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and the
Citizens Economic Research Foundation
Post Office Box 1147 ●
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 ●
(508)
915-3665
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
43 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Monday, December 4, 2017
Scandal spoils Senate's long
holiday vacation
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Credit
[state Sen. Thomas, Lynn mayor-elect] McGee for not going
for the double dip proposed by state Rep. Paul Heroux,
D-Attleboro, who sees no reason to give up his legislative
position despite being elected the city's mayor. Notes
Marblehead's Chip Ford, executive director of
Citizens for Limited Taxation: "Rep. Heroux just can't
pull his snout out of one trough even after being elected to
a second trough and second pension-providing position. He
wants to be a state representative and a mayor too,
simultaneously — and paid for both. He says he can hold two
jobs at the same time, which tells me he has way too much
time on his hands in the ghostly Legislature, which tells me
that they all do. But then we already knew that after their
many extended vacations, long weekends, and very limited
productivity."
The Salem News
Friday, November 17, 2017
Weekly political potpourri column
By Nelson Benton
When Senate President Stanley Rosenberg votes in next
year's statewide election, he plans to fill in the bubble
for the Democratic nominee for governor and see his own name
on the ballot again.
There's one thing Rosenberg hopes he won't see on the
2018 ballot: a question that would lower the state's sales
tax from 6.25 percent to 5 percent. And he might have a
willing partner on a deal in the Retailers Association of
Massachusetts.
"I've been around here long enough to know that a lot of
things that are proposed for the ballot never make it to the
ballot. I'd be happy to work with people to try to keep it
off," Rosenberg said at a media availability in his office.
Rosenberg on Tuesday offered a look ahead at the election
that's just under a year away, telling reporters he would
seek a 15th term in the Senate and, if reelected, ask his
colleagues to back him for a third term leading the chamber
in 2019....
Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, declined to offer any
specific critiques of Baker, but pointed to tax policy as an
area where he and the governor disagree. While Rosenberg and
his Democratic colleagues in the House have not forced major
tax choices upon Baker, he said he hoped a Democrat in the
Corner Office could offer "a vision that would show us how
we should change a tax system to get the resources we need
for the public investments we need." ...
Baker and leaders of the Democrat-controlled Legislature
often tout their bipartisan working relationship. "It's too
bad he's not a Democrat," Rosenberg quipped when asked about
that dynamic.
The Senate has passed 13 major policy bills over the
first 11 months of the two-year session -- including
rewrites to the marijuana legalization ballot law, a campus
sexual violence prevention bill, and criminal justice and
health care legislation -- according to a report prepared by
Rosenberg's office. The report does not mention a
headline-grabbing law passed at the outset of 2017 that
awarded big pay raises to legislators, judges and other
public officials.
Among the accomplishments listed in the report is the
Legislature's advancing of the so-called "Fair Share
Amendment" -- a proposal to alter the state's constitution
to impose a surtax on incomes over $1 million -- to the 2018
ballot. Opponents of the measure are working in court to get
it disqualified from the ballot.
Rosenberg backs the surtax, which supporters say could
generate roughly $2 billion to be used on transportation and
education....
"I'm hoping that circumstances are such that they won't
both be on the ballot, so that's the first thing, and we
should work to try to make that possible," he said. "The
second is, if it appears on the ballot, the voters have in
the past rejected sales tax reductions by initiative and I
would hope that people who show up and vote for Fair Share
would recognize that all we'd be doing is shifting the tax
burden over onto the income tax as opposed to having a
broader tax system, and so I would hope the people who show
up to vote for one would not vote for the other."
The Legislature in 2009 raised the sales tax from 5 percent
to 6.25 percent to plug state budget gaps that developed
during and after the Great Recession....
The Retailers Association of Massachusetts has said its
proposal to drop the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 5
percent would "provide meaningful relief to small businesses
while significantly benefiting seniors and low-income
families who pay a disproportionate amount of their income
in sales tax."
"We look forward to continuing to work with the Senate
President on issues of importance to our thousands of 'Main
Street' businesses and their employees," association
President Jon Hurst said in an email to the News Service on
Tuesday. "At the same time, we are encouraged by the recent
public polling data that shows overwhelming support among
voters for the creation of a permanent sales tax holiday and
a reduction in the sales tax to 5%. It is important to note
we project revenue estimates for cutting the regressive and
avoidable sales tax under our proposed ballot measure to be
less than half of the $2 billion tax increase level of the
proposed income tax surcharge."
State House News Service
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Rosenberg suggests effort to keep sales tax cut off ballot
All of the men said they felt powerless to
report the incidents because they feared alienating
Rosenberg, with whom they believe Hefner has tremendous
influence. Reporting Hefner’s behavior to Rosenberg or the
authorities was a career-threatening prospect, they said.
They spoke to the Globe only reluctantly,
worried about damaging their work in politics and their
reputations. A couple of them also worried about hurting
Rosenberg, whose progressive priorities they admire. The
Globe granted anonymity to the victims because they must
still work with Rosenberg, and interact with Hefner. Each of
their stories was confirmed by people who witnessed or
talked to the victims shortly after the incidents they
described, and, in one case, by e-mails describing the
alleged assaults soon after they occurred.
Neither Hefner nor Rosenberg agreed to be
interviewed for this story. In prepared statements issued
Thursday, each said he was surprised by the claims.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Four men allege sexual misconduct by Senate president’s
husband
Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg is
backing calls for an investigation into his own husband, who
was accused yesterday of sexually assaulting and harassing
four men while boasting he was a major player on Beacon
Hill.
Rosenberg’s appeal for a probe into the
bombshell allegations came hours after Gov. Charlie Baker,
Attorney General Maura Healey and Senate Minority Leader
Bruce Tarr had already urged an immediate investigation of
the claims.
The Boston Herald
Friday, December 1, 2017
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg agrees his husband must
be investigated
Partner facing assault claims
Boston Herald Photo:
Bryon Hefner, left,
the husband of Mass. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg,
right,
has been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior.
So the Senate president, who hasn’t had a
real job since Jimmy Carter was president, decides at the
age of 67 to get married to a guy who’s 38 years younger
than he is.
A guy who wears a bow tie, looks and dresses
like Pee Wee Herman, has no real career and likes to drink.
What could possibly go wrong?
Everything, as it turns out. The perverama
that has engulfed the nation in recent weeks now comes to
Beacon Hill. Move over Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Al
Franken and Kevin Spacey.
