Summer 2011 - University of Massachusetts Lowell

C O V E R S T O R Y
Brian Dempsey ’99:
Smart, Savvy Leader for Challenging Times
BY DAVE PERRY
New Chair of State Ways and Means Committee Looks Back at His College Days
Brian Dempsey is knee-deep in the muck of a
contentious state budget. And yet, well before
8 a.m., one of the state’s most powerful men is
smiling and welcoming. He is the first arrival
in his Haverhill insurance office.
The previous night, he was a TV-news fixture, announcing
a controversial plan to curb municipal benefit
costs. These are tough times, the fourth straight year of
significant budget cuts in a slug’s paced state recovery.
This year, of course, there is $1.5 billion less in federal
funding to help fill the gap.
Colleagues and observers say Dempsey, 44, is a perfect
choice to handle budget debate. He’s a cool customer, a
good listener and a smart politician, able to forge alliances
but tough and determined enough to do what he believes.
It was in University of Lowell classrooms that he found
many of the skills he would later hone for larger stakes.
But some skills aren’t learned.
“He’s one of the great talents in predicting the enormity
of an issue,” says House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano
(Quincy). “That’s something you can only learn from experience
and being extremely, extremely smart.
“Brian has a great political mind,” says Mariano. “He
understands the issues, and sees very clearly the pitfalls
of something. Very savvy guy. He knows what’s going
to be an issue long before it is one. This is an extremely
talented guy whose talent is being recognized now.”
As Chairman of the powerful Massachusetts House
Ways and Means Committee, Dempsey’s Beacon Hill
office has the door through which all state budget items
pass. There are times, of course, when he would rather
be at a Red Sox game, or with his family. Morning
workouts at a Haverhill gym get the blood flowing.
But otherwise, there hasn’t been a whole lot of free time
of late.
FOCUSED ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES —
AND HIS ROOTS
Dempsey was an early supporter of funding for the sort
of new technologies such as nanotechnology, which
UMass Lowell has embraced as a cornerstone of its future
programs. In 2003, as chair of the House Science
and Technology Committee, he hosted a session at
the University where UMass Lowell researchers briefed
the committee.
“I see the value of these things also as economic development
proposals. I like that Massachusetts is using
its strengths. And UMass Lowell, especially under Marty
Meehan, has done an outstanding job of capitalizing on
its assets and leveraging greater opportunities. They’ve
been well-positioned.”
He said science and technology are “where we thought
Massachusetts could grow, and the job growth numbers
were showing that was where the growth was.”
As chair of the Economic Development and Emerging
Technologies Committee, he returned to Lowell’s campus
in 2010 to discuss casino gaming. He is perhaps best
known for authoring last year’s bill to legalize casino
gaming in Massachusetts.
“We spent a year and a half getting that bill together,
making sure we did it right,” says Dempsey. “It was a
strong bill that took a lot of things into consideration. In
the end, the Governor vetoed it. I’m optimistic something
will make it out this year on that.”
But he’s also remained faithful to the promise he made
when he entered statewide politics – “to make sure
Haverhill gets its fair share.”
Jeanine Murphy, executive director of Emmaus Inc.,
the organization that battles homelessness and provides
shelter in Haverhill, says Dempsey has “never forgotten
his roots. We feel like we really have a voice.” (Murphy
is also a University of Lowell alumna, having earned a
criminal justice degree in 1981.)
“He’s always wanted what’s best for the city, and he
continues to embody that,” says former Haverhill City
Councilor Michael McGonagle. “When it comes to doing
the best for Haverhill, he’s always there.”
ULOWELL AS POLITICAL SCIENCE LABORATORY
Dempsey was always busy. Even in his first year at the
then University of Lowell in September 1985, he was
driven. He had left college after a year at Norwich University,
the Vermont military college, unable to afford
another semester of its hefty price tag.
Lowell had been the 1984 Haverhill High School
graduate’s other college choice, but when a
seat on Haverhill’s School Committee opened up, the
University became a perfect political science laboratory,
a classroom full of theories he could test hours later on
the campaign trail.
He was 18, the son of Helen, a nurse at Hale Hospital,
and James, the guy known for driving Haverhill’s Bookmobile.
(His parents, both 82, still live in the city.)
Continued
“HE’S ONE OF
THE GREAT
TALENTS IN
PREDICTING
THE ENORMITY
OF AN ISSUE.
THAT’S
SOMETHING
YOU CAN ONLY
LEARN FROM
EXPERIENCE
AND BEING
EXTREMELY,
EXTREMELY
SMART.”
— House Majority Leader
Ronald Mariano
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