Mar 11, 2005  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

The Human Rights Campaign announced Wednesday that Joe Solmonese, the gay chief executive officer of the influential woman’s electoral advocacy group Emily’s List, has been selected as HRC’s new president.

The decision to select Solmonese, 40, ends a three-month search to replace Cheryl Jacques, who resigned as HRC president in December after holding the position for less than a year.

Solmonese, a native of Attleboro, Mass., is considered a seasoned political strategist with more than 10 years of experience in election campaigns and political fund-raising.

Vic Basile, an HRC board member and co-chair of a search committee that recommended Solmonese’s appointment, said the HRC board and the board of the group’s educational arm, the HRC Foundation, each voted unanimously by fax on Tuesday to approve the appointment.

Basile declined to name any other candidates considered for the HRC president’s post, saying only that the search committee conducted a “full and thorough” search for qualified candidates.

He said Solmonese would begin April 11 with a salary of $225,000, a figure that Basile called “the standard in the industry” for the kind of legislative and political campaign work that comes with the job.

“We’re really excited and consider ourselves fortunate to have someone of this caliber to lead HRC,” Basile said.

Solmonese is credited with carrying out the mission started in 1985 by Emily’s List founder Ellen Malcolm in helping to elect pro-choice Democratic women to public office on the local, state and national levels. Since assuming the Emily’s List CEO post in 2003, Solmonese headed a staff of 85 and oversaw a $40 million budget.

HRC has a staff of 125 and a budget of $30 million, HRC spokesperson Steve Fisher said.

Officials at HRC attributed Jacques’ abrupt resignation in December to differences with the board over her “management philosophy.” Although HRC declined to publicly disclose the nature of those differences, HRC sources said that Jacques, a former Massachusetts state senator, lacked management experience and remained distant and “disengaged” from the staff.

Jacques declined to comment on these reports, saying she interpreted her severance agreement with the board to require that she keep all details of her management differences with the board confidential. Some of her supporters in Massachusetts, including Boston gay activist Vin McCarthy, have said they believe the board pushed Jacques out over political differences. According to Jacques’ allies, the differences were over same-sex marriage, with Jacques reportedly pushing harder on the marriage issue at a time when the board wanted to back down on that issue.

HRC Communications Director Steven Fisher has disputed that assertion, saying Jacques’ departure had nothing to do with policy matters.

Quick rise to top
Basile called Solmonese a “proven manager,” saying his record as a leader at Emily’s List has drawn praise from those who have worked under him.

Solmonese joined the Emily’s List staff in 1993 as the group’s deputy political director. He moved up to the post of chief of staff in 1998 before becoming CEO in 2003 when Malcolm took on the role as head of the pro-Democratic Party political advocacy group America Coming Together.

Prior to joining Emily’s List, Solmonese worked in fund-raising related posts on the campaigns of Democratic candidates for public office, including gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in 1990 and Rep. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.) in 1992. He began his political career as an aide to Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis shortly after graduating in 1987 from Boston University with a degree in communications.

Solmonese has also had ties to HRC. He has been a member of the group’s Federal Club, which consists of financial contributors and he has also served as an instructor in HRC’s youth training program in the area of election campaigns.

As a longstanding advocate for the election of pro-choice Democrats, the selection of Solmonese as HRC’s new leader further cement’s HRC’s links to the Democratic Party at a time when Congress and the White House are controlled by Republicans.

“His background presents challenges for HRC concerning Republicans,” said veteran gay Republican activist Carl Schmid.

“But it’s reflective of the organization and the board and who they represent,” Schmid said. “He will have to reach out to Republicans.”

HRC endorsed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over President Bush in the 2004 election and purchased radio and television ads attacking Bush for supporting a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

HRC, the nation’s largest gay political group, bills itself as a bipartisan organization that endorses candidates supportive of gay rights, both Republicans and Democrats. HRC officials have said the group endorses more Democrats because Democrats tend to be more supportive than Republicans ...