Alex Morse | |
---|---|
Town Manager of Provincetown | |
Assumed office April 5, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Charles Sumner (interim) |
44th Mayor of Holyoke | |
In office January 2,2012 –March 26,2021 | |
Preceded by | Elaine Pluta |
Succeeded by | Joshua A. Garcia |
Personal details | |
Born | Alex Benjamin Morse [1] January 29,1989 Holyoke,Massachusetts,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Brown University (BA) |
Website | Government website Campaign website |
Alex Benjamin Morse (born January 29,1989) is an American politician who served as the 44th mayor of Holyoke,Massachusetts from 2012 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party,he was elected the youngest mayor of Holyoke at age 22. He was reelected three times,with his final term expiring in January 2022. [2] [3] [4] Morse resigned on March 26,2021,to accept a position as the town manager of Provincetown,beginning on April 5,2021. [5] [6]
Morse was the first incumbent mayor in Massachusetts to endorse the legalization of cannabis during a 2016 ballot initiative,an industry he has since sought to promote in Holyoke's economy,in tandem with information technology startups. [7] [8] In September 2020,Morse lost the primary for Massachusetts's 1st congressional district to incumbent Richard Neal. [9]
Alex Benjamin Morse was born January 29,1989,in Holyoke,Massachusetts,the youngest of three children of Tracey and Ingrid Morse (née Powell). [10] He took an interest in politics at an early age. In 2001,at age 12,he joined the Holyoke Youth Commission,a group that advises city leaders on issues affecting young people.
A graduate of the Holyoke Public Schools,Morse served two terms as student representative for the Holyoke School Committee and three years on the Massachusetts Governor's LGBT Commission. [11] He was a participant in Upward Bound,a federal program that facilitates higher education in students from low-income families. [11]
During his time at Holyoke High School,Morse formed a chapter of the Gay-Straight Alliance,and was the inaugural recipient of Boston's Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Elsie Frank Award,a scholarship named in honor of the mother of Congressman Barney Frank. [12] [13]
The following autumn Morse entered Brown University,working part-time as an assistant for David Cicilline,the mayor of Providence,Rhode Island,and a future Congressman. Morse graduated in the spring of 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies. [14] In 2016,he completed Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government as a David Bohnett LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow. [15]
In January 2011,while in his final semester at Brown University,Morse announced his campaign for mayor of Holyoke. The previous summer,he had attended a three-day workshop in New York City hosted by Wellstone Action,a grassroots campaign training organization for progressives,and began quietly fundraising at the end of 2010. [16] [17] [18]
Morse's election in 2011 at the age of 22 received national coverage,as he was the city's youngest and first openly gay mayor and,at the time,among the youngest mayors in the United States. [19] [20] He was reelected in 2013 and 2015.
In 2015,Holyoke's mayoral term was extended from two years to four,effective 2017. [3] Morse was reelected that year,and is the first Holyoke mayor to serve a four-year term. [21]
On December 1,2020,Morse announced that he would not seek reelection as mayor in 2021. [4]
On August 1,2016,Morse became the first Massachusetts mayor to publicly endorse the legalization of cannabis. [7] [8] Following legalization,Morse has encouraged investment of marijuana cultivation in the city,calling Holyoke "the Rolling Paper City";he vetoed a 2017 moratorium the city council placed on recreational retailers. [22]
Morse has attended several cannabis cultivation forums as a speaker,including several on the industry hosted in Holyoke. [23] [24] Among the earliest projects to open in Holyoke was a $10 million cultivation facility for Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries (GTI),which was operational by mid-2018. [25] Several other businesses have since purchased facilities in the city,including a $3.2 million sale of a former American Thread Company mill to Trulieve,a company seeking to produce and sell retail marijuana at the site. [26] [27]
During Morse's 2011 campaign,a prominent issue was plans for a casino in the city,with then-mayor Elaine Pluta supporting such plans and Morse opposing them. [28] In an October 2012 editorial,Morse elaborated on his position,concluding,"I oppose a casino in Holyoke because I have not given up on Holyoke". [29]
On November 26,2012,Morse held a press conference announcing his reversal on this stance, [30] vowing to work with local businessman Eric Suher and others to build a casino at Mountain Park,with the city accepting a $25,000 payment from the developer for the costs of a review process. Facing backlash from supporters of his previous campaign against casinos,by December 2012 Morse reversed course and returned the funds,citing a "resounding voice against the casinos". [31] [32]
