Report: State Democrats Colluded with Student Group in Accusations Against Alex Morse

Alleged collusion between the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and UMass/Amherst students in their release of improper behavior accusations against congressional candidate Alex Morse came into deeper focus in a report by the website The Intercept.

When the allegations made by student group, the UMass/Amherst chapter of the College Democrats of Massachusetts, came under fire late last week, MDP executive director, Veronica Martinez, "told student leaders to delete records of communications between themselves and the state party, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter," writes The Intercept.

Not all of the communications between Morse and members of the student group were destroyed. The ones that remained became the basis of an Intercept story published on Friday that says "Mass Dems leadership was in communication with the College Democrats about the concerns they raised regarding Morse, including offering coaching on how to deal with the press."

Yesterday's report is based on conversations The Intercept had with two people involved with College Democrats of Massachusetts leadership and three members of the commonwealth's Democratic State Committee (all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals). The College Democrats have also been advised not to put anything additional in writing.

On August 12 The Intercept reported that the student group's accusations against Morse were months in planning with personal gain by some members of the group as the motive. When the story went viral, the "state Democratic Party declined to weigh in, citing its policy to remain neutral in contested primaries," the website wrote in their August 14 story.

"But behind the scenes, the state party had been coordinating with the College Democrats of Massachusetts to launch those very allegations, according to five sources within the state party and connected to the CDMA, a review of messages between party leadership and CDMA leadership, and call records obtained by The Intercept. The documents show that the Massachusetts Democratic Party's executive director Veronica Martinez and chair Gus Bickford connected the students with attorneys: among them was the powerful state party figure and attorney Jim Roosevelt, who worked with the college group on a letter alleging Morse behaved inappropriately."

Asked by The Intercept, "Martinez flatly denied the suggestion that she demanded records of her communications with CDMA members be destroyed, saying simply, 'That's completely false.' The instructions were delivered verbally, but call records obtained by The Intercept line up with the timing, and other statements from Martinez on the timeline and her involvement have also been proven wrong by documents reviewed by The Intercept. Multiple attempts throughout the weekend to reach Martinez for follow-up comments were unsuccessful."

This latest information comes to light as the latest poll shows the race tightening, according to a report on the website MassLive. The sample of under 400 registered voters was conducted over the weekend by Beacon Research, a Boston-based polling firm. "Of those polled, 46% chose Neal and 41% Morse. The remaining 13% were undecided," MassLive reported on Wednesday.

Asked if they "heard or read anything in the past week about an issue involving Alex Morse and a group of College Democrats at UMass Amherst?," an overwhelming majority (85%) said they had, but it largely didn't sway their votes.

"About 55% said the news didn't change their opinion, 21% said it made them more inclined support Morse while 18% said it pushed them towards Neal," MassLive wrote.