They say TIMING is EVERYTHING, so why have we not heard of this until now?
"UMass Amherst investigating Holyoke mayor and congressional candidate Morse over allegations of inappropriate conduct" By John Hilliard Globe Staff, August 8, 2020
Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, who is running to replace US Representative Richard Neal in a hotly contested primary race, faces an investigation by the University of Massachusetts Amherst following allegations that Morse used his position to foster inappropriate relationships with students over the course of several years.
The university is launching an immediate review to determine whether Morse, now in his fourth term as Holyoke’s mayor, violated university policy or federal Title IX law during his time as an adjunct instructor, the school said in a statement Saturday.
Student Democratic activists on Thursday notified the 31-year-old Holyoke mayor and his campaign manager that Morse is no longer welcome at events held by the College Democrats of Massachusetts, UMass Amherst Democrats, and Amherst College Democrats.
Numerous incidents over the course of several years “have shown that it is no longer appropriate to encourage interaction” between Morse and the College Democrats, according to a copy of the letter from the College Democrats provided to the Globe. The letter alleged that Morse had sexual contact with college students, including at UMass Amherst, where he taught for several semesters.
“Many young people around the state and around the country, especially those involved in College Democrats, view Morse as a role model, which renders it unacceptable for Morse to routinely make sexual or romantic advances, whether implicitly or explicitly,” the letter said.
The allegations were first reported Friday by the Massachusetts Daily Collegian.
The letter alleged that Morse used dating apps to regularly match with college students, and used College Democrats events to add students to his Instagram account and contact them directly.
“We have heard countless stories of Morse adding students to his ‘Close Friends Story’ and Direct Messaging members of College Democrats on Instagram in a way that makes these students feel pressured to respond due to his status,” according to the letter.
UMass Amherst, where Morse has served as an adjunct instructor, called the allegations against the mayor “serious and deeply concerning” in its statement Saturday.
“The university has reached out to students to provide them resources and support,” the statement said. “UMass was previously unaware of the concerns brought forward by the members of the College Democrats.”
Morse did not immediately respond to requests for comment left on his cellphone or through a campaign spokesman Saturday.
Mike Bloomberg, chief of staff to Morse as Holyoke’s mayor, directed comment Saturday to Morse’s campaign.
“The Mayor will address these allegations levied against his personal life/actions via his campaign account,” Bloomberg said in an e-mail.
Morse was first elected in 2011 to become his hometown’s mayor at age 22, just months after graduating from Brown University, and the staunch progressive was among the first of the state’s openly gay mayors. He was last re-elected in 2017.
In a statement to MassLive Friday, Morse wrote he has been in adult relationships, including some with college students, and every relationship was consensual. He said he also recognized he has to be cognizant of his position of power.
Morse said in the statement he is committed to meeting with any person or group, including the College Democrats, to answer any questions and address any concerns.
“Navigating life as both a young gay man and an elected official can be difficult, but that doesn’t excuse poor judgment,” Morse said. “That’s why I want to sincerely apologize to anyone I have made feel uncomfortable.”
Morse launched his primary campaign against the 71-year-old Neal more than a year ago to replace the longtime congressman in the state’s First District.
Kate Norton, a Neal campaign spokeswoman, declined to comment Saturday.
Morse has had the backing of national progressives in the race, including the Justice Democrats, the organization that supported Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during their successful congressional campaigns. Justice Democrats did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
According to the letter from the student groups, Morse should know he holds a “position of power” over many young people.
Some of the students who have been personally affected by Morse’s alleged behavior asked the political groups to stop working with him, the letter said.
The letter alleged that Morse set age minimums on his Tinder and Grindr dating apps to 18 and regularly matched with college students, including those at UMass Amherst and state college Democratic leaders.
One student who had a sexual encounter with Morse found out afterward that Morse is a mayor and university lecturer, the letter said, and the student felt uncomfortable at learning this information. The students Morse contacted on social media “feel pressured to respond” due to Morse’s status, the letter said.
“Even if these scenarios are mutually consensual, the pattern of Morse using his platform and taking advantage of his position of power for romantic or sexual gain, specifically toward young students, is unacceptable,” students wrote in the letter.
