July 2, 2009 Beyond Beacon Hill with House Speaker DeLeo Play video

(NECN: Alison King) - This was Robert DeLeo on January 28th, the day he was elected Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

He had big plans back then.

DeLeo: Within our house, we will make cultural and procedural changes that will professionalize the way we do business.

And this was DeLeo on Wednesday -- four months later -- watching the governor sign the ethics reform bill.

In recent weeks DeLeo has also presided over the passage of pension reform, transportation reform and an on-time, balanced budget.

DeLeo: For us to be able to do that in a five months period of time I think is unprecedented in the house...

DeLeo -has- gotten off to a good start despite the stormy way he came into the house leadership role. Former speaker Sal DiMasi had left the post amid a federal investigation and has since been indicted on corruption charges.

DeLeo had pledged to make ethics reform job one - but there were skeptics.

Still, it hasn't escaped Beacon Hill watchers that DeLeo's three predecessors as House Speaker, Charlie Flaherty, Tom Finneran and Sal DiMasi, all left under criminal investigations.

DeLeo does give the appearance of being the anti-DiMasi. He is not one for country clubs, fancy restaurants or expensive suits.

To get a full picture of Robert DeLeo - it helps to meet him on his turf -- in the blue-collar town of Winthrop - a peninsula just north of Boston located under the flight path

DeLeo: As soon as I cross that bridge, I'm sort of not the Mr. Speaker anymore. I'm Bob. I hear the same complaints and the same issues that anyone else would hear. They don't treat me any differently.

DeLeo's morning routine hasn't changed much in decades. First stop - a small non-descript strip mall where he picks up the morning papers -- then, the post office for his mail.

No drivers or fancy cars for DeLeo -- he drives himself in his Ford Explorer. The streets of Winthrop are familiar territory -- he's lived there since his family moved from East Boston when he was a teenager then he stayed to raise his own family.

Now divorced, DeLeo has a 26-year-old son who is studying for a PhD at Northeastern and a 22-year-old daughter who just graduated from the University of New Hampshire.

DeLeo: This is where I started my little league coaching career, by the way. I moved from there, to there -- and then the big field. Proudest moments of my life was coaching little league.

DeLeo himself played baseball when he was a student at Boston Latin, a prestigious public exam school where DeLeo's classmates included former Boston city counselor Larry DiCara and former Massachusetts House Speaker Tom Finneran.

Still active in local sports and arts programs DeLeo is also president of the friends of the council on aging.

He is a popular figure at the Winthrop senior center -- even though his new schedule has prevented his regular visits.

So the legislative session may be over but for lawmakers, there's not a lot of time to exhale. The Casino debate is already heating up and the climate in this building this year is a whole lot different than it was last year, when it went down in defeat.

The dramatic drop in state revenues has made potential casino money seem more attractive -- and the key opponent of last year's casino bill former Speaker Sal DiMasi -- is now gone.

DeLeo: It's been a subject matter that as you know I've been open to for a long time. There is a source of revenue that I believe we should be tapping into so I would daresay, in this coming fall we are going to have a full and fair debate on expanded gaming in Massachusetts.

And DeLeo says his focus will continue to be on reforms and convincing voters that the culture on beacon hill -is- changing.

DeLeo: That's what I'm going to be doing in the months ahead. Talking about some of the things we have done. A PR campaign. If you will, if you want to call it that. But I think like it's not only a PR campaign - but I think it's important that folks get the message in terms of what's been going on here because I'm not sure they fully grasp some of the reforms that we have made so I think its important that we do that. The biggest job that I have right now Alison is to get that trust, get that confidence back.

Gaining back the public trust will no doubt take a while -- but DeLeo says he's in this for the long haul.