Openly Gay 22-Year-Old Alex B. Morse Elected Mayor Of Holyoke Massachusetts

Alex B. Morse became the youngest mayor in city history Tuesday as the 22-year-old defeated Mayor Elaine A. Pluta, a political fixture here for decades. With unofficial voting results in, Morse said Pluta had conceded. "Holy mackerel!," Morse said, to cheers inside a tent outside his Northampton Street headquarters. "This is an incredible moment, not just for this campaign, but for the city of Holyoke. This has never been about me. This has never been about Alex Morse. This has been about the future of Holyoke," Morse said. The openly gay Morse, born and raised in Holyoke, Massachusetts, is the founder of Holyoke for All, the city’s first LGBT non-profit organization, and for three years was a member of the Massachusetts Governor’s LGBT Commission. He served as president of the Holyoke Youth Commission, where he brought the National Kids Vote Program to Holyoke and started a basketball league for out of school youth in partnership with the Holyoke Parks and Recreation Department and the YMCA. Pluta, 67, is in her first term after having been a city councillor for 14 years. The election of Morse, who graduated from Brown University in May, means the mayor's office will be occupied by a foe of casino gambling. Pluta was an early casino backer because she said it was the city's best shot at a multiple-job infusion. Instead, Morse said, the city should focus on its assets. He included among these the $168 high performance computing center that a partnership of colleges and high-technology firms is building on Bigelow Street at the first-level canal. Morse overcame criticism from Pluta and others that he lacked experience, both life experience, given his age, and municipal government experience, to be considered fit to run a city with a $120 million budget. Pluta was believed to have been hurt by a campaign that didn't take Morse seriously until late in the race. Morse defeated Pluta in the four-candidate preliminary election Sept. 20, by a single vote. Morse's win led Pluta to declare she was in the political fight of her life. Also, city councillors and others said Pluta was hurt by the legal problems of William P. Moran, the former acting fire chief and a Pluta supporter in her 2009 campaign, when she made history as the first female mayor. It was Morse declaring Tuesday that his campaign made history by running a positive campaign based on working to get all residents a good education, a good job and a safe neighbourhood in which to live. "We denied and rejected the politics of the past," Morse said.