➤ ALEX MORSE LOSES, from p.XX
2014 through 2019, to meet male
students for sex, according to reporting
by The Intercept, an online
news outlet. CDMA members unsuccessfully
pitched their fabrication
to reporters for months. They
were assisted by the Massachusetts
State Democratic Party.
On August 7, CDMA sent a letter,
approved by its executive board,
describing those false allegations to
Morse, disinviting him from future
CDMA meetings, and the letter was
leaked to the Massachusetts Daily
Collegian, the student newspaper
at UMass Amherst. In a statement
to the newspaper, Morse freely said
that he had enjoyed consensual
sex with other adult men, some
of whom were students he met on
the social media app Tinder, and
he apologized if he had made any
CDMA members uncomfortable.
Sex between same-sex partners
is legal in Massachusetts and
across the country. UMass policy
allows faculty to have sex with students
who they are not grading,
teaching, or supervising. Using social
media apps to meet other men
for sex is a common and legal activity
enjoyed by many gay men.
While a report that a gay man
is a sexual predator — effectively
what the members of the CDMA
were alleging — would typically
end a political campaign and perhaps
even a career in politics, The
Intercept published a series of stories
beginning on August 12 that
showed that the allegations were
fake and that the students had
been assisted by Veronica Martinez,
the executive director of the
State Democratic Party, Gus Bickford,
the party chair, and attorney
Jim Roosevelt, the grandson of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
whom The Intercept described as a
“powerful state party fi gure.”
Neal, who did not mention the
anti-gay smear campaign in his
victory speech, continued to treat
the allegations as if they were credible,
saying in an August 17 debate
with Morse, “These students have
stepped forward, they should be
heard.”
In fact, no student ever did step
forward to be heard.
Neal has denied any involvement
in the anti-gay smear campaign.
In the fi nal days of the campaign,
the American Working Families
PAC ran a TV ad that used Morse’s
dating profi le and said he “admits
to sexual relationships with college
students.” The PAC, which spent
more than $1 million to support
Neal, defended the ad saying it was
truthful while also asserting that
the wrong version of the ad was inadvertently
aired.
The Victory Fund reported on
August 17 that voters in the district
had received “phone calls from interviewers
conducting a push poll,
where recipients were asked if they
would still support Morse if he had
sent sexually explicit emails to
college-aged students.” The group
said it was unable to learn who
“paid for the bogus push poll.”
While Morse’s insurgent campaign
taking on a powerful Democrat
who chairs the House Ways
and Means Committee was a longshot,
The Intercept’s exposure that
this decades-old, anti-gay slander
was fabricated gave his campaign
a boost in fundraising and volunteers,
but the original lies appear
to have set him back among voters.
During his concession speech,
Morse congratulated Neal on his
win. He also noted that the anti-gay
smear campaign was a measure of
the Democratic Party’s defense of
the status quo and incumbents.
“You don’t run against power,
you don’t run against incumbents,
you don’t run against other Democrats,”
Morse said describing the
party’s position. “You keep your
head down and wait your turn.”
In a statement, the Victory Fund
commended Morse for battling the
smear during the campaign.
“The efforts to sensationalize
and weaponize Alex’s sexual orientation
certainly infl uenced the outcome
of this race, but the backlash
it engendered should give pause to
those considering similar tactics
in the future,” said Annise Parker,
the group’s president and CEO
and a former three-term mayor
of Houston. “We are grateful Alex
stayed in the race and took the
body blows necessary to expose
the double standards too often
placed on LGBTQ candidates. His
campaign contributed to a larger
conversation about how candidates
of color, women candidates,
and LGBTQ candidates face a level
of scrutiny and sensationalism
that straight white cisgender men
simply do not.”
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