU and everyone else.
Working families. Renters. Patients. Immigrants. Voters elect candidates who promise bold action, but those promises slam into a wall of silence. Lawmakers who fall in line are rewarded; those who argue are punished. Meanwhile, real problems — healthcare costs, housing instability, economic inequality, threats to marginalized populations — keep growing. When popular policy dies, public trust collapses and cynicism wins.
In 2019, these progressive reps were repeatedly ignored while speaking on the House floor, one even waving her arms and calling out. Two have since left office.
Stories This Film Brings to Light
Violating the Constitution to Avoid Affordable Healthcare
One of the central threads in Shadows on the Hill is the story of a grassroots campaign that would have guaranteed every Massachusetts resident access to affordable healthcare — and how the Statehouse violated its constitutional duty to stop it from reaching the ballot.
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In 2003, a coalition of nurses, doctors, and citizens collected over 71,000 signatures to advance a constitutional amendment requiring the state to ensure affordable, comprehensive healthcare. It passed the first legislative vote 153-41.
The second vote needed just 25% support — but leadership refused to bring it to a vote, burying it in committee. MA’s highest court later ruled that the Legislature had shirked its Constitutional duty—but said it had no power to enforce compliance.
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Today, leadership still sends popular bills to die in committee or study without a public vote.
Silenced Staffer to Statehouse Scrapper
Sexually harassed at work, then forced to sign a gag order to get her final paycheck. That’s what happened to Diana DiZoglio as a young staffer in the Massachusetts Statehouse. But she didn’t stay quiet—she fought back.
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She ran for State Representative — and won.
Then, as a Rep, she turned the tables: Standing on the Statehouse floor, DiZoglio broke her NDA live on the record, publicly exposing the system that tried to silence her. Check out the incredible video below.
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Today, DiZoglio is Massachusetts State Auditor — and she’s taking the fight even further.
Backed by her state-wide ballot initiative (passed with 72% of the vote!), she’s demanding a full audit of the same institution that once tried to bury her.
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But Beacon Hill isn’t giving up its secrets that easily. Shadows on the Hill follows DiZoglio’s battle to pull back the curtain on a machine built to protect itself.
Sexual harassment has been reported at the Statehouse again and again. Efforts to address it have been underwhelming.
63 Lawmakers Caught Blindly Following the Leader
Shadows on the Hill exposes a two-minute moment in 2019 when 63 MA House Democrats reversed their votes mid-roll-call, just to match the Speaker. When a Republican amendment came up for a vote, Speaker Bob DeLeo and Acting Speaker Tom Petrolati initially voted no, and dozens of Democrats immediately followed their lead.
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But when leadership realized DeLeo had meant to vote yes, Petrolati—into a live mic—said: “It’s a yes? Switch 'em. Yes, yes, yes, yes yes, Mikey!”
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Instantly, all 63 lawmakers flipped their votes from no to yes. Bob Katzen, who broke this story and has reported from the Statehouse for 50 years, wrote: “This is not an uncommon occurrence in the House.”
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Rep. Russell Holmes, one of the few willing to comment publicly, put it bluntly:
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“Welcome to the House of Representatives. This is exactly how the House runs itself and the members should be ashamed. The Speaker is like a shepherd leading a flock of sheep.”
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Want to see this with your own eyes? You can. The entire incident is archived on the official Statehouse live stream (skip to 5:35:49).
