MA-1: Morse accused of inappropriate sexual relations with college students

[Greedo punched first]

Lynch doesn't have a serious challenger. Neal was already favored to win.

[Greedo punched first]

IME, this is all very common for young hotshot politicians. For better or for worse (i believe for worse). But it's an open secret that certain sitting US Senators, etc engage in this (and worse).

Bob Menendez? Ken Calvert?

[Greedo punched first]

I'm sorry but the Democratic Party can not be the party talking about sexual assault while supporting people who use their position of power for sex. I don't care about the age difference, what UMass policy is, and I certainly do not care about the sexuality. It is not homophobic to say that people with leverage at institutions like universities and student orgs should not go after the people attending them.

If the relations was consexual, it should be allowed. There is 30K students in UMass.

consent is not the same when you are a student and a professor at college you go to is making advances on you, or you're a college democrat trying to make your way up the ranks and the icon of the organization is making advances on you.

Denying those advances could result in the power that person has over you being used against you. the conflict of interest is clear. It's simply not consent if it's under pressure

A teacher in another department has no pressure on you.

That's simply not true, people at the university have a lot of sway over their departments and research direction

What? You say I'm wrong and then restate exactly what I said.

sorry, I misread what you said. But at the end of the day, if you're running as a young progressive insurgent and college dems at the university you work for ban you from their events, clearly you've made so many people uncomfortable that you've done something wrong.

Or you made one influent puritan unhappy or someone is hoping to get a job with Neal as a reward for the hatchet job...

I don't think this the time for baseless conspiracy theories

Can I get an apology now?

Still does not dismiss anything he did

https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/hampden-county/holyoke-city-councilor-to-file-an-order-for-the-recall-of-holyoke-mayor-alex-morse/

now there is this. I think it's only a matter of time for the other shoe to drop

Morse has faced right-wing opposition in his home town as long as he's been Mayor.

Has Morse ever faced Republican opposition?

[Greedo punched first]

Name the GOP opponents he had as mayor.

[Greedo punched first]

I'm sorry but the Democratic Party can not be the party talking about sexual assault while supporting people who use their position of power for sex. I don't care about the age difference, what UMass policy is, and I certainly do not care about the sexuality. It is not homophobic to say that people with leverage at institutions like universities and student orgs should not go after the people attending them.

If the relations was consexual, it should be allowed. There is 30K students in UMass.

consent is not the same when you are a student and a professor at college you go to is making advances on you, or you're a college democrat trying to make your way up the ranks and the icon of the organization is making advances on you.

Denying those advances could result in the power that person has over you being used against you. the conflict of interest is clear. It's simply not consent if it's under pressure

A teacher in another department has no pressure on you.

That's simply not true, people at the university have a lot of sway over their departments and research direction

What? You say I'm wrong and then restate exactly what I said.

sorry, I misread what you said. But at the end of the day, if you're running as a young progressive insurgent and college dems at the university you work for ban you from their events, clearly you've made so many people uncomfortable that you've done something wrong.

Or you made one influent puritan unhappy or someone is hoping to get a job with Neal as a reward for the hatchet job...

I don't think this the time for baseless conspiracy theories

Can I get an apology now?

Still does not dismiss anything he did

https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/hampden-county/holyoke-city-councilor-to-file-an-order-for-the-recall-of-holyoke-mayor-alex-morse/

now there is this. I think it's only a matter of time for the other shoe to drop

Morse has faced right-wing opposition in his home town as long as he's been Mayor.

Has Morse ever faced Republican opposition?

Hard to say, as elections are non-partisan.

Let me guess, he's probably only faced Democratic opposition. I live in California, where there usually is GOP opposition in most of the safest Democratic districts.

[Greedo punched first]

I had to wait for more evidence. I bet even some "Democrats" would defend Kavanaugh and attack Kamala Harris.

[Greedo punched first]

Does Neal still win the primary?

