College Democrat at center of attack on Alex Morse hoped to launch career through Richard Neal.

[DTomlinson]

IN THE BATTLE raging for Massachusetts 1st Congressional District, currently held by the chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee Rep. Richard Neal, political operatives are turning up in unlikely places. Last week, tensions flared after a letter, written by the Massachusetts College Democrats, informed Alex Morse, Neal’s challenger, that he was no longer welcome at their events — a letter that was promptly published by the school’s newspaper.

The 31-year-old mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, was barred for allegedly having made students feel uncomfortable by sending them messages through Instagram and matching with University of Massachusetts students on Tinder, in addition to having “sexual contact” with students at UMass Amherst, where he was previously an adjunct professor.

....


Meanwhile, an aide with the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, in which the journalism program sits, alerted the school’s administration of evidence that the recently surfaced allegations against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse “are politically motivated,” according to communication reviewed by The Intercept. Spokespersons for the administration did not respond to requests for comment.

Clare Sheedy, a rising sophomore and a Morse supporter, was active in the College Democrats chapter and knew Ennis through their joint work on behalf of the Pete Buttigieg campaign for president, with Ennis handing off the reins of the organization to Sheedy. In November 2019, when Ennis was president of the College Democrats chapter, the pair were in New Hampshire together campaigning for Buttigieg, and Ennis, she said, opened up about his respect for Neal in a car ride through New Hampshire. “He spoke very highly of Mr. Neal,” Sheedy said. “What he said to me was he wanted Neal to be his ‘in’ to politics and work his way up from there.”

Sheedy said she asked Ennis what he thought of Morse, and Ennis said Morse socialized with students in a way he found creepy, and that Morse had recently matched with a student on the Tinder dating app. Sheedy said she didn’t think of it again until last week, when she and the other members of the College Democrats were told by leadership that they had written a letter on the members’ behalf to the local college paper, which had published an article based on it.


....


When asked whether she had any knowledge of accusations against Morse prior to the release of the Massachusetts College Democrats letter, Middleton said she “definitely wasn’t aware of the letter or any issues until after it was released. They just made a statement. I thought it was odd that they never filed any complaints to UMass before this, which is what you’re supposed to do if you’re a registered student org.”

The university, in a statement, said that the letter the College Democrats made public was the first time it had been made aware of the allegations.

https://theintercept.com/2020/08/11/college-democrats-alex-morse-richard-neal/

[Budi]

1. 'The Intercept' is all one needs to know about this article.

Thanks for the spin!

[theaocp]

2. Neal needs to go.

This is dirty, but not unexpected.

[Budi]

3. A few of them need to go. Like that Buttar guy that's challenging Pelosi.

There's a few to many creepers creeping around.

Gross.

[George II]

6. Why? He's done a great job for his constituents term after term.

[JonLP24]

4. I don't know what is going on here

He hooked up with someone on Tinder? Isn't that what Tinder is for? I don't see anything about victims coming forward alleging something that isn't consensual. I won't support his campaign to be on the safe side just like I don't support candidates or politicians with accusations against them.

[cloudythescribbler]

5. that effect-as-if-guilty is all too dangerous (and pervasive in our society)

the leading advocate of net neutrality in the US Congress, Al Franken, was brought down by this sort of nonsense (tho this case is particularly dispicable), and in the multiple years since, no similar national political advocate for net neutrality has emerged. this alone has done more harm than all the 'gray-area' or worse cases of #MeToo type controversies.

Woody Allen has been severely smeared, and people not wanting to work for him, in a case that is far worse than dubious (looking at the issue more closely, including the blogs of Moses Farrow, lead to the realization that there IS a real scandal here -- about Mia Farrow not Woody Allen)

Aziz Ansari faced all kinds of grief, and many leading artists or other public figures have been brought down by accusations of supposed misbehavior that -- even if in some instances questionable -- merited only passing notice or none (other than condemnation of the scandal creators)

The Caesar's wife approach is NOT a solution -- the examples adduced here show how severe the perversity & neutron-bomb (only harming progressive political leaders) of these dynamics can be. A victory against Rep Neal would be a MAJOR advance in the politics in this area (I live in the district & have a Morse sign out front).

In addition to the material uncovered in the Intercept article, here's some discussion:
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/alex-morse-neal-massachusetts-sex-panic?fbclid=IwAR25ZXRPYQWavkpsIgmauSmvRTvGs0bARCVK0MUuahvucyQNDtWXzPpsCXQ

[George II]

7. It was more than someone and Morse even admitted that some of his students felt uncomfortable....

Morse himself released a statement Sunday saying that he never had a “non-consensual sexual encounter” or used his positions of power for “romantic or sexual gain.” In the statement, he also acknowledged that “some students felt uncomfortable with interactions they had with me.”

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/08/12/alex-morse-allegations-richard-neal-supporters