SENATE IN ‘UNCHARTED WATER’ WITH CHANGES
Stan stripped of stipend, ‘no guarantee’ he will retake post
The Senate is making “no guarantee” that embattled state Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg will be allowed to reclaim his leadership post even if cleared by an ethics investigation, acting Senate President Harriette Chandler said yesterday.
Rosenberg also is being stripped of the presidency’s $80,000 stipend while he’s on leave and will not work out of the president’s ornate third-floor office, Chandler told the Herald in a wide-ranging interview on her first day as acting Senate president.
Chandler said, however, that she has no desire to be a “permanent” replacement amid ongoing jockeying for the powerful perch.
Underscoring her own interim tag, Chandler said she will not take the leadership post’s extra pay and will continue to work primarily from her own office while an Ethics Committee investigation digs into Rosenberg and the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against his husband.
The Senate voted Monday night to name her as its acting leader following an intense, closed-door session that spanned more than seven hours.
“We were not ready at that point (Monday) to have a full-scale, very divisive campaign that no one expected, that no one was ready for,” Chandler said. “It would be very harmful to the work of the Senate and the Senate itself.
“I told people when I was asked that I had no interest in being the permanent president. I like the life I have. I have family. The president’s life is a rather demanding life,” she said. “But this time in the Senate’s history is so critical. We are in uncharted water for us.”
Rosenberg’s abrupt decision to take a leave from his post amid mounting pressure on Monday appeared to catch many senators off-guard. But jockeying to line up votes already had begun over the weekend in anticipation of a leadership change, with Sens. Linda Dorcena Forry, Eileen Donoghue and Sal DiDomenico all making phone calls to gauge support, the Herald reported.
Chandler acknowledged that behind-the-scenes campaigning is likely to continue, calling it “part of the democratic process.”
“There is no guarantee he will get the seat again if he were to vie for it (after the investigation),” said Chandler. But she downplayed the influence that ongoing politicking could have on the Senate’s business.
“That shouldn’t have any impact,” she said. “And it will not affect the working of the Ethics Committee, let me just tell you that. ... People are just getting their wits about them.”
DiDomenico was slated to serve on the six-member Ethics Committee but stepped down from it hours before the panel met yesterday. He cited the Herald report on him “potentially being a candidate down the road” and said he didn’t want to muddy the probe’s waters.
“This was out of an abundance of caution on my part to make sure the ethics investigation is clean and clear and devoid of any potential conflict. Nothing more, nothing less,” the Everett Democrat said, saying he wants the investigation to play out. “At that point we’ll see what’s in front of us.”
Sen. Barbara L’Italien, an Andover Democrat who first called for Rosenberg to step aside, said it’s difficult to stop the maneuvering when the “wheels have been set in motion.”
“There’s so much uncertainty,” she said of the future of Senate leadership. “I do believe there will be a parallel process of a few people looking to become the next senate president, should that opportunity arise. I don’t think there’s a way of putting that genie back in the bottle.”