Vincent DeVito
| Vincent DeVito | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | Bowditch and Dewey |
| Role: | Partner |
| Location: | Boston, Mass. |
| Affiliation: | Republican |
| Education: | •Hartwick College •Massachusetts School of Law |
| Website: | Official website |
Vincent DeVito is a partner at the Boston law firm Bowditch and Dewey.[1] He was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Massachusetts. DeVito served on the Rules Committee of the convention in July 2016. According to the Boston Globe, DeVito was a supporter of Donald Trump.[2]
Career
Early career
Vincent DeVito's early career was spent in government sector litigation. He was an energy lawyer for the Massachusetts State Legislature and worked as the counsel for the state's Department of Public Utilities. According to his biography with Bowditch and Dewey, DeVito "pursued the development and implementation of the state’s electric utility deregulation plan."[1] He also worked as the deputy general counsel for the state's Department of Energy Resources from 199 to 2001.[3]
U.S. Department of Energy
From 2001 to 2005, DeVito served in the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the general counsel's office under President George W. Bush (R). His biography with Bowditch and Dewey describes his time in the department, including his service "as the U.S. manager of the North American Energy Working Group, a task force created to pursue the development of a fully integrated North American energy market" and as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy and International Affairs.[1]
Private practice
As a lawyer in the private sector, DeVito focuses on issues of energy, power generation, and technology. He served as the first executive director of the Institute for Energy and Sustainability.[4] In 2015, he was chief counsel to conservation land trusts in Boston that opposed the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, a natural gas pipeline through the area. He told Politico Magazine that the opposition to pipelines had to do with the proposed locations of these pipelines, not the pipelines themselves. He said, "People out there are not necessarily anti-pipeline and anti-fracking, but are primarily for responsible siting."[5]
Previous RNC attendance
Prior to the 2016 convention, DeVito attended the Republican National Conventions in 2000, 2004, and 2012. He told Wellesley Patch that the 2004 convention, held in New York City, "was particularly special as it was more than a convention, it was part of America's continuing recovery from that horrific day (9/11)."[6]
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
DeVito was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Massachusetts.
Rules committee
- See also: RNC Rules Committee, 2016
Vincent DeVito was a member of the RNC Rules Committee, a 112-member body responsible for crafting the official rules of the Republican Party, including the rules that governed the 2016 Republican National Convention.[7]
According to The Washington Post, DeVito was a member of a pro-Trump "study committee" focused on "quashing any effort to unbind delegates" at the national convention. Other members of the study committee from the Rules Committee included Alexander Willette of Maine, Demetra DeMonte of Illinois, and Bill Palatucci of New Jersey.[8]
Appointment process
The convention Rules Committee in 2016 consisted of one male and one female delegate from each state and territorial delegation. The Rules of the Republican Party required each delegation to elect from its own membership representatives to serve on the Rules Committee.
Delegate rules
District-level delegates from Massachusetts were elected at congressional district caucuses, while at-large delegates were elected by the Massachusetts Republican State Committee. At-large delegate candidates were required to "express a commitment to a qualifying Presidential candidate" prior to their election as delegates. Massachusetts delegates stipulated bound to the candidate to whom they pledged their support through the first round of voting at the national convention. State party bylaws in 2016 stipulated that if a presidential candidate "dies, withdraws, or changes his party registration" prior to the convention, his or her delegates "shall go to the convention unpledged."
Massachusetts primary results
| Massachusetts Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
 Donald Trump |
49% | 312,425 | 22 | |
| Marco Rubio | 17.7% | 113,170 | 8 | |
| Ted Cruz | 9.5% | 60,592 | 4 | |
| John Kasich | 17.9% | 114,434 | 8 | |
| Ben Carson | 2.6% | 16,360 | 0 | |
| Jeb Bush | 1% | 6,559 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.3% | 1,906 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.3% | 1,864 | 0 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.2% | 1,153 | 0 | |
| Jim Gilmore | 0.1% | 753 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.1% | 709 | 0 | |
| George Pataki | 0.1% | 500 | 0 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0% | 293 | 0 | |
| Other | 0.4% | 2,325 | 0 | |
| No preference | 0.5% | 3,220 | 0 | |
| Blank votes | 0.2% | 1,440 | 0 | |
| Totals | 637,703 | 42 | ||
| Source: Massachusetts Elections Division and CNN | ||||
Delegate allocation
Massachusetts had 42 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 27 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's nine congressional districts). District-level delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 5 percent of the statewide primary vote in order to be eligible to receive any of the state's district delegates.[9][10]
Of the remaining 15 delegates, 12 served at large. At-large delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to at least 5 percent of the statewide primary vote in order to be eligible to win any of the state's at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention.[9][10]
Top influencers by state
Influencers in American politics are power players who help get candidates elected, put through policy proposals, cause ideological changes, and affect popular perceptions. They can take on many forms: politicians, lobbyists, advisors, donors, corporations, industry groups, labor unions, single-issue organizations, nonprofits, to name a few.
In 2016, Ballotpedia identified Vincent DeVito as a top influencer by state. We identified top influencers across the country through several means, including the following:
- Local knowledge of our professional staff
- Surveys of activists, thought leaders and journalists from across the country and political spectrum
- Outreach to political journalists in each state who helped refine our lists
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Vincent DeVito'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
External links
See also
- Republican National Convention, 2016
- 2016 presidential nominations: calendar and delegate rules
- RNC delegate guidelines from Massachusetts, 2016
- Republican delegate rules by state, 2016
- Presidential election, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bowditch and Dewey, "Vincent DeVito," accessed June 28, 2016
- ↑ Boston Globe, "Battle for Mass. GOP convention delegates intensifies," April 19, 2016
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Vincent DeVito," accessed June 28, 2016
- ↑ Clark University, "Institute for Energy and Sustainability (IES)," accessed June 28, 2016
- ↑ Politico Magazine, "Could Keystone Be America's Last Pipeline?" January 10, 2015
- ↑ Wellesley Patch, "Q&A with Wellesley RNC Delegate Vincent DeVito," August 28, 2012
- ↑ Ballotpedia's list of 2016 RNC Rules Committee members is based on an official list from the Republican National Committee obtained by Ballotpedia on June 24, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Who will show up? Who will pay? The many unknowns of the GOP convention," June 29, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
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