Meet Senate President Stan C. Rosenberg and
his husband, Bryon Hefner. This is the headline about the
Dream Couple of Beacon Hill:
“Four men allege sexual misconduct by Senate
president’s husband.” ...
This is your state government at work.
A century ago, the president of the
Massachusetts state Senate was Calvin Coolidge. He wrote
what was then a famous tract, exhorting the Commonwealth to
believe in itself:
“Have Faith in Massachusetts.”
Do you have faith in Massachusetts? Me neither.
The Boston Herald
Friday, December 1, 2017
Do you have faith in Massachusetts? It’s not very easy
lately
By Howie Carr
There are few government bodies as clubby
and insular as the Massachusetts Senate. When Democrats meet
in caucus they literally gather in front of the fireplace in
the ornate office of the Senate president. Members (of both
parties) have served together on Beacon Hill in some cases
for decades.
That’s why it is critically important for
the investigation into the alleged improper conduct by Bryon
Hefner, husband of Senate President Stan Rosenberg, to be
handled by an independent, outside party. There is simply no
way for senators to do a credible investigation that
revolves around their own leader.
But independent isn’t enough. The findings
of the special investigator must also be made public, if the
public is to have confidence that they were reached in good
faith. The Senate shouldn’t hide behind its public records
exemption or its own arcane rules.
A Boston Herald editorial
Saturday, December 2, 2017
Senate must go public
The national sexual harassment scandal got a
face in Massachusetts this week – the face of Senate
President Stanley Rosenberg's husband.
All other dealings on Beacon Hill this week
got blocked out like an eclipse by the bombshell report in
the Boston Globe that Rosenberg's husband-of-one-year Bryon
Hefner had allegedly sexually assaulted at least four men.
Three of those men, who all work in the
political arena and shared their stories anonymously, claim
that Hefner grabbed their genitals in social settings,
sometimes with the Senate president mere feet away. Another
alleged that Hefner forcibly kissed him as he bragged about
the clout he wielded over a legislative body for which he
didn't work and never served.
Gov. Charlie Baker, who has worked closely
with Rosenberg for years, was the first to call for a full
investigation hours after the story broke, but he was
followed by others, including Rosenberg himself who gave his
blessing for Senate Majority Leader Harriett Chandler and
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr to spearhead a full probe
that Rosenberg, who intends to retain his title for now,
will recuse himself from.
Rosenberg seemed to be clinging to the edge
of a cliff Friday as staff Chandler and Tarr huddled in the
office next to the president's hashing out a plan to bring
on a special investigator to look into the allegations
against Hefner, including impacts on Senate operations....
Buried underneath the pile of sexual assault
allegations at the end of the week were the developments of
Monday and Tuesday.
Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito chose this
week to make their re-election campaign official....
The campaign team plans to slowly ramp the
governor up into campaign mode, not seeing the need right
now to launch a full-scale campaign that would also give
oxygen to his Democratic rivals. That day is coming though,
and the mere existence of the re-elect campaign will
facilitate more engagement between the governor and those
looking to steal his job away.
The race for governor may have been
expected, but a Democratic primary for secretary of state?
Bill Galvin will have held that title for 24 years when his
name goes on the ballot next September, and Boston City
Councilor Josh Zakim thinks that's enough time.
Zakim, a 33-year-old attorney who has served
on the council since 2013, launched his campaign for
secretary of state this week offering what he described as
"new ways of doing things."
State House News Service
Friday, December 1, 2017
Weekly Roundup - The sins of the husband
Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg told
senior senators he is taking a leave of absence from his
powerful post amid an investigation into allegations his
husband sexually assaulted or harassed multiple men, a
decision bound to send shockwaves through the State House.
"I believe taking a leave of absence from the Senate
Presidency during the investigation is in the best interest
of the Senate," Rosenberg said in a statement. "I want to
ensure that the investigation is fully independent and
credible, and that anyone who wishes to come forward will
feel confident that there will be no retaliation.”
The Boston Herald
Monday, December 4, 2017
Rosenberg to step down as Senate president during
investigation
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
At this time last year Senate President Stanley
Rosenberg was secretly scheming with House Speaker Robert DeLeo.
The two were plotting an obscene money-grab payraise for
themselves and the other Bacon Hill denizens in a blitzkrieg
strike immediately upon return from their last holidays vacation.
Last week Rosenberg was plotting to keep the
sales tax rollback question off the ballot. "I've been
around here long enough to know that a lot of things that
are proposed for the ballot never make it to the ballot. I'd
be happy to work with people to try to keep it off," he
said.
The State House News Service also noted last
Tuesday: "When Senate President Stanley Rosenberg votes in next
year's statewide election, he plans to fill in the bubble
for the Democratic nominee for governor and see his own name
on the ballot again."
This week the Senate President is busier
than ever — running for cover.
He has taken a "leave of absence" as senate president and,
if rumors are true, is about to resign his senate seat.
What a difference a year makes, or just a
week — or just a weekend.
We can only imagine how the other members of
the state Senate are taking this. They were settled in
for another long, comfy vacation, a couple of months off for
the holidays. They were not expecting to return to
work until after the New Year —
but now they've needed to return to deal with this seedy
scandal.
The deadline for turning in petitions for
certification of signatures to city/town clerks and
voter registrars was November 22. For two months we've
requested, a number of times, that CLT members leave their
petitions with the clerks and immediately mail their
receipts to us.
Alex, the petition drive coordinator for the
Retailers Association of Massachusetts (RAM) we've been
working with, requested that we get all CLT's receipts to
him by last Wednesday, November 29, a week after the
deadline and sufficient time for anyone with receipts to get
them to us. They were doing a final sweep of
city and town halls where receipts showed petitions
remained. He asked that we send everything we had to
them not later than last Wednesday by priority mail.
Since we didn't have that many receipts (we
did have a few certified petitions from those who didn't
follow our instructions), I requested a couple more days,
expecting more receipts to come in from CLT members. I
promised Alex that I'd hand-deliver what we had at the end
of last week. On Friday (December 1) I drove to his
office in Woburn and delivered everything our members had
sent to us — all receipts and a
few certified petitions in our possession.