[Greedo punched first]

The thing about this that really bothers me is that they clearly played into homophobic stereotypes to try and get this story to spread. Just an unbelievable scumbag move.

Does Neal still win the primary?

I'd be really interested to see how this is reported on. People forget that Keith Ellison's allegations were also pretty much thrown out yet he's still a tarnished figure.

Honestly, I don't see how Morse comes out of this with positives.

Ellison still won statewide with GOP opposition. Has Morse ever faced GOP opposition in mayoral elections?

[Greedo punched first]

Name the GOP opponents he had as mayor.

I don't know as the elections were non-partisan. But all his opponents ran against him from the right and one of them promised to "make Holyoke great again" in a debate. Holyoke is Safe D at the national level, but low turnout as well as weird local politics allows conservatives to be competitive at the city level.

I'm not sure why you keep harping on this though. Who cares what party his opponents are?

My mayor, Steve Jones (R-Garden Grove) never promised to "make Garden Grove great again", but he's a Republican mayor of a Democratic leaning city. All municipal elections in California are nonpartisan. Do you think there's a good chance Morse faced GOP opposition?

[Greedo punched first]

Name the GOP opponents he had as mayor.

I don't know as the elections were non-partisan. But all his opponents ran against him from the right and one of them promised to "make Holyoke great again" in a debate. Holyoke is Safe D at the national level, but low turnout as well as weird local politics allows conservatives to be competitive at the city level.

I'm not sure why you keep harping on this though. Who cares what party his opponents are?

My mayor, Steve Jones (R-Garden Grove) never promised to "make Garden Grove great again", but he's a Republican mayor of a Democratic leaning city. All municipal elections in California are nonpartisan. Do you think there's a good chance Morse faced GOP opposition?

I would honestly be surprised if any of his opponents (besides the incumbent he initially beat) were Democrats.

Really? You think most of them were Republicans?

[Greedo punched first]

Name the GOP opponents he had as mayor.

I don't know as the elections were non-partisan. But all his opponents ran against him from the right and one of them promised to "make Holyoke great again" in a debate. Holyoke is Safe D at the national level, but low turnout as well as weird local politics allows conservatives to be competitive at the city level.

I'm not sure why you keep harping on this though. Who cares what party his opponents are?

My mayor, Steve Jones (R-Garden Grove) never promised to "make Garden Grove great again", but he's a Republican mayor of a Democratic leaning city. All municipal elections in California are nonpartisan. Do you think there's a good chance Morse faced GOP opposition?

I would honestly be surprised if any of his opponents (besides the incumbent he initially beat) were Democrats.

Really? You think most of them were Republicans?

Really. I don't see what's so surprising about that.

Republicans almost never run in MA-01. They probably won't in 2022 either. Republicans almost always run in most of California's districts that are far more Democratic than MA-01.

[Greedo punched first]

Name the GOP opponents he had as mayor.

I don't know as the elections were non-partisan. But all his opponents ran against him from the right and one of them promised to "make Holyoke great again" in a debate. Holyoke is Safe D at the national level, but low turnout as well as weird local politics allows conservatives to be competitive at the city level.

I'm not sure why you keep harping on this though. Who cares what party his opponents are?

My mayor, Steve Jones (R-Garden Grove) never promised to "make Garden Grove great again", but he's a Republican mayor of a Democratic leaning city. All municipal elections in California are nonpartisan. Do you think there's a good chance Morse faced GOP opposition?

I would honestly be surprised if any of his opponents (besides the incumbent he initially beat) were Democrats.

Really? You think most of them were Republicans?

Really. I don't see what's so surprising about that.

Republicans almost never run in MA-01. They probably won't in 2022 either. Republicans almost always run in most of California's districts that are far more Democratic than MA-01.

There's a big difference between city politics and national politics. (Also Holyoke is a city of 40,000 so it doesn't dominate the district at all.)

Will any Republican run in MA-01 in 2022? They run in most of the more heavily Democratic California districts.