Alan Sisitsky, a Springfield Democrat who clashed with the leader of the Senate more than three decades ago, died on Friday at the age of 75, according to his family and an obituary.
A Harvard- and Yale-educated former member of the House, Sisitsky served in the Senate for a decade until 1982 and later practiced law in Springfield, according to the obituary.
In October 1981, Senate President William Bulger expelled Sisitsky from the Senate chamber, according to a Boston Globe article. According to the paper, Sisitsky had frequently disrupted proceedings and tried to strip Bulger of his presidency. After Bulger ordered him removed, Sisitsky reportedly remarked it was "like being kicked out of a bordello."
In February 1982, Sisitsky's family hospitalized him for "physical and emotional fatigue," according to the Globe. In September 1983, Sisitsky penned a Globe opinion column lambasting the top-down power structure of Bulger's Senate. "The internal structure of the Massachusetts Legislature is so hierarchical, so authoritarian, that election to the General Court merely constitutes admission to a private club with full membership privileges afforded only to the most supine, the most groveling of initiates, to the minions who happily endorse the political epigram 'to get ahead, go along,'" Sisitsky wrote. "The result is a Legislature dominated by deferential underlings who confer lavish praise on their leaders in exchange for additional office space, more prestigious committee assignments and the warm glow of collegial affection."
Sisitsky died at the Jewish Nursing Home in Longmeadow. He is survived by his wife Carol Sisitsky, his son Thomas Hodges and other family members.