When I went to the post office today to
check for mail I found two more certified petitions, six
signatures from Duxbury, one from Lynn. It's too late
for them now, unless I make a special trip back to Woburn to
deliver seven signatures. I could have collected
another seven signatures myself in far less time than it
would take me to make that drive again. The deadline
for all certified petitions to be delivered to the Secretary
of State's Boston office is Wednesday.
That's why reading and following
instructions is so darned important, why we bother providing
them. It eludes me why some don't, and waste their
time. After running a dozen statewide petition drives
over the past three decades, apparently I never will
understand.
On a positive note, preliminary estimates
indicate that the sales tax rollback will have enough
certified signatures to qualify for the first round.
Another approximately 10,000 certified signatures will need
to be collected in the spring and submitted for the question
to make it onto next November's ballot.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News Service
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Rosenberg suggests effort to keep sales tax cut
off ballot
By Katie Lannan
When Senate President Stanley Rosenberg votes in
next year's statewide election, he plans to fill
in the bubble for the Democratic nominee for
governor and see his own name on the ballot
again.
There's one thing Rosenberg hopes he won't see
on the 2018 ballot: a question that would lower
the state's sales tax from 6.25 percent to 5
percent. And he might have a willing partner on
a deal in the Retailers Association of
Massachusetts.
"I've been around here long enough to know that
a lot of things that are proposed for the ballot
never make it to the ballot. I'd be happy to
work with people to try to keep it off,"
Rosenberg said at a media availability in his
office.
Rosenberg on Tuesday offered a look ahead at the
election that's just under a year away, telling
reporters he would seek a 15th term in the
Senate and, if reelected, ask his colleagues to
back him for a third term leading the chamber in
2019.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday discussed his own
re-election bid from the Table Talk Pie plant in
Worcester, and Rosenberg said that while he
wishes the Swampscott Republican luck, he'll
support the Democratic nominee.
Three men -- Jay Gonzalez of Needham, Setti
Warren of Newton and Bob Massie of Somerville --
have launched campaigns for the Democratic
gubernatorial nomination. Rosenberg said he's
had "very engaging" phone conversations with
each and does not have a favored candidate at
this point.
Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, declined to
offer any specific critiques of Baker, but
pointed to tax policy as an area where he and
the governor disagree. While Rosenberg and his
Democratic colleagues in the House have not
forced major tax choices upon Baker, he said he
hoped a Democrat in the Corner Office could
offer "a vision that would show us how we should
change a tax system to get the resources we need
for the public investments we need."
"We're not in the campaign right now," Rosenberg
said. "My job is to govern with the governor,
and we're doing a lot of good stuff and I want
to make sure that we can continue to do a lot of
good stuff."
Baker and leaders of the Democrat-controlled
Legislature often tout their bipartisan working
relationship. "It's too bad he's not a
Democrat," Rosenberg quipped when asked about
that dynamic.
The Senate has passed 13 major policy bills over
the first 11 months of the two-year session --
including rewrites to the marijuana legalization
ballot law, a campus sexual violence prevention
bill, and criminal justice and health care
legislation -- according to a report prepared by
Rosenberg's office. The report does not mention
a headline-grabbing law passed at the outset of
2017 that awarded big pay raises to legislators,
judges and other public officials.
Among the accomplishments listed in the report
is the Legislature's advancing of the so-called
"Fair Share Amendment" -- a proposal to alter
the state's constitution to impose a surtax on
incomes over $1 million -- to the 2018 ballot.
Opponents of the measure are working in court to
get it disqualified from the ballot.
Rosenberg backs the surtax, which supporters say
could generate roughly $2 billion to be used on
transportation and education.
Frustrated with the migration of business to
online sellers, retailers are seeking to place a
separate question on the ballot that would cut
the sales tax and require an annual sales
tax-free weekend each summer. Passing that
question as well would "defeat the purpose" of
the surtax, Rosenberg said, "because you'd lose
almost the same amount of money."
"I'm hoping that circumstances are such that
they won't both be on the ballot, so that's the
first thing, and we should work to try to make
that possible," he said. "The second is, if it
appears on the ballot, the voters have in the
past rejected sales tax reductions by initiative
and I would hope that people who show up and
vote for Fair Share would recognize that all
we'd be doing is shifting the tax burden over
onto the income tax as opposed to having a
broader tax system, and so I would hope the
people who show up to vote for one would not
vote for the other."
The Legislature in 2009 raised the sales tax
from 5 percent to 6.25 percent to plug state
budget gaps that developed during and after the
Great Recession. The following year, voters shot
down a ballot question to lower the sales tax to
3 percent, rejecting the proposal 57 percent to
43 percent.
While supporters of the 2010 ballot question
said its passage would have put $688 into
taxpayers' pockets each year and compelled state
government to cut spending, public employee
unions and major business groups led a push to
defeat it, arguing it would have forced $2.5
billion in cuts to education, local aid and
health care programs and undercut investments in
infrastructure needed to support business.
The Retailers Association of Massachusetts has
said its proposal to drop the sales tax from
6.25 percent to 5 percent would "provide
meaningful relief to small businesses while
significantly benefiting seniors and low-income
families who pay a disproportionate amount of
their income in sales tax."
"We look forward to continuing to work with the
Senate President on issues of importance to our
thousands of 'Main Street' businesses and their
employees," association President Jon Hurst said
in an email to the News Service on Tuesday. "At
the same time, we are encouraged by the recent
public polling data that shows overwhelming
support among voters for the creation of a
permanent sales tax holiday and a reduction in
the sales tax to 5%. It is important to note we
project revenue estimates for cutting the
regressive and avoidable sales tax under our
proposed ballot measure to be less than half of
the $2 billion tax increase level of the
proposed income tax surcharge."
Pressed about a possible deal to avert a ballot
fight, Hurst said he would "absolutely" be
willing to work with Rosenberg to reach a
compromise and that the association believes the
ballot "should be the last option to seek good
public policy and fairness in the marketplace."
Ballot campaigns last week had to turn in at
least 64,750 certified signatures to local
election officials for their efforts to stay
alive. The next hurdle to clear is the filing of
an additional 10,792 signatures with Secretary
of State William Galvin's office in June 2018.
Gathering the required signatures doesn't
guarantee a question will end up before voters
next November. Initiatives can face legal
challenges that knock them off the ballot, or
lawmakers can develop legislation that the
proponents find to be an acceptable substitute.