As the chair of the Holyoke School Committee,Morse opposed state receivership before the 2015 state takeover,saying,"We should agree that local control matters,which is to say that a corporate takeover of our district or a charter organization running our district is not acceptable". [33] Since receivership he has become increasingly supportive of state implementation,as public schools have seen marked improvement,with graduation rates increasing 20%. [34] Morse has also publicly supported state expanded programs such as bilingual education, [35] and the tentative construction of two new middle schools for a reported estimate of $132 million. [36]
In 2017,following a trial shutdown,or "brownout",of a local fire engine company,the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1693 made a vote of no confidence in Morse,saying in a press release,"Chief Pond's continued reductions to the Department and practice of operating the Department at unsafe levels,all with the support of [the] Mayor". [37] Morse has repeatedly affirmed support of the fire chief and denied the validity of these concerns,saying at a protest outside of a fundraiser that "the points that they're making just are untrue." [38] [39]
The Pioneer Valley AFL–CIO and the New England Regional Council of Carpenters Local 108 endorsed Morse in his 2017 reelection campaign. [40]
In 2014 the city council criticized Morse for refusing to disclose the reason for providing a $45,000 exit agreement to city solicitor Heather Egan,a year after her appointment. [41] [42] In response,Morse said in a Reddit AMA:"I do admit that I should have briefed the City Council before executing the settlement agreement with this former employee as to avoid issues of perception. Again,when faced with the decision to potentially spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs to fight frivolous lawsuits,or to execute a settlement agreement with funds that were already allocated in the budget,I chose the latter. Separation agreements are not uncommon in both the private and public sector." [43]
Following the resignation of the city auditor in 2018,who suggested receivership and said he did not believe the mayor's office followed protocol,state auditor Suzanne Bump responded to a city council request stating,"I do not believe the circumstances in Holyoke rise to the level of warranting a state audit". In the previous month,a private audit by firm CliftonLarsonAllen found all city funds accounted for. [44] Although Holyoke's government has a strong mayor–council government,Morse has called for finance-related departments to be placed under a chief financial officer appointed by the mayor and subject to City Council confirmation. The charter currently calls for the election of city treasurers. [45] [46]
On November 19,2014,Morse issued an executive order to the Holyoke Police Department,asking the department not to enforce federal civil detainer requests for holding immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally past the point they would usually be released. This codified a practice previously implemented during his tenure. The practice would not apply those who were registered as sex offenders,had previous indictments or convictions,or outstanding warrants. [47] [48]
Following a threat by the Trump administration to defund sanctuary cities in 2017,Morse reaffirmed this practice. Morse acknowledged that he knew of no instance where local police ignored federal immigration requests,and that the policy did not directly affect Holyoke's largest group of Latino residents,the Puerto Rican community,who hold American citizenship. [49]
On June 22,2019,Morse announced his run for the U.S. House of Representatives against incumbent Democrat Richard Neal,to represent Massachusetts's 1st congressional district. [50] He was later endorsed by the Justice Democrats,the Sunrise Movement,and Humanity Forward. [51] [52] [53] [54] Morse was defeated by Neal by around 17 percentage points. [9]
In an August 2020 email,as part of what Morse and Out magazine later called a smear campaign, [55] the College Democrats of Massachusetts alleged that Morse had used "his position of power for romantic or sexual gain". [56] The email said that Morse had used dating apps to match with and contact students,aged 18 and above,at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,where Morse was an adjunct instructor. [56] The political group disinvited Morse from any future events on campus. [57] Morse responded,"I have never violated UMass policy". [58] The local chapter of the Sunrise Movement voted to retract its endorsement of Morse,and the national organization announced that it would no longer campaign for him. Other organizations,including the Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party,affirmed their support of Morse. [59] [60]
