Richard Tisei
Title: Co-owner, Northrup Associates Lynnfield
Age: 53
Experience: 21 years
Richard Tisei grew up in Lynnfield and served six years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, followed by 20 years in the state Senate, before retiring in 2011. He has been selling real estate since 1991 and currently co-owns and operates Northrup Real Estate in Lynnfield with his husband, Bernie Starr. This year, Tisei began working as a senior policy analyst for Preti Strategies, a lobbying firm in Boston.
Q: How did you get involved in politics?
A: I don’t come from a political family. My parents weren’t even registered to vote when I was young. We never talked about politics or government around the dinner table.
When I was a senior in high school, I was chosen by my classmates at Lynnfield High School to be the state representative for a day and I participated in the Massachusetts student governance day program that is still active to this day. Every high school around the state elects somebody to be a state representative or a state senator and they pretty much take over the Statehouse. You propose bills, go in for hearings and on the final day you actually take over the house chamber and debate bills and pass them. That was such a powerful experience for me that I decided when I graduated from college I was going to become a lawmaker and run for state representative and try to effect change. The whole idea that individuals could govern themselves and seeing how democracy works was really powerful. One out of every three students that participates in that program goes on to become an elected official themselves. It’s a pretty intense experience. It really opened up my eyes to – and I often say this to kids – the fact that there are a lot of people who will make rules for you all throughout your life and if you’re not paying attention and participating, you really don’t have a say in that.
I went to American University in Washington, D.C., and while I was in school, the incumbent state representative announced his retirement in January and I announced I was running. For the first six months, I ran my campaign out of my dorm room. I traveled home on weekends to campaign and I ended up graduating in May and I won the election in November. I had just turned 22 and my claim to fame is that I’m the youngest Republican ever elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Q: How did you get into the real estate business?
A: My father was a contractor and he and my mother had just established a home inspection company, so I had some background in real estate and being a small business owner. I thought I could fit real estate sales into my schedule as a legislator. It was great because back then I had two totally different lives. One being up on Beacon Hill helping to shape policy and pass legislation and representing my communities, and the other, on a day-to-day basis, I was helping people at important stages of their lives, selling real estate.
A good Realtor is somebody who is able to understand differences that buyers and sellers have, figure out what the obstacles to consummating a sale are, and overcoming them. That skillset helped make me a successful legislator.
Obviously dealing with the real estate downturn was probably one of the most important learning experiences. I helped a lot of people who were about to lose their homes and saw the difficulties people were having. We lost a third of our revenue overnight when the crash happened; [we had to] look at every aspect of [our] business and figure out how to deliver services differently and still provide quality services. At the same time, in the State House, we had a huge deficit because the economy was tanking. I definitely understood what people were going through.
Q: What legislative accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I wrote the provisions in the Education Reform Act to set up an alternative pathway for people to get into the teaching profession. I also worked on the Welfare Reform Act, which became a model for reform that President Clinton and Congress enacted nationally. I was one of six people who wrote the final version of that bill.
I also was the author of the bill that took both the Franklin Park and Stoneham zoos away from state control. The state was running them into the ground. Previous to that, if you wanted to give $1 million for a new exhibit in either zoo, the money had to go into the general fund and you’d just hope it would be appropriated where it was supposed to go. Zoo New England is now a public- private partnership with a board and they’ve made great strides.
Another time, I had a gentleman come to me who worked at a hospital and saw some things going on that pertained to quality of care and he reported them to the hospital and the hospital didn’t act on them. Then he came to me and told me and reported what he saw to the state and he got fired. So, I passed the Health Care Whistleblower Protection Act for health care employees. That’s probably the bill I’m most proud of.
As a lobbyist at Preti Strategies, I’m doing pretty much what I was doing at the Statehouse, representing different groups and helping people navigate state government. I like it because it allows me to still play a role in shaping public policy. I’m working on issues I’ve always been interested in, like energy, health care and development.
Tisei’s Five Favorite Restaurants:
- The Square Rigger in Edgartown
- Sabatino’s in Wakefield
- Smith & Wolensky in Boston
- The Hardcover in Danvers
- The Union Oyster House in Boston