Senate Democrats this year set up a task force
to examine public policy issues of interest to
retailers, including ways to strengthen that
sector. The group's recommendations are due June
1, shortly before ballot activists would need to
decide whether to forge ahead to the November
ballot.
Rosenberg said he has no specific plans in mind
for what could keep the sales tax cut off the
ballot. "Many things could happen between now
and then," he said.
He pointed to two other potential ballot
questions -- one that would raise the minimum
hourly wage from $11 to $15 and one that would
implement a paid family and medical leave
program -- as areas where he'd like to see
lawmakers come up with a deal.
"That would be two examples that I hope we'll
find the bandwidth and the capacity to do in the
Legislature, because there's nuance, and you
don't get the nuance on the ballot," Rosenberg
said.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Four men allege sexual misconduct by Senate
president’s husband
By Yvonne Abraham
He was a policy advocate who made his living
trying to persuade legislators on Beacon Hill to
help nonprofit groups. He was exhausted after a
working dinner with a group of senators and
their spouses on that fall night in 2015. It was
very late, and he wanted nothing more than to
sleep.
But Bryon Hefner, then the fiance of Senate
President Stanley Rosenberg, appeared in his
doorway. As the advocate recently described it,
Hefner took a step forward, grabbed the man’s
genitals, and didn’t let go. He recalled Hefner
asking him to have some fun with him, telling
him Rosenberg wouldn’t mind, that Hefner and the
Senate president were a team on Beacon Hill, and
that they would take care of him.
The advocate froze. He felt violated, powerless.
“Nothing prepared me for that moment,” he said
in one of several interviews over the past few
weeks.
The advocate tried to do the calculations.
Several times before that night, Hefner had
boasted to him of his great pull in state
politics, and of his influence with Rosenberg.
He had described the Senate president’s
priorities as what “we” — Hefner and Rosenberg —
were trying to accomplish at the State House.
The advocate needed Rosenberg on his side.
Hefner left the man in no doubt that he was
asking for sexual favors in return for help on
Beacon Hill.
The advocate, well-known in the insular world of
Massachusetts politics, is one of four men who
told the Globe that Hefner sexually assaulted
and harassed them over the past few years. Three
of the men say Hefner grabbed their genitals
(two allege he did so more than once), and one
says he kissed him against his will. Though
three of the alleged incidents took place when
Rosenberg was mere feet away, the Globe found no
evidence that the Senate president knew about
the assaults.
This account is based on interviews with 20
people who have dealt with Hefner or know his
alleged victims.
All of the men said they felt powerless to
report the incidents because they feared
alienating Rosenberg, with whom they believe
Hefner has tremendous influence. Reporting
Hefner’s behavior to Rosenberg or the
authorities was a career-threatening prospect,
they said.
They spoke to the Globe only reluctantly,
worried about damaging their work in politics
and their reputations. A couple of them also
worried about hurting Rosenberg, whose
progressive priorities they admire. The Globe
granted anonymity to the victims because they
must still work with Rosenberg, and interact
with Hefner. Each of their stories was confirmed
by people who witnessed or talked to the victims
shortly after the incidents they described, and,
in one case, by e-mails describing the alleged
assaults soon after they occurred.
Neither Hefner nor Rosenberg agreed to be
interviewed for this story. In prepared
statements issued Thursday, each said he was
surprised by the claims.
“I was shocked to learn of these anonymous and
hurtful allegations,” read Hefner’s statement,
issued through his attorney. “To my knowledge,
no one has complained to me or any political or
governmental authority about these allegations
which are now surfacing years afterward. As one
can imagine, it is incredibly difficult to
respond to allegations by unnamed and
unidentified individuals that involve an
extended period of time, particularly in the
current environment.”
The Senate president said that this was the
first he had heard of the allegations of sexual
misconduct by his husband.
“Even though, based on what little I have been
told, these allegations do not involve members
or employees of the Senate and did not occur in
the State House, I take them seriously,” read
Rosenberg’s statement. “To the best of my
recollection I was not approached by anyone with
complaints during or after the alleged incidents
made in this article or I would have tried to
intervene.”
Hefner, 30, and Rosenberg, 68, met when Hefner
had a summer job in Rosenberg’s office. They
bonded over the fact that each had had a
difficult childhood spent in foster care, and
they have been a couple since 2008. They were
married in September 2016. In a 2014 interview
with the Globe, as he was ascending to his
current position, Rosenberg called their
relationship “deeply committed” and credited
Hefner with his own decision to live as an
openly gay man.
“I would not have come out if he had not come
into my life,” Rosenberg said at the time. “It
was the greatest gift anyone has given to me.”
The Senate president sat down for that interview
after controversy erupted over Hefner’s
involvement in the affairs of the Senate: Hefner
had boasted of his influence on leadership
appointments and staffing, and was widely
believed to be behind insulting tweets targeting
outgoing Senate President Therese Murray.
In an interview with the Globe at the time,
Rosenberg said he had made it clear to his then-fiance
that he was not to be involved in any Senate
business. In a letter to Democratic senators,
Rosenberg wrote: “I have enforced a firewall
between my private life and the business of the
Senate, and will continue to do so.”
But, according to seven of the people
interviewed for this story, including several of
the alleged victims, any firewall that Rosenberg
might have tried to build has not been
successful. Those people have had conversations
with Hefner in which he demonstrates a deep
knowledge of the day-to-day workings of the
Senate, one that goes well beyond what one might
know about a spouse’s work. They say Hefner has
followed up on their conversations with
Rosenberg, and claimed to speak for the Senate
president. They have seen him deal directly with
legislative staffers on Senate matters. Their
impressions are bolstered by Hefner’s own
frequent claims that he is intimately involved
in Rosenberg’s work.
Additionally, the Globe has reviewed messages
written by Hefner that show his active
involvement in the business of the Senate. They
include direct communication with legislators
and aides about Senate business, and exchanges
in which Hefner orders around Rosenberg
staffers.
. . .
After standing frozen in his doorway for what
seemed like an eternity, the policy advocate
whom Hefner allegedly assaulted in the fall of
2015 overcame his shock and asked Hefner to
leave, gently pushing his shoulder to ease him
away. Only then, he said, did Hefner let go of
his genitals.
