David Paul Linsky (born October 16, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who currently represents the 5th Middlesex District in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

Career

Early life and education

A lifelong resident of

Natick, Massachusetts Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part of the Greater Boston area. ...

, Linsky graduated from

Natick High School Natick High School is an urban/suburban public high school serving students in grades 9 to 12 in Natick, Massachusetts, United States. The school is located on the banks of Dug Pond. Its enrollment was 1,603 students during the 2015–2016 schoo ...

and went on to earn his B.A. from

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthr ...

and his J.D. from

Boston College Law School Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. With approximately 800 studen ...

Legal career and politics

He is a graduate of the Career Prosecutor School in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. He served on the Natick Democratic Town Committee. From 1980 to 1999, Linsky was a Natick Town Meeting Member. From 1984 to 1988 he served on the Natick Conservation Commission.

Assistant District Attorney

From 1983 to 1988 and again from 1991 to 1999, Linsky was an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County. As an ADA he prosecuted hundreds of cases including sexual assault, murder, and white collar crime.

State Representative

Linsky was first elected to the House in 1999 in the special election to succeed

Douglas Stoddart Douglas W. Stoddart (born March 5, 1952 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a private attorney licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A native of Wellesley, Massachusetts, Stoddart graduated from Colgate University in 1974, where he played on the Re ...

, who resigned after he was appointed as a judge in Middlesex District Court. Linsky defeated former Natick Selectman John F. Moran in the Democratic primary 3,181 votes to 2,105. In the general election he defeated Republican Kenneth B. Hoyt and Independent Jerry L. Pierce 3,846 votes to Hoyt's 1,837 and Pierce's 47. Linsky is served as Chair of the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight for twelve years, and formerly served as the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Federal Stimulus Oversight. Linsky is considered a national leader in state legislation in the area of gun violence prevention, was an original supporter of Massachusetts' first in the nation Universal Health Insurance Law, the forerunner to the Affordable Care Act, and was an early leader in Massachusetts Equal Marriage movement. He also was instrumental in securing funding for several new public schools in his District, including Natick High School and the Kennedy and Wilson Middle Schools.

Personal life

He and his former wife Lois have three children. On July 1, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service filed a lien against Linsky for $154,067 in unpaid income taxes related to his law office income. Linsky stated that the debt was due to "a number of family issues and business issues, unrelated to iswork as a state representative". He also stated that he was on a payment plan to repay the taxes, had already paid back some of the money, was current in his payments, and was appealing the lien.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linsky, David 1957 births Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives People from Natick, Massachusetts 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Politicians from Boston Lawyers from Boston Colby College alumni Boston College Law School alumni Living people 21st-century American politicians Jewish American state legislators in Massachusetts 21st-century American Jews