On August 12,2020, The Intercept published an article on chat logs shared with the publication,reporting that the accusations had been organized starting almost a year earlier as part of a sting operation by the UMass Amherst College Democrats in an attempt to aid Neal. The released chat logs discussed looking for Morse's dating profiles and how to lead him into saying incriminating things,and their hopes of gaining internships with Neal in exchange. The Neal campaign and the UMass Amherst College Democrats both denied having cooperated. [61] Timothy Ennis,the chief strategist and former president of the UMass Amherst College Democrats,had taken a class with Neal and was highlighted as a driving force behind the allegations,with members of the group saying that Ennis saw Neal as his "in" for a political career. [62] Former members of the UMass Amherst College Democrats alleged an "anti-Morse bias" in the group. [62] [63] On August 12, Business Insider journalist Grace Panetta wrote on Twitter that she had been contacted anonymously in April 2020 and that the names in the chat logs The Intercept had acquired were the same as those who had written her with vague allegations against Morse. [64] [65]
Massachusetts state senator Julian Cyr said the situation showed how "vague and anonymous allegations can be easily launched against LGBTQ candidates to destroy their campaigns". [66] Journalist Glenn Greenwald expressed a similar sentiment,writing that the allegations were "old homophobic tropes" and calling the allegations a "smear campaign". [66] LGBTQ Victory Fund political director Sean Meloy called the incident "a series of orchestrated political attacks meant to weaponize Alex’s sexuality and appeal to a homophobic narrative around the sex lives of LGBTQ people." [67] On August 16,2020,the Sunrise Movement resumed campaigning for Morse. [67]
Further reporting by The Intercept alleged that the executive director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party,Veronica Martinez,coordinated with College Democrats before the allegations were made public,and that she "demanded records of her communications with CDMA members be destroyed" once the allegations were brought into question. [67] Martinez denied the report. [67] In response to evidence and allegations that party officials and elected representatives may have collaborated in originating and circulating the allegations for political gain,more than 50 Massachusetts Democratic State Committee members wrote that the organization's leadership "may have behaved unethically" and demanded an independent investigation before the September election into "what appears to be an unprecedented abuse of power". [68]
That independent investigation found that Massachusetts Democratic Party leaders played a role in encouraging the students to send the letter,intentionally affecting the campaign and violating party rules. [69] [70]
An independent investigation requested by UMass found that Morse had used dating apps to "aggressively pursue dates and sexual relationships with students" but had not violated any school policy. It also found no evidence that Neal’s campaign had had a role in the initial report and advised the school to tighten its policies on teacher-student relationships. [71] [72]
After ending his tenure as mayor of Holyoke,Morse was unanimously chosen by the Provincetown selectboard to be the next town manager,replacing an interim town manager. [5] [73]
Morse is Jewish and openly gay. [18] He was born to a Christian father and a Jewish mother. [74] In 2012,Morse was ranked #9 in Out magazine's annual list of 100 most eligible bachelors;in 2013 the magazine ranked him #66. [75] [76] In response,Morse said,"I'd like to thank Out magazine for their recognition. It's always positive to see Holyoke highlighted in national publications." [77]
Morse was a lecturer of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2014 to 2019. [78] [14]
Forbes magazine named Morse in their 2019 30 Under 30 list for Law &Policy,citing his "initiatives include offering refuge to Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria,encouraging legal marijuana businesses and restoring the city's downtown." [79] [80]
Morse's mother suffered from severe mental health issues and his brother struggled with drug addiction;both died during his mayoralty. [81]
Primary election | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
Nonpartisan | Alex Morse | 2,023 | 39 | |
Nonpartisan | Elaine Pluta (incumbent) | 2,022 | 39 | |
Nonpartisan | Daniel C. Boyle | 806 | 16 | |
Nonpartisan | Daniel C. Burns | 310 | 6 | |
Total votes | 5,161 | 100 | ||
General election | ||||
Nonpartisan | Alex Morse | 5,121 | 53 | |
Nonpartisan | Elaine Pluta (incumbent) | 4,513 | 47 | |
Total votes | 9,634 | 100 |
Primary election | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
Nonpartisan | Alex Morse (incumbent) | 2,419 | 45 | |
Nonpartisan | Jeff Stanek | 2,249 | 42 | |
Nonpartisan | Daniel Szostkiewicz | 305 | 6 | |
Nonpartisan | Jim Santiago | 197 | 4 | |