After that, the advocate, in his mid-40s, tried
to avoid Hefner. But that proved impossible, he
said. On a second night, the man was sitting at
a large table as he facilitated a policy
discussion with legislators and others. Hefner
had sat down beside him. As the man was leading
a question-and-answer session, he said, Hefner
groped him repeatedly under the table. The man
kept pushing Hefner’s hand off him, he said, all
while continuing to lead the talk. But Hefner
kept putting it back.
“I was in the middle of a forum,” said the man.
“I cannot leave. I cannot go anywhere.”
He told colleagues of Hefner’s assaults
immediately after each incident. The Globe spoke
to two of those colleagues — who confirmed the
details of both incidents — and viewed e-mails
from the time in which the advocate described
them to two other co-workers.
The advocate said he also told a Rosenberg
staffer about the incidents at the time. He said
the staffer was sympathetic, but seemed
unsurprised at the news that the Senate
president’s partner had assaulted him (this
account, too, is confirmed by an e-mail the
victim sent to colleagues at the time). He
recalled the aide saying that Senate staffers
tried to keep an eye on Hefner, to keep him out
of trouble.
“He made it clear that . . . this was something
where the staff knew ‘this is a problem we have
to deal with,’ ” the policy advocate recalled.
The staffer, who has since left Rosenberg’s
office, said in an interview that he has no
recollection of ever having had such a
conversation.
The policy advocate said he had discussions with
his own colleagues about whether to report the
assaults to the police, to Rosenberg, or to
other Senate leaders. But they decided together
that the risk of alienating the Senate president
was too high.
“There was no way of acting upon this that
wouldn’t do harm to the interests of my
clients,” the man said. Instead, he resolved to
“sort it out for myself and move on.”
His two colleagues confirmed his account.
“He was in an untenable position,” said one of
them. “He could either protect his own safety
and dignity, or protect the agenda of our
community. It was a very painful conclusion.”
The only option was to keep quiet about the
incidents and stay away from Hefner.
“I just felt powerless,” the policy advocate
said. “It became a pattern of consciously
avoiding certain social situations with members
of the Senate in order to not put myself in a
position to be assaulted.” But that proved
difficult: On a third occasion, Hefner
aggressively propositioned him, the man said.
He decided he would go public only if Hefner
followed through on talk of running for office.
“No way in hell could I stay silent and allow a
sitting member of the state Legislature to be a
sexual predator,” he said.
So the man kept his story to himself until a few
weeks ago, after a cascading series of
revelations of sexual assault and harassment by
powerful men, and after the Globe published a
column on Oct. 27 about sexual harassment in
state politics.
In the aftermath of that column, Rosenberg
trumpeted the seriousness of the Senate’s
approach to the issue, touting improvements he
had made to harassment policies since assuming
the presidency.
“We have a zero tolerance policy in the Senate,”
he said, speaking to reporters Oct. 30. “We
prevent, by first creating a culture in which
people understand that if there is a problem,
they should come forward. . . . Our policy is
working quite well, but we try to be vigilant.”
That angered the advocate.
“When Rosenberg said that there is a zero
tolerance policy in the Senate, I was stunned,”
he said. “There is a predator in Rosenberg’s
inner circle. He participates in official
functions and he uses his influence with the
Senate president as a part of his tool-belt of
harassment techniques.”
Even then, however, he did not initiate contact
with the Globe. He described the alleged
assaults only after a Globe columnist called him
to speak about sexual harassment on Beacon Hill
more generally.
. . .
Another victim called the Globe back in August —
before the start of the national discussion of
sexual harassment triggered by revelations of
predatory behavior by Hollywood producer Harvey
Weinstein — to say that Hefner had sexually
assaulted him several times in 2015 and 2016.
This man was in his early 20s and just starting
out as an aide on Beacon Hill when he met Hefner
and Rosenberg at a social event. He admired
Rosenberg’s progressive agenda and leadership
style, and was hoping to learn from Hefner, who
brought him into the Senate president’s orbit,
and seemed to know all of the workings — and the
gossip — of Beacon Hill.
In the summer of 2015, the aide met Hefner for
drinks at a bar near Government Center, and they
agreed to meet a mutual friend elsewhere for
margaritas. He was surprised then when Hefner
led him not to another bar, but to the apartment
Hefner shares with Rosenberg, just behind the
State House. Rosenberg was not in Boston that
evening.
The aide said he and Hefner were drinking
cocktails on a couch when Hefner put his hand on
the aide’s leg. The aide pushed it off, but
Hefner persisted, leaning over and unzipping the
man’s pants. The aide zipped up his pants and
tried to act as if nothing had happened, he
said, reluctant to alienate the Senate
president’s partner. He said Hefner then grabbed
at his crotch. The aide went to the bathroom and
stayed there until a mutual friend arrived, then
left.
Two friends whom the aide told about the
incident immediately afterward confirmed his
account.
“He was upset,” said one friend, whom the aide
called after leaving Hefner’s apartment. “And
since then, he has been terrified by the
ramifications, because Bryon Hefner is with
Rosenberg, and he thought it would affect his
career.” A second friend said the aide,
“distraught,” called her about a week later and
described the incident.
The aide made a point never to be alone with
Hefner after that night. But in the spring of
2016, he said, Hefner assaulted him again, this
time at a small dinner with Rosenberg and some
activists following a political event. Hefner
sat down next to the aide, and repeatedly
reached under the table and put his hand between
the man’s legs. Rosenberg was sitting directly
across from them, the aide said.
“It was so frustrating,” the aide said. “These
were people I respected, and I wanted them to
respect me. I didn’t want to make a big scene
because I really valued my relationship with
Stan.” He finally left the table to take a call,
staying away for as long as he could.
Later that spring, the aide said, Hefner grabbed
his genitals again, this time while they rode
together to a political event in the back seat
of a Prius. Rosenberg was sitting up front.
Again, the aide tried to push Hefner’s hand off
him without making a scene.
The aide has tried to avoid Hefner altogether
since then, but that is almost impossible, he
said, since Rosenberg’s husband is so often
around Beacon Hill.
“Sometimes it really messes me up” to see him,
the aide said. “It makes it difficult to feel
safe at work, or anywhere near the State House.
It’s hard not to run into him.”
. . .
A third man said he was assaulted by Hefner at a
fund-raiser in 2015. Their conversation “started
normally,” said this man, who works on Beacon
Hill. Then Hefner suddenly put his hand up the
man’s shorts, grabbing his genitals.
“I was pretty shook,” said the man, who was in
his mid-20s at the time. “I felt violated.”
