Linda J. Melconian is a former American state legislator who served as majority leader of the Massachusetts Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a state senator from 1983 to 2005 representing the city of Springfield. She became majority leader in 1999. Previously she served as an aide to U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. She ran for mayor of Springfield in 2003, but lost narrowly to Charles Ryan. She retired from politics in 2005, and is now a professor in the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University in Boston.[1]