The incoming president of the Massachusetts Senate is already having his leadership abilities called into question.
Openly gay Democrat Stanley Rosenberg, 65, of Amherst, Massachusetts, is set to take the top seat in the Massachusetts Senate next year after serving for 24 years, and it seems that this promotion has gone to someone’s head – his 27-year-old boyfriend.
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- Stanley C Rosenberg
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- Byron Hefner
Bryon Hefner, who began dating the Senator when he was just 21 after he interned for him, has reportedly taken to social media to brag about the influence he now has thanks to his other half.
And while Hefner may be content to celebrate and gloat, this behavior is not sitting well with both Rosenberg’s friends and coworkers.
The Boston Globe reports, ‘Mocking tweets attributed to Hefner have sparked anger, as have his reported boasts about the influence he would wield when his partner takes over next month.’
The tweets are said to have come from both Hefner’s own account (@BryonHefnerMA), which is private, and another account he created, General Hooker (@24Beacon), which has not been active since June of this year.
The General Hooker account is described as a , ‘A candid & non-partisan look @ the pacesetters, game changers, & backbenchers that stalk the halls of the hub of the universe.’
There, some politicians are heralded, while others are maligned, such as Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who was made to look like Star Wars villain Darth Sidious in one tweet, and current Senate President Therese Murray, photoshopped to appear as the Wicked Witch of the West.
This despite the fact that both, like Rosenberg, are Democrats.
On his private account meanwhile, it was said that Hefner was endorsing Charlie Baker for Massachusetts Governor in the last election over Martha Coakley, despite the fact that Baker is a Republican.
Rosenberg, who was raised in foster care, put himself through college and worked behind the scenes in the Democratic party until he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1986 and later the Senate in 1991, has refused to comment directly about the tweets.
He is however said to have spoken with his coworkers and assured them he will be certain to put up a ‘firewall’ between his personal and private lives, as well as with the media.
‘Very clearly, very specifically, [Hefner’s] not involved in making any of the decisions,’ Rosenberg said.
‘All personnel decisions, all the chairmanships, are going though the normal internal processes.’
That does not matter though to some of Rosenberg’s friends, who are said to be both ‘furious’ and ‘perplexed’ that Hefner would do something like this, and possibly jeopardize a lifetime of hard work.
Others however have nothing but praise for the young whippersnapper, noting how ‘bright’ and ‘articulate’ he is, and what a great couple he and Rosenberg make.
‘He had a very troubled childhood, which he survived, and is very smart and articulate, and I don’t really understand at all what’s happened around the State House,’ said Phil Johnston, a former chairman of the state Democratic Party and founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps, which ran the residential facility in Lancaster where Hefner lived from age 11 to 14.
‘He has been a success.’
More important than all of this however may be the support that Hefner provided Rosenberg when he was diagnosed with cancer, with the young man being called ‘unflappable’ and a ‘tremendous help’ by one person close to the Senator.
Hefner, who has been a PR Account Executive at Regan Communications Group since May, has yet to speak publicly about the comments made on social media or address any of the accusations and claims being made about him.
It was while in college that Hefner met Rosenberg, taking a summer job at his office in between his sophomore and junior years Lesley University.
The two began dating a few months later when Hefner’s job was over, and, from the sounds of it, Rosenberg became the happiest he has ever been, unfazed by the 37 year age gap.
‘It was very difficult getting to this point in my life, frankly, to actually have relationships, and he actually brought me to the dance, if you will,’’ Rosenberg previously told the Globe.
‘I would not have come out if he had not come into my life. It was the greatest gift anyone has given to me.’
Rosenberg, who still appears to have all the votes necessary to be elected president, will be formally elected to his new post in January.