Hefner was drunk, and tried to get him to go
home with him, said the man, who eventually
extricated himself. Two friends whom the man
immediately told about the assault confirmed the
details of his account.
“He didn’t know where to go,” said one of those
friends, who talked to the victim by phone the
night of the assault and again at a cafe near
the State House the next day. “I said, ‘Listen,
this is assault, we’ve got to report this, let’s
find out what police station to go to.’ He
wasn’t having that. He was too scared about the
repercussions.”
The man said Hefner texted him repeatedly after
that night, sometimes telling him people were
talking about them, sometimes with lewd messages
and propositions.
“What do I do? Do I respond ‘LOL’? That looks
like I’m going along with his behavior,” said
the man. “You don’t know how to deal with this
kid because of who his husband is. I didn’t want
to burn myself. He sends inappropriate things,
so it looks like you are a party to it.”
After the assault, he got wind of rumors that he
and Hefner had been involved, and he fears
Hefner began them, using gossip to muddy the
fact that he had assaulted him.
“That is why I am still sick to my stomach about
this,” the man said. “Years later, when I did
nothing wrong, he has a way of making me feel
like I did something wrong. You can’t get away
from him. His husband is the Senate president.
What am I supposed to do? There’s no one I can
file an HR complaint with.”
. . .
A fourth man, a lobbyist, said Hefner assaulted
him in the summer of 2016. He and his partner
were preparing to leave a party when Hefner
grabbed his arm, wheeled him around, and kissed
him, forcefully and against his will.
“It was such a jarring experience,” the lobbyist
said. “In that moment I was kind of like, ‘What
is happening right now?’ I had a hard time
dealing with it personally. You blame yourself.
You question why.”
His partner confirmed his account. She was upset
by what had happened, and said the lobbyist
apologized to her repeatedly afterwards, even
though he had done nothing wrong. She says he
was “in a funk for days.”
The lobbyist felt he had no recourse. Even if he
could complain to somebody, he wouldn’t, he
said.
“I have always supported Rosenberg,” the
lobbyist said. “And he supports the causes I
care about. They’re things that are important
personally to me, but also professionally. It’s
a dangerous thing, too. [Talking about the
assault] could make your profile incredibly
difficult.”
He worried too, that complaining about it would
be seen as homophobic.
“I’ve been a staunch advocate and ally of the
LGBT community,” he said. “Does it make me a bad
ally to be upset about this? It’s a weird
position to be in.”
The revelations of the last two months, and the
growing readiness of victims elsewhere to tell
their stories of assault and harassment, appear
to have changed little for victims on Beacon
Hill. Even as legislative leaders — including
Rosenberg, as recently as Tuesday — have invited
them to come forward, they choose to stay
hidden.
Like the women who have previously told their
own stories of harassment on Beacon Hill, these
men say they simply do not trust that the
culture in Massachusetts politics will ever
change enough to truly protect them from the
potentially career-ending consequences of
identifying themselves.
That same culture, they say, has protected
Hefner for years.
“For too long, these stories have been out
there, and it’s like hitting a brick wall,” said
one of his alleged victims. “He has used his
husband’s position to coerce people and protect
himself. This kid thinks he is invincible.”
Yvonne Abraham is a Globe columnist.
The Boston Herald
Friday, December 1, 2017
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg agrees his
husband must be investigated
Partner facing assault claims
By Matt Stout and Bob McGovern
Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg is backing
calls for an investigation into his own husband,
who was accused yesterday of sexually assaulting
and harassing four men while boasting he was a
major player on Beacon Hill.
Rosenberg’s appeal for a probe into the
bombshell allegations came hours after Gov.
Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey and
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr had already
urged an immediate investigation of the claims.
Rosenberg says he’s appointing his deputy,
Majority Leader Harriette Chandler, to lead the
Senate investigation, saying in a statement last
night, “I am recusing myself from any matters
relating to this investigation and these
allegations.”
Baker said the Senate should launch that probe
“pronto.”
“Frankly, I am appalled by the allegations,”
Baker said. “They are incredibly disturbing and
depressing. ... My heart sank for the people
associated with them.”
Rosenberg’s spouse, Bryon Hefner, is accused of
indecently grabbing or kissing four men against
their will over the past few years, according to
a story posted online yesterday by Globe
columnist Yvonne Abraham. The four men are said
to still be doing business with the Senate.
Hefner, the story alleges, bragged about being
involved in Senate work as a teammate with his
husband.
Rosenberg said as he took over as Senate
president in 2015 that he intended to put a
“firewall” between Hefner — then his fiance —
and the Senate, after Hefner had gloated about
his influence.
“Certainly, based on the allegations, there’s a
question about that firewall. That’s exactly the
sort of thing the Senate should pursue and
pursue immediately,” Baker said, calling it a
“major element” of the scandal.
Healey also said there should be a “full
investigation,” saying there needs to be a
“clear message that harassment and assault of
any kind will not be tolerated on Beacon Hill.”
Tarr (R-Gloucester) said last night he was
working with Chandler to “develop a structure
and process” to investigate the allegations
against the 30-year-old Hefner.
“No one should manipulate, harm or abuse anyone
else and when they do, there must be appropriate
consequences,” Tarr said.
Rosenberg, 68, an Amherst Democrat, said earlier
yesterday he hadn’t heard of the allegations
before they were posted, but that he is taking
them seriously.
He declined to address the allegations at his
second-floor Beacon Hill apartment yesterday.
“It’s disrespectful that, 20 or 30 minutes after
the piece comes out, before I’ve had any chance
to process it, you’re at my door,” Rosenberg
told a Herald reporter through his door.
Hefner — who lists himself as Bryon Rosenberg on
his LinkedIn social media page — claims he
worked at the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s
Action Corps nonprofit until this June. Two
years before, he worked at the Regan
Communications PR firm in Boston.
State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry called this
latest sexual harassment story a “difficult day
for the Senate, yet an even more difficult day
for the men who had the courage to come
forward.”
“We have to work through this as a body,” the
Dorchester Democrat said.
Rosenberg has spoken at length about the
Senate’s “zero tolerance” of sexual harassment
allegations, and recently formed a working group
with six female senators — led by Chandler — to
review its policies. Chandler did not return a
request for comment yesterday.
