State Sen. Stan Rosenberg poised to become 1st WMass Senate president since 1971
Shira Schoenberg | sschoenberg@repub.com Shira Schoenberg sschoenberg@repub.com
Rosenberg is a liberal progressive and strong advocate for higher education. Colleagues say he brings a collaborative style to politics.
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BOSTON - For years, Massachusetts nurses and hospitals clashed over a bill to establish safe staffing ratios. Last year, the nurses gained enough support to get a question on the November ballot, if the legislature did not act.

State Sen. Stan Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, was the Senate majority leader. "Stan got the parties in a room and hammered out a compromise that we voted on last year unanimously," recalled state Sen. Don Humason, a Westfield Republican. "I was impressed by the fact that he was able to get to the bottom of it, when it had been something the legislature hadn't been able to resolve for years."

Rosenberg is poised to become the next state Senate president. Rosenberg is a liberal progressive. Colleagues say he brings a collaborative style to politics.

Rosenberg will be the first state Senate president from Western Massachusetts since Maurice Donahue, who served from 1964 to 1971. He will be the first openly gay or Jewish president. Rosenberg grew up in foster care, then dedicated his life to politics. Rosenberg already faced personal troubles in the job, when his partner Bryon Hefner quit his job at a public relations firm after news reports indicated that Hefner bragged about his access to Rosenberg.

Rosenberg, 65, grew up with a foster family. The experience, he said, gave him appreciation for the generosity of others and the role of the state and set him on a path toward public service.

"You really are the responsibility of the state, so that means the generosity of other people basically keeps you, puts a roof over your head, puts food in your mouth, clothes on your back," Rosenberg said. "Over time, you develop appreciation and recognition of the fact it was the generosity of others that allowed you to survive and grow."

Rosenberg moved to Amherst to attend the University of Massachusetts. He started in politics in 1980 as an aide to then-state Sen. John Olver, who would later become a Congressman.

Rosenberg sees Olver as a political role model, praising him as "a workhorse not a show horse" and a visionary who developed statewide bike paths, created a program to preserve agricultural land and helped expand passenger rail in Western Massachusetts.

Rosenberg would continue in politics as executive director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and an aide to U.S. Rep. Chester Atkins, a Massachusetts Democrat. He was elected to the State House in 1986 and the state Senate in 1991. Rosenberg has served in leadership positions including chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, majority leader and president pro tempore. He lost a bid to become state Senate president in 2003. Now, he appears to have won enough support from the Democratic caucus to succeed outgoing president Therese Murray in 2015.

Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the non-profit Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus who has also lobbied for a teachers' union and a tax policy group, said since the 1980s, Rosenberg has been a "stalwart progressive." He has supported education, spending to help the poor, abortion rights and social justice. He was a leader on gay rights long before the fight for gay marriage – supporting a bill in the 1980s making it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation, opposing bills to ban gay people from adopting children, supporting bills in the 1990s on hate crimes and establishing domestic partnership rights.

"That took guts," Isaacson said. "I know a lot of legislators who were gay who voted against the gay community because they lived in such fear that voting with us would implicate their sexuality."

Rosenberg came out as gay in 2009, five years after he helped lead the fight for gay marriage.

"You get there when you get there," Rosenberg said. "Some people never do. Happily, I did....It didn't turn out to be nearly as hard as I thought it would be."

In an interview with the Boston Globe, Rosenberg credited Hefner, 27, with convincing him to be open about his sexuality.

Hefner recently quit a job at Regan Communications when the firm transferred him to Florida, after the Globe reported that Hefner had mocked Murray on Twitter and bragged about his influence in the Senate.

A Rosenberg aide instructed a reporter from The Republican/MassLive.com that Rosenberg would not answer questions about Hefner. Asked what Hefner will do next, Rosenberg said he is a "private citizen."

Rosenberg's ascension puts in a position of power a longtime advocate for the University of Massachusetts, whose flagship campus is in Rosenberg's district. Rosenberg has also supported Western Massachusetts more generally. He has pushed for money for cultural facilities, which are important to tourism in the Berkshires.

Outgoing state Sen. Gale Candaras, a Wilbraham Democrat, recalled working with Rosenberg to fight for a casino license for Western Massachusetts when the state's gambling bill was debated. He also worked to secure $10 million to redevelop the Belchertown State School.

"He's focused on making sure Western Massachusetts has strong representation in the Senate," Candaras said.

State Rep. Stephen Kulik, a Worthington Democrat, said the Western Massachusetts delegation has traditionally worked well together since it is small. (Rosenberg points out that there are more legislators who represent part of Boston than all four western counties.) "Stan's always been a terrific team player and a leader," Kulik said.

Kulik said while he knows Rosenberg will take a statewide perspective, the home territories of Senate presidents and House speakers "definitely benefit from increased attention."

Matt Fenlon, executive director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, called Rosenberg a "consensus builder" who has "a track record of listening to the members." Fenlon pointed to Rosenberg's work leading a redistricting committee after the 2010 census, when Massachusetts was losing a congressional seat but all the members of Congress planned to run again. (Olver and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank would later decide to retire.)

"When the final maps were released, they were held in high regard, and I think Sen. Rosenberg was obviously the architect of the process," Fenlon said. "Across the country, there were court cases about redistricting, but there were no issues here in Massachusetts."

Candaras said she anticipates that Rosenberg will "empower the members and committee chairs." She predicted there will be more opportunities for members to bring bills to the floor and debate them in committee or on the Senate floor. Now, these discussions often happen privately.

"He's not the kind of person who feels he has to substitute his judgment for everyone else's in the chamber," Candaras said.

Western Massachusetts Republicans say Rosenberg can work with them. Former state representative and retired District Court Judge Robert Howarth served in the legislature with Rosenberg. "We were on opposite ends of the spectrum, no question about that," Howarth said. But he said Rosenberg is respected by lawmakers, and predicted that Rosenberg will be able to work with incoming Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. "They're both amicable people," Howarth said. "They're not obnoxious. They're both gentlemen."

Humason said he knows he will disagree with Rosenberg on policy. But he does not see Rosenberg as a Democrat who will "try to blow the budget up." "We live in a budgetary reality, there's only so much money to spend," Humason said. "All of us try to think of ways to spend that limited resources wisely to get the most bang for the buck. He is regulated as much by the fiscal reality of the state as any of us are."