The alleged behaviors represent a trend that went on for years, according to the letter, and has been “well-known and widely discussed” among college Democrats in Western Massachusetts.
The letter calls on Morse to “immediately cease” the behavior.
“Morse will no longer be welcome at our events and our organizations will be completely disaffiliating from Morse,” it said.
Morse, in his statement to MassLive, said that he struggled with accepting his sexuality while growing up gay and closeted in Holyoke. In high school, he found it difficult to find other openly gay students.
As he became more comfortable with himself, Morse has had relationships as a young, single, openly gay man, he said in the statement.
“I will not apologize for living life out of the closet, for going on dates, and having consensual conversations,” he said.
UMass Amherst’s policy on consensual relationships between faculty and students notes that those relationships are “inherently problematic” due to the unequal power dynamic between the people involved, according to the school’s statement.
“Therefore, faculty are prohibited from entering into a sexual relationship with any student or postdoc for whom the faculty member has any responsibility for supervision, evaluation, grading, advising, employment, or other instructional or supervisory activity,” the statement said.
As part of its review, UMass will be working to determine whether Morse was in any kind of personal relationships with students in his classes, according to university spokesman Ed Blaguszewski.
Morse is not currently a UMass employee. He previously served as an adjunct instructor in urban government and politics for several semesters, and last taught at the university in spring 2019.
The university has no plans to rehire Morse, the statement said.
The allegations have begun to reverberate politically for Morse.
Jennifer Taub, a law professor at the Western New England University School of Law, said on Twitter Saturday she was withdrawing her support for Morse.
“What is revealed here shows a tremendous lack of judgment,” Taub wrote. “Hoping that he gets the help he needs and moves forward with an already promising future.”
In Holyoke, Linda Vacon, the city’s Ward 5 councilor, called for Morse to resign over the students’ allegations.“It’s a huge ethical breach of trust,” Vacon said.
Terence Murphy, Ward 2 councilor, said he’s concerned over whether Morse used his role as a UMass instructor to encourage students to engage in relationships.
“It would bother me if you use your role, and because of that role, you have an uncomfortable influence over someone to agree to a relationship,” Murphy said.
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Related:
"Rep. Richard Neal’s Washington high life" by David Daley, May 6, 2019
Representative Richard Neal recently released his fund-raising reports to the Federal Election Commission for his first quarter as chairman of the influential House Ways and Means Committee. His three-month fund-raising haul of more than $520,000 offers a powerful reminder of who really governs our decayed democracy, and a discouraging example of the way politicians like Neal immediately rush to auction their positions to the nation’s business elite.
https://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2020/03/low-aturday-pecial-fundamental.html
$low $aturday $pecial: A Fundamental Re$tructuring
Perhaps it’s little surprise. After all, we’ve come to expect this debased system as politics as usual. Naturally, the largest corporations and industry lobby groups — big banks, insurers, and health care interests, alongside General Electric, Deloitte, Eastman Chemical, and Prudential — lined up with $5,000 checks for the man with significant power over the federal tax code.
It’s important to maintain a healthy sense of outrage over pay-to-play politics. But if that seems like merely petty corruption in today’s Washington, Neal’s latest report provides another frightful look behind the curtain — at the high life members of Congress lead while they raise that money, and how they turn around and spend it on their own high-class travel, dining, and entertainment.
While Neal raised more than a half-million last quarter, and still sits 20 months away from facing voters again, he nevertheless spent over $467,000 from his campaign account during the first three months of 2019. (According to FEC records, he raised, and spent, more money during the quarter than any other member of the Massachusetts delegation; he also spent more money during the 2018 cycle than his colleagues, despite facing no GOP challenger as well as dispatching a first-time candidate in a September primary.) Much of his campaign money went to big-dollar fund-raising events at five-star restaurants, private boxes at sporting events, stays at luxury hotels, premium travel, and more.