Rosenberg said on Boston Herald Radio on
Wednesday that it’s “fair game” for the panel to
review whether taxpayers should have to pay for
settlements for misconduct, saying the
“individual also has a responsibility.”
As for the possibility of Rosenberg ultimately
needing to step down, Baker said that decision
“should be decided by the Senate and by the
Senate president.”
The Boston Herald
Friday, December 1, 2017
Do you have faith in Massachusetts? It’s not
very easy lately
By Howie Carr
So the Senate president, who hasn’t had a real
job since Jimmy Carter was president, decides at
the age of 67 to get married to a guy who’s 38
years younger than he is.
A guy who wears a bow tie, looks and dresses
like Pee Wee Herman, has no real career and
likes to drink.
What could possibly go wrong?
Everything, as it turns out. The perverama that
has engulfed the nation in recent weeks now
comes to Beacon Hill. Move over Harvey
Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Al Franken and Kevin
Spacey.
Meet Senate President Stan C. Rosenberg and his
husband, Bryon Hefner. This is the headline
about the Dream Couple of Beacon Hill:
“Four men allege sexual misconduct by Senate
president’s husband.”
The story is in the Globe, believe it or not.
That’s how out of control it has apparently
gotten at the State House. Not even the Globe,
which comforts the comfortable and afflicts the
afflicted, could put a shine on this PC sneaker.
This celebration of diversity hits on the same
day as local prosecutors throw out 7,500 drug
cases after a state chemist in Amherst spent
almost a decade snorting and ingesting the
evidence. It comes as the state police release
communications showing that less than 40 minutes
after a hack judge’s toll-taker junkie daughter
was arrested for OUI on Interstate 190 in
October, the brass were already scrambling to
make sure that their fellow hack would not be
embarrassed.
This is your state government at work.
A century ago, the president of the
Massachusetts state Senate was Calvin Coolidge.
He wrote what was then a famous tract, exhorting
the Commonwealth to believe in itself:
“Have Faith in Massachusetts.”
Do you have faith in Massachusetts? Me neither.
This scandal is all on Rosenberg. He’s supposed
to be the adult here, even though he was
cowering behind closed doors in his Beacon Hill
apartment, pouting and yelling to a Herald
reporter how “disrespectful” it was to confront
him before he’d had “any chance to process it.”
There have been problems in the past with Hefner
— for a while he had a job of sorts with that
local ethical titan George Regan. But lately Mr.
President claimed he’d constructed a “firewall”
between his personal life and the hackerama he
embodies. I hope he’s got a warranty on that
firewall, because it looks like it’s badly in
need of a recall.
The story about Hefner’s depradations is
lavishly detailed, like the New Yorker pieces
about Weinstein, or the Variety story about
Lauer. Hefner allegedly gooses another gent in
the back of a Prius — of course it’s a Prius,
what else would he and the senator from the
People’s Republic of Amherst be riding in,
except a Tesla maybe.
Hefner brags about his “pull” as he allegedly
gropes younger guys and older guys. A
heterosexual victim frets that “complaining
about it would be seen as homophobic.”
In a time that now seems as remote as Calvin
Coolidge’s, the Senate president was Billy
Bulger, whose brother was a gangster from South
Boston. Bulger was succeeded by Tom Birmingham,
who was named after his late uncle, a gangster
from Charlestown.
In retrospect, those were the good old days,
when you could have faith in Massachusetts.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, December 2, 2017
A Boston Herald editorial
Senate must go public
There are few government bodies as clubby and
insular as the Massachusetts Senate. When
Democrats meet in caucus they literally gather
in front of the fireplace in the ornate office
of the Senate president. Members (of both
parties) have served together on Beacon Hill in
some cases for decades.
That’s why it is critically important for the
investigation into the alleged improper conduct
by Bryon Hefner, husband of Senate President
Stan Rosenberg, to be handled by an independent,
outside party. There is simply no way for
senators to do a credible investigation that
revolves around their own leader.
But independent isn’t enough. The findings of
the special investigator must also be made
public, if the public is to have confidence that
they were reached in good faith. The Senate
shouldn’t hide behind its public records
exemption or its own arcane rules.
After Hefner embarrassed Rosenberg with
unprofessional behavior a few years ago, the
Senate president vowed to establish a firewall
between his personal and professional lives. In
a statement to reporters yesterday he insisted
that Hefner, who plans to seek inpatient
treatment for alcoholism, has “no influence over
policy, the internal operations of the Senate,
or any Senate-related business.”
That is not, according to Globe reporting, how
Hefner portrayed his role to his alleged
victims. And that is what kept the men from
reporting his alleged misconduct. It will be up
to the special investigator to sort that out.
Both the House and Senate operate quite
literally under their own set of rules. Senate
leaders took a strong first step by
acknowledging the need for outside assistance.
Now they need to follow through by making the
investigative findings public, without delay.
State House News Service
Friday, December 1, 2017
Weekly Roundup - The sins of the husband
By Matt Murphy
The national sexual harassment scandal got a
face in Massachusetts this week – the face of
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg's husband.
All other dealings on Beacon Hill this week got
blocked out like an eclipse by the bombshell
report in the Boston Globe that Rosenberg's
husband-of-one-year Bryon Hefner had allegedly
sexually assaulted at least four men.
Three of those men, who all work in the
political arena and shared their stories
anonymously, claim that Hefner grabbed their
genitals in social settings, sometimes with the
Senate president mere feet away. Another alleged
that Hefner forcibly kissed him as he bragged
about the clout he wielded over a legislative
body for which he didn't work and never served.
Gov. Charlie Baker, who has worked closely with
Rosenberg for years, was the first to call for a
full investigation hours after the story broke,
but he was followed by others, including
Rosenberg himself who gave his blessing for
Senate Majority Leader Harriett Chandler and
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr to spearhead a
full probe that Rosenberg, who intends to retain
his title for now, will recuse himself from.
Rosenberg seemed to be clinging to the edge of a
cliff Friday as staff Chandler and Tarr huddled
in the office next to the president's hashing
out a plan to bring on a special investigator to
look into the allegations against Hefner,
including impacts on Senate operations.
Visibly shaken by the allegations against his
husband, Rosenberg faced the cameras roughly 24
hours after his husband's alleged transgression
were put on public display in what Rosenberg
called the "most difficult time" in his
political and personal life.
