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| Mayor-elect Morse (© RD Photography 2011) |
HOLYOKE--One year ago, Alex Morse was preparing for the penultimate finals of his college career. Like many seniors, he was already looking past that last pesky semester to a career and post-college life. Like many of those students he was planning to head home and possibly find a job in the community where he grew up. Morse, however, was not going to be facing a small hiring committee at a consulting firm or office. His hiring committee would be made up of thousands of his fellow Holyoke residents.
Morse shocked Holyoke’s political establishment by upsetting incumbent mayor Elaine Pluto and setting himself up to become Massachusetts’ youngest mayor. Since his November 8 victory, Morse has received a glut of invitations, honors, and accolades and faced a “whirlwind” of events, meetings, press interviews and interviews for potential staff in preparation for the January inauguration. “I haven’t really taken a break, yet,” Morse said in an interview with WMassP&I at his campaign headquarters on Route 5 in Holyoke.
Morse is no stranger to politics local or otherwise. Ten years ago he joined the city’s Youth Commission and served as a student member of the School Committee. While in high school, he was an organizing member of a high school gay-straight alliance. While at Brown University, Morse interned in the office of then-mayor David Cicilline working on neighborhood services.
Providence also provided a template for Morse’s ambitions for Holyoke. Rhode Island’s capital city has faced industrial decline similar to Holyoke, but has managed to resuscitate its urban core in a way most New England cities have not. However, before Providence's redevelopment, that city had the benefit of being the state capital and, considering its condition at the time, a state embarrassment, which could spur state and civic leaders to action.
The strength of Morse’s bid for the mayor’s had to come as something of a surprise to the Pluta camp. Early on, Pluta mocked Morse for his age, saying to the Republican that she would debate his education plan when he “graduates from college.” Other voters simply said, “He didn’t have a chance in hell.”
Morse says his campaign began not only before graduation, but before this year. During his junior year of college, he spent a semester in the Dominican Republic, during which, in addition to becoming fluent in Spanish, he began seriously thinking about running right out of college. When he got back to the States was when he began planning in earnest. He began meeting with people to line up support and raise money. By the time he announced in January, still not quite a college graduate, it was clear that his opponents would zero in on his age.
Morse is not the first just-out-of-college graduate to seek political office. Springfield Ward 2 City Councilor Mike Fenton ran for his seat right of out college against a well-connected scion of a political family who was favored to win early on.
To Morse, his campaign, and apparently the residents of Holyoke, however, his age was not a problem. “Instead of buying into my opposition’s language” about age, the mayor-elect said he sold his youth as an asset. Morse, wearing his ever-present colorful “I love Holyoke” button said his campaign portrayed him as somebody with the energy, enthusiasm, digital savvy and new ideas that Holyoke needs to turn itself around.
A candidate declaring his love for the community which he hopes will elect him is probably a campaign tactic older than some centuries-old New England towns. However, Morse put his whole shoulder into that strategy and instead of coming off tacked on and predictable it translated into a sincerity that resonated with voters of all stripes.
Morse shocked Holyoke’s political establishment by upsetting incumbent mayor Elaine Pluto and setting himself up to become Massachusetts’ youngest mayor. Since his November 8 victory, Morse has received a glut of invitations, honors, and accolades and faced a “whirlwind” of events, meetings, press interviews and interviews for potential staff in preparation for the January inauguration. “I haven’t really taken a break, yet,” Morse said in an interview with WMassP&I at his campaign headquarters on Route 5 in Holyoke.
Morse is no stranger to politics local or otherwise. Ten years ago he joined the city’s Youth Commission and served as a student member of the School Committee. While in high school, he was an organizing member of a high school gay-straight alliance. While at Brown University, Morse interned in the office of then-mayor David Cicilline working on neighborhood services.
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| Holyoke City Hall (wikipedia) |
The strength of Morse’s bid for the mayor’s had to come as something of a surprise to the Pluta camp. Early on, Pluta mocked Morse for his age, saying to the Republican that she would debate his education plan when he “graduates from college.” Other voters simply said, “He didn’t have a chance in hell.”
Morse says his campaign began not only before graduation, but before this year. During his junior year of college, he spent a semester in the Dominican Republic, during which, in addition to becoming fluent in Spanish, he began seriously thinking about running right out of college. When he got back to the States was when he began planning in earnest. He began meeting with people to line up support and raise money. By the time he announced in January, still not quite a college graduate, it was clear that his opponents would zero in on his age.
Morse is not the first just-out-of-college graduate to seek political office. Springfield Ward 2 City Councilor Mike Fenton ran for his seat right of out college against a well-connected scion of a political family who was favored to win early on.
To Morse, his campaign, and apparently the residents of Holyoke, however, his age was not a problem. “Instead of buying into my opposition’s language” about age, the mayor-elect said he sold his youth as an asset. Morse, wearing his ever-present colorful “I love Holyoke” button said his campaign portrayed him as somebody with the energy, enthusiasm, digital savvy and new ideas that Holyoke needs to turn itself around.
A candidate declaring his love for the community which he hopes will elect him is probably a campaign tactic older than some centuries-old New England towns. However, Morse put his whole shoulder into that strategy and instead of coming off tacked on and predictable it translated into a sincerity that resonated with voters of all stripes.
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