| christian grantham | |||
| Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD. | |||
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latest posts
December 11, 2004
Cheryl Jacques's firing had nothing to with the elections, nothing to do with senior staff threatening to leave and nothing to do with board members threatening to withhold money. Other than that, HRC doesn't think it's appropriate to talk about.
Blade: Sources familiar with HRC have said the board became concerned about Jacques' job performance after it learned that a significant number of high-level staff people had, or were planning to, resign because of disagreements with her. How many staff members resigned over disagreements with Jacques?Rosen: I don't know of any actually that did. Look, it didn't work out. I know people are tempted to think that people in this building should gossip some more and talk about it; … go into more detail. But Cheryl is a great person. She deserves everybody's respect. She delivered this year. and I think we just agree to disagree.
Blade: Did HRC board member and contributor Bruce Bastian of Utah threaten to withhold a contribution of more than $1 million unless the board fired Jacques and did Bastian's call for her firing play a role in the board's decision?
Rosen: No.
Blade: HRC has said that Jacques' departure had no relationship to the election results. Does that mean that she would not have stayed even if her fellow Massachusetts Democrat had been elected president?
Rosen: Oh, I don't think so. My guess is that if John Kerry were elected, she'd be in the Kerry administration by now. Remember, she was a [state] senator from Massachusetts.
Blade: Does it mean HRC sees absolutely no failures in its strategy in the 2004 election fight?
Rosen: I think there are lots of things in hindsight you wish could have been done over. The fact that Cheryl left; … she's not paying a price for a bad election result. That's the piece that, tempting as it might be to attach it, it's just not connected.
Blade: What was the nature of the "management differences" that led the board and Jacques to part ways?
Rosen: I think that people really would respect the fact that we are just not going to do that. There are all sorts of differences that can lead to wanting to part ways. It's enough.
She doesn't need the discussion. We don't need the discussion. And anything beyond that is really not relevant to where everyone is going.Blade: What is Cheryl doing now?
Rosen: I don't know.
[Jacques' departure not related to election: Rosen - Washington Blade - 12-10-04]
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