The Boston Globe reported early today that Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healthy and other state offices called for former Senate President Stanley Rosenberg to immediately resign following a Senate Ethics Committee report released yesterday.
The committee’s report, prepared by independent investigators, stated that, “while Rosenberg did not violate any formal Senate rules, he showed a lack of judgment and violated the chamber’s information technology policies by giving [his husband] Bryon Hefner ‘unfettered access’ to Rosenberg’s Senate email account.”
Heffner was arraigned on April 23 on charges of sexual harrasment and attempting to use his position to influence Senate business. The ethics investigation also stated that Rosenberg “knew or should have known Hefner had racially and sexually harassed Senate employees” and failed to address the issue adequately, the Globe reported.
Early Thursday morning, news broke that Rosenberg officially submitted a letter of resignation to the Senate.
“Rosenberg’s resignation, effective Friday, prompted a mixture of muted approval and sadness in Western Massachusetts, which he served as senator since 1991 and as state representative for five years before,” the Globe reported later this afternoon. The article went on to say:
“I’m shattered on a number of levels because I have enormous respect and regard for Stan Rosenberg,” said William Dwight, a Northampton councilor at large. “What has transpired is the very definition of a tragedy.”
Dwight said that Rosenberg made mistakes but that his long fight for progressive causes will be missed.
Given Rosenberg’s enormous popularity in the district, he probably would have won reelection this fall despite the scandal, Dwight said.
“Per usual, Stan was thinking of the district he represented first and of the institution of the Senate,” Dwight said. “He made human mistakes, but he did make mistakes.”
Chelsea Sunday Kline, a Northampton Democrat who now is running unopposed for Rosenberg’s seat, thanked the former Senate president “for making the right decision for survivors, for the Senate, and for the district in stepping down.”
“Senator Rosenberg leaves an impressive progressive legacy that has improved lives throughout Massachusetts,” she said.