Nonpartisan | Daniel C. Boyle | 190 | 4 | |
Total votes | 5,360 | 100 | ||
General election | ||||
Nonpartisan | Alex Morse (incumbent) | 5,274 | 54 | |
Nonpartisan | Jeff Stanek | 4,425 | 46 | |
Total votes | 9,634 | 100 |
Primary election | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
Nonpartisan | Alex Morse (incumbent) | 2,694 | 43 | |
Nonpartisan | Francis O'Connell | 2,450 | 39 | |
Nonpartisan | Anthony Soto | 1,145 | 18 | |
Total votes | 6,289 | 100 | ||
General election | ||||
Nonpartisan | Alex Morse (incumbent) | 5,429 | 53 | |
Nonpartisan | Francis O'Connell | 4,855 | 47 | |
Total votes | 10,284 | 100 |
Primary election | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
Nonpartisan | Alex Morse (incumbent) | 1,984 | 56 | |
Nonpartisan | Jay Ferreira | 992 | 28 | |
Nonpartisan | Michael Thomas Siciliano | 354 | 10 | |
Total votes | 3,330 | 100 | ||
General election | ||||
Nonpartisan | Alex Morse (incumbent) | 4,557 | 58 | |
Nonpartisan | Jay Ferreira | 3,316 | 42 | |
Total votes | 7,873 | 100 |
Primary election | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
Democratic | Richard Neal (incumbent) | 84,092 | 58 | |
Democratic | Alex Morse | 59,110 | 41 | |
Total votes | 145,136 | 100 |
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Located 8 miles (13 km) north of Springfield, Holyoke is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Area, one of the two distinct metropolitan areas in Massachusetts.
Richard Edmund Neal is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 1st congressional district since 1989. The district, numbered as the 2nd district from 1989 to 2013, includes Springfield, West Springfield, Pittsfield, Holyoke, Agawam, Chicopee and Westfield, and is much more rural than the rest of the state. A member of the Democratic Party, Neal has been the dean of Massachusetts's delegation to the United States House of Representatives since 2013, and he is also the dean of the New England House delegations.
Holyoke City Hall is the historic city hall of Holyoke, Massachusetts. It is located at 536 Dwight Street, on the south east corner of High Street and Dwight Street. Serving both as the city administrative center and a public timepiece for the industrial city's workers, construction began on the Gothic Revival structure in 1871 to a design by architect Charles B. Atwood. Difficulties and delays in construction were compounded by Atwood's failure to deliver updated drawings in a timely manner, and the design work was turned over to Henry F. Kilburn in 1874. The building was completed two years later at a cost of $500,000. It has housed city offices since then.
The 2012 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held in Massachusetts on November 6, 2012, Democrat Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown. This election was held concurrently with the U.S. presidential election and elections to the U.S. Senate in other states, as well as elections to the House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Maurice A. Donahue was an American politician who served as President of the Massachusetts Senate from 1964 to 1971.
The 2014 Massachusetts gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014, to elect the governor of Massachusetts, concurrently with the election of Massachusetts' Class II U.S. Senate seat, and other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Holyoke High School is a public high school in Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States. Since 2015, the school, along with the district, has been in state receivership and through a series of changes in practices, such as innovative restorative justice disciplinary programs, has seen marked improvement in student retention and graduation rates. In the 2017-2018 school year Holyoke High received higher combined SAT scores than the average for schools in Boston, Worcester, and Springfield.
The Massachusetts general election, 2014 was held on November 4, 2014, throughout Massachusetts. Primary elections took place on September 9, 2014.
Aaron Vega is an American state legislator who previously represented the 5th Hampden district of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, co-owner of a yoga business, and a former film editor. He has been nominated for the Argentine Film Critics Association's Silver Condor Award for Best Film for directing jazz documentary Van Van - Empezó la fiesta!, and has worked on several PBS documentaries including American Experience and Ken Burns' Jazz. A member of the Democratic Party, Vega began his political career in 2009 when he successfully ran as a city councilor in Holyoke, and subsequently ran successfully for state representative for the 5th Hampden district in 2012. In 2020, then-Mayor Alex Morse appointed Vega as Director of the City of Holyoke's Office of Planning and Economic Development, replacing outgoing director Marcos Marrero; Vega assumed the office on January 21, 2021, and would subsequently lead Mayor Josh Garcia's transition team.