Rosenberg announced in a prepared statement that
Hefner would be seeking in-patient treatment for
alcohol dependence, and he encouraged anyone
with a story to tell to come forward without
fear of retribution. The Globe reported the four
men were still not ready to take that step, but
the door has been opened.
Rosenberg also said he was confident the
investigation would show that Hefner had no
influence over Senate business. "If Bryon
claimed to have influence over my decisions or
over the Senate, he should not have said that.
It is simply not true," Rosenberg said.
The first, and so far only, two to call outright
for Rosenberg to resign or step aside as Senate
president were Republican candidates for office.
U.S. Senate candidate John Kingston and state
Senate candidate Dean Tran both went there
Thursday, while the Democrats running for
governor remained silent.
The MassGOP followed up Friday with blast emails
to local media posing a series of questions that
Democratic senators should answer, the first
being, "Do you still do you still have
confidence in him and his leadership of the
chamber?" The party also suggested that
Rosenberg's claims of being unaware of his
husband's alleged behavior were "dubious."
"Democrat Senators have questions to answer
about the Senate President's leadership - given
that they have the ability to determine his
future. The MassGOP is committed to holding
these Democrats accountable on behalf of voters,
who deserve answers," MassGOP spokesman Terry
MacCormack said.
The building may have been lousy with rumors of
succession planning and senators angling to fill
the void if and when Rosenberg were to step
aside, but those senators were adamantly denying
the water-cooler talk ... for now. Succession
talk is not a topic lawmakers usually like to go
public with - loyalty playing the role that it
does in politics - but there's a time and a
place for everything and senators appeared to be
struggling with that question.
Buried underneath the pile of sexual assault
allegations at the end of the week were the
developments of Monday and Tuesday.
Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito chose this week
to make their re-election campaign official.
While it may not have been earth-shattering news
to the "tell-me-something-I-don't-know" crowd
eager to dismiss the development, the fact that
Baker's bid for a second term was expected
misses the point.
It's true that Baker has been fundraising like a
politician determined to keep his seat and the
launch of the re-election campaign was more a
matter of when, not if, but he still had to say
the words, and he did so at the Table Talk Pie
factory in Worcester.
The launch also coincides with the Baker-Polito
team signing up for new lease space on a
headquarters in Allston with MassGOP Executive
Director Brian Wynne expected to transition
beginning next week to his new role as campaign
manager. As the Baker-Polito re-election team
grows in the coming months, senior advisor Jim
Conroy said Baker will remain focused on his
official duties. Eventually, the governor will
have to make a clear case for re-election.
The campaign team plans to slowly ramp the
governor up into campaign mode, not seeing the
need right now to launch a full-scale campaign
that would also give oxygen to his Democratic
rivals. That day is coming though, and the mere
existence of the re-elect campaign will
facilitate more engagement between the governor
and those looking to steal his job away.
The race for governor may have been expected,
but a Democratic primary for secretary of state?
Bill Galvin will have held that title for 24
years when his name goes on the ballot next
September, and Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim
thinks that's enough time.
Zakim, a 33-year-old attorney who has served on
the council since 2013, launched his campaign
for secretary of state this week offering what
he described as "new ways of doing things."
The Back Bay resident, whose father's name
adorns the bridge leading into Boston, supports
same-day and automatic voter registration, and
said he was particularly troubled by Galvin's
decision to fight a Superior Court ruling that
knocked down the state's requirement that voters
be registered at least 20 days prior to an
election in order to participate.
The first hurdle Zakim may have to clear,
however, is getting Galvin to engage at all. The
secretary has made an electoral career of
ignoring his opponents, shunning debates, and
easily sliding back into office cycle after
cycle.
For Zakim to have a chance, it would seem he
would first have to crack that wall.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Senate President Rosenberg's
personal and political life turned upside down.
The Boston Herald
Monday, December 4, 2017
Rosenberg to step down as Senate president
during investigation
By Matt Stout
Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg told
senior senators he is taking a leave of absence
from his powerful post amid an investigation
into allegations his husband sexually assaulted
or harassed multiple men, a decision bound to
send shockwaves through the State House.
"I believe taking a leave of absence from the
Senate Presidency during the investigation is in
the best interest of the Senate," Rosenberg said
in a statement. "I want to ensure that the
investigation is fully independent and credible,
and that anyone who wishes to come forward will
feel confident that there will be no
retaliation.”
Rosenberg sent a letter to Majority Leader
Harriette Chandler, informing her that he is
stepping away from the presidency.
The Boston Globe last week published allegations
from four men that Bryon Hefner groped or
forcibly kissed them while boasting of having
influence inside Rosenberg's office. All four
work in political or State House circles.
Democratic senators are huddling in a
closed-door caucus today to address the
allegations.
Rosenberg's move will set up a scramble to fill
the top post, at least on an interim basis, as
the Senate prepares to hire an outside special
investigator.
Multiple Senators declined to comment after they
left a leadership meeting this morning.
Asked if he's received word that Rosenberg is
stepping away, Sen. Mark Montigny told
reporters, "Let me go up to caucus and get the
letter."
Rosenberg faced mounting pressure to relinquish
his post amid the expected investigation,
including from Sen. Barbara L'Italien
(D-Andover) said on Friday he should not hold
the position while the probe is ongoing.
The Herald reported today that jockeying to
replace Rosenberg has already begun, with at
least three senators lining up votes in case he
resigns.
Sens. Linda Dorcena Forry (D-Boston), Eileen
Donoghue (D-Lowell) and Sal N. DiDomenico
(D-Everett) each scrambled over the weekend to
line up votes they would need to take the
presidency, after L’Italien said she’ll ask
Rosenberg to step down at today’s caucus.
Some lawmakers also are now calling for an
outside investigation by a law enforcement
authority, such as Attorney General Maura
Healey, instead of appointing an independent
investigator who would answer to the Senate.
After Hefner had embarrassed Rosenberg with
unprofessional behavior a few years ago, the
Senate president had vowed to establish a
firewall between his personal and professional
lives. In a statement to reporters Friday during
which he described himself as "shocked and
devastated" by the allegations, Rosenberg
insisted that Hefner, who plans to seek
inpatient treatment for alcoholism, has “no
influence over policy, the internal operations
of the Senate, or any Senate-related business.”
Rosenberg, one of the three most powerful
politicians on Beacon Hill, is a 31-year
Democratic veteran of the Legislature from
Amherst. |
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