Michael John Barrett (born June 27, 1948) is an American politician noted for having been elected to serve in three completely different state legislative districts over the course of his political career.

Barrett served in the State Senate earlier, in 1987–1994, representing another district (Cambridge, Belmont, Watertown and the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston), before moving to his present home in suburban Lexington in 1996.

[9] In 1992 Barrett drafted and saw through to enactment domestic violence legislation for Massachusetts that was precedent-setting, in that it required judges to consult a comprehensive computerized registry of offenders before they ruled on requests for restraining orders.

Departing the state senate the following year, he was named CEO and general counsel of the Visiting Nurse Associations of New England, a large home health care provider network.

[17] In 2015 Barrett was named chair of the Senate Post-Audit and Oversight Committee, a unique body charged with overseeing implementation of all state programs run by the governor and his appointees.

and Debtors Prison in the 21 Century," an investigation that uncovered 105 instances, drawn from just three Massachusetts counties in 2015, in which state judges had sentenced indigent defendants to jail not for criminal convictions but for their inability to pay various fines, fees, and court costs imposed during time spent in the judicial system.

An Act Creating A Next Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy, came out in 2020, although its effect was delayed for a time by Republican Charlie Baker's veto, overridden by the Legislature in early 2021.