In other words: Between January and March 2019, Neal spent hundreds of thousands of dollars wining and dining lobbyists at his fund-raisers. In return, he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions — many from elite donors with valuable interests before his committee. (One of his first-quarter donors was HR Block. Neal subsequently provided the tax-prep giant with its longtime legislative dream: a prohibition on an IRS free-file system that would undercut their profits.)
Neal rents the private box at the stadium or the table at the gourmet restaurant. Lobbyists buy access to his ear for the evening. Everyone enjoys the game, and the wine flows for free.
In January alone, days after taking the Ways and Means gavel, Neal moved to capitalize on the influential job. He paid the firm Washington Suite Life, which specializes in linking politicos with private boxes at concerts and ball games, $5,937 for an undisclosed event. Neal has previously worked with the Suite Life on boxes for Boston Celtics and Bruins games, as well as a James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt concert. He also spent $5,613.35 at Sixth Engine, a bar close to the Capitol. While we don’t have the invite to this reception, this bar is a Neal favorite. In February 2017, according to the invitation posted on the site Politicalpartytime.org, several well-heeled D.C. lawyers and lobbyists hosted a whiskey tasting there to benefit Neal. The price to enter: $2,500 to host, $1,000 to attend and taste. (C&G Associates, a murky D.C. firm with almost zero Internet presence gets $9,000 a month as Neal’s fund-raising consultants.)
Also in January: Neal hosted parties at the Dubliner pub in Washington ($4,950.30), Taste in Virginia ($4,686.05), Del Frisco’s Double Eagle steak house ($4,478.36), The Salt Line on the Washington waterfront ($3,259.66), and Charlie Palmer Steak ($1.301.40). There was also a $14,000 bash at the Red Lion Inn in the Berkshires, as well as several thousand dollars in travel, lodging, food, and beverage costs billed at Omni Hotels and Resorts in Texas and a Fairmont Hotel in California. In Manhattan, Neal’s campaign picked up just under $1,000 for a night at 11 Howard, a hotel that describes itself as “ultra-modern” “casual luxury” “in the heart of SoHo,” “where Danish minimalism meets New York realism.”
That’s just one month. In February, Neal spent over $5,000 on food and drink for an event run by Capitol Host, as well as thousands more at the trendy restaurants Garrison and Lucky Strike, to name just two. March looked like an even wilder cash-collecting orgy. Neal spent $6,630.05 for food, drinks, and lodging at a Florida Ritz-Carlton. It appears to be Fort Lauderdale, because while he was there, Neal’s campaign spent hundreds more on smaller meals at Terra Mare, Ocean Prime 57, and the Louie Bossis Ristorant. The man rarely eats a Big Mac.
But the Ritz-Carlton wasn’t even the fanciest hotel that hosted Neal in March. There’s a charge for $4,183.28 at the Hay Adams hotel across from the White House, where a one-bedroom suite with a view of 1600 Pennsylvania can go for $2,000 a night. Neal picked up additional four-figure tabs in March at a Library of Congress cafe, Charlie Palmer Steak, and at Bistro Bis across from the Capitol, where Neal has previously held $2,500 breakfast receptions allowing him to collect tens of thousands in campaign contributions over his morning coffee.
Voters sent Neal to Washington to do the people’s business. We didn’t elect him king of Manhattan boutique hotels or to a never-ending circuit of steak houses, let alone legendary, annual “Boston weekend” fund-raisers, or $5,000 summer gatherings on Cape Cod. If constituents want to talk to him? Sorry, your representative is at a fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton or a private box at a James Taylor concert. If constituents want his ear on policy? Wealthy folks pay $2,500 for that. And if constituents want to hold him accountable for putting special interests before the public interest? The money helps protect him from a challenge back home.
This is our seat. Richard Neal’s living the high life, on someone else’s dime. We all pay the cost.
David Daley, of Haydenville, is the author of “Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count” and the forthcoming “Unrigged: How Americans Fought Back, Slayed the Gerrymander and Reinvented Democracy.”
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His televised ads have the detestable creature Nancy Pelosi pitching for him, and what a choice for that district!
A predatory gay pervert or a $wamp $cumbag!
That's no choice at all, and those that control our political $y$tem want it that way.
