I gue$$ that will bode well for my region.
"Rosenberg poised to become state Senate president" by Jim O’Sullivan | Globe Staff, August 01, 2013
State Senate majority leader Stanley Rosenberg, a liberal Democrat from Amherst, has assembled sufficient support within the chamber to succeed Therese Murray as Senate president. But the timing of Murray’s departure remains unknown, forging a power dynamic that longtime observers call unprecedented.
Rosenberg claimed victory Wednesday over Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Stephen Brewer, who had received backing from the Senate’s more moderate members....
Rosenberg, who would become the state’s first openly gay legislative leader, acknowledged the timing of his victory, nearly a year and a half before he said he expects Murray to step aside, could stir questions.
“These processes are often puzzling,” he told the Globe. “This happened a lot faster and a lot earlier, I think, than any of us thought. But it takes on a life of its own and develops momentum.”
Senators described a campaign between Brewer and Rosenberg as virtually free of hostilities.
That is vastly different than the race between state representatives Robert A. DeLeo and John H. Rogers to succeed Salvatore F. DiMasi as House speaker in 2009. That contest left wounds in the House that have yet to heal....
Related: DiMasi is Dying
And all but forgotten now.
The geniality belies a more complex dynamic in the Senate, where members privately confess to confusion about the shifting centers of power. Several speculated about a bifurcated power structure, with Rosenberg and Murray loyalists conflicted about whom to follow if Murray does complete her term....
Okay, just the fact that they are raising the if word and that Rosenberg is in the line of succession now means she's out. Either leaving or not running in 2014. Expect an announcement in the near future.
A Rosenberg presidency would give Western Massachusetts its first legislator to head either legislative branch since the 1970s....
Rosenberg, who served five years in the House before moving to the Senate in 1991, has been the Senate’s point man on two politically dicey issues in recent years. At Murray’s behest, he handled redistricting for the Senate after the 2010 Census and was chief author of the Senate gambling bill....
Redistricting made Democrats unhappy, and I was and am opposed to casinos, but they are going to be here now. I know, referendums and all, but you know how I feel about election$ these days. Time to move on. Vote it down in your town, that's all I can say.
Rosenberg has battled health problems, last year missing several months of work while being treated for squamous cell carcinoma.
Isn't that a disease connected to HIV and AIDS?
Related: Cure For AIDS Has Been Found
He lives in Amherst with his partner, Bryon Hefner. Rosenberg grew up in foster care in Revere and Malden and graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1977.
--more--"
Very handsome -- and that's coming from a heterosexual.