Holyoke station is an Amtrak intercity train station near the corner of Main and Dwight streets in Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States. The station opened on August 27, 2015, eight months after Amtrak's Vermonter service was re-routed to the Connecticut River Line through the Pioneer Valley.
The 2018 Massachusetts gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Republican governor Charlie Baker and lieutenant governor Karyn Polito sought reelection to a second term in office, facing Democratic challengers Jay Gonzalez and Quentin Palfrey, respectively. Candidates were selected in the primary election held on September 4, 2018.
The 2020 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. On September 1, incumbent senator Ed Markey defeated U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III in a competitive primary for the Democratic nomination, and Kevin O'Connor defeated Shiva Ayyadurai for the Republican nomination. Markey went on to win the general election with 66.2% of the vote, and was thus re-elected to a second full term in a landslide.
The 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts were held on November 6, 2018, electing the nine U.S. representatives from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one from each of the state's nine congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other offices, including a gubernatorial election, other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections. The primary election for contested nominations was held on September 4, 2018.
As of the 2010 census, Holyoke, Massachusetts had the largest Puerto Rican population, per capita, of any city in the United States outside Puerto Rico proper, with 47.7% or 44,826 residents being of Puerto Rican heritage, comprising 92.4% of all Latinos in the community. From a combination of farming programs instituted by the US Department of Labor after World War II, and the housing and mills that characterized Holyoke prior to deindustrialization, Puerto Ricans began settling in the city in the mid-1950s, with many arriving during the wave of Puerto Rican migration to the Northeastern United States in the 1980s. A combination of white flight as former generations of mill workers left the city, and a sustained influx of migrants in subsequent generations transformed the demographic from a minority of about 13% of the population in 1980, to the largest single demographic by ancestry in a span of three decades.
The Holyoke Street Railway (HSR) was an interurban streetcar and bus system operating in Holyoke, Massachusetts as well as surrounding communities with connections in Amherst, Belchertown, Chicopee, Easthampton, Granby, Northampton, Pelham, South Hadley, Sunderland, Westfield, and West Springfield. Throughout its history the railway system shaped the cultural institutions of Mount Tom, being operator of the mountain's famous summit houses, one of which hosted President McKinley, the Mount Tom Railroad, and the trolley park at the opposite end of this funicular line, Mountain Park.
The 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Massachusetts. Republican former state representative Geoff Diehl, Democratic state Attorney General Maura Healey, and Libertarian Kevin Reed sought to succeed incumbent Governor Charlie Baker, who did not seek re-election after two terms. The race was one of six Republican-held governorships up for election in 2022 in a state carried by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and the only race in which the incumbent was retiring despite being eligible for re-election.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts were held on November 3, 2020, to elect the nine U.S. representatives from the state of Massachusetts, one from each of the state's nine congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. Primary elections were held on September 1.
From the beginning of the city's history as the western bank of Springfield, Irish families have resided in and contributed to the development of the civics and culture of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Among the first appellations given to the city were the handles "Ireland", "Ireland Parish", or "Ireland Depot", after the village was designated the 3rd Parish of West Springfield in 1786. Initially occupied by a mixture of Yankee English and Irish Protestant families, many of whom belonged to the Baptist community of Elmwood, from 1840 through 1870 the area saw a large influx of Irish Catholic workers, immigrants to the United States, initially from the exodus of the Great Famine. During that period Irish immigrants and their descendants comprised the largest demographic in Holyoke and built much of the early city's infrastructure, including the dams, canals, and factories. Facing early hardships from Anti-Irish sentiment, Holyoke's Irish would largely build the early labor movement of the city's textile and paper mills, and remained active in the national Irish nationalist and Gaelic revival movements of the United States, with the Holyoke Philo-Celtic Society being one of 13 signatory organizations creating the Gaelic League of America, an early 20th century American counterpart of Conradh na Gaeilge.
...Morse, now in his fourth term as Holyoke's mayor...
Now in his fourth term as mayor of Holyoke...
... Holyoke's first openly gay mayor who's now in his fourth term in office...
Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse re-elected to 4th term