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The following feature story appeared in the campus publication Mosaic in February, 1997.
Michael Duffy
Catching the political gauntlet in midair
To say that Michael Duffy '85 enjoys challenges is an understatement. His first run for public office makes that perfectly clear. In 1990, in a district in Boston where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 10-to-1 margin, the then 27-year-old Republican newcomer challenged a four-term Democratic incumbent for the 9th Suffolk District seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. After feverishly campaigning, he garnered an impressive 44 percent of the vote, but lost the race. In the process, however, Duffy gained public recognition, the attention of Republican Governor William F. Weld, and the opportunity to leave his mark on public service in the Bay State.
Losing the 1990 election only whetted Duffy's political appetite. He hopes someday to run for Congress. In the meantime, he is facing, and surmounting, new challenges on behalf of the Massachusetts' citizenry as an appointed official. In 1990 when Governor Weld named him chairman and commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), he faced a backlog of some 6,000 employment discrimination cases, limited funds, and a dwindling staff. He turned the agency around by reducing the time required to resolve case investigations, instituting an innovative alternative dispute resolution program, and pioneering the use of undercover investigators. "Being able to get people reinstated to their jobs with back-pay and damages for distress, and then seeing their faith in government restored was tremendously satisfying," he claimed.
He has gone on to face other challenges. Following Duffy's success at MCAD, Governor Weld named him director of the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation in November of 1996. He is charged with protecting the interests of consumers and overseeing agencies that regulate insurance, utilities, racing, doctors, banks, and liquor sales. He has become a highly visible figure at the formerly low-profile agency, cautioning residents on dangers ranging from Super Bowl ticket fraud to the illegal sale of liquor to minors via the Internet.
The realm of ideas and debate
Until the Florida native came to Trinity, he remained on the sidelines of politics, he says, content to read about the latest issues in the newspaper. His vicarious participation ended when he enrolled in Political Science Professor Clyde McKee's Freshman Seminar. "Professor McKee is someone who encouraged his students to get actively involved in politics," Duffy noted. He took McKee's advice to heart. While at Trinity, he registered as a Republican and served as a research assistant in the Connecticut Legislature and the British House of Commons. "I gravitated naturally to the realm of ideas and debate," Duffy remarked. When he could not find a vehicle for his conservative political views, he started The Trinity Observer, a conservative student newspaper, with his friend and roommate, Lee Coffin '85.
Professor McKee remembers his former student as a person "who took the opportunities at Trinity very seriously. His activities on campus led him to appreciate the excitement of politics and public policy. He's doing things that are very important," McKee said.
Recipient of the G. Keith Funston Prize in Economics, Duffy graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity, earned a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1987, and served as finance director for Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays' first bid for Connecticut's Fourth Congressional District. He later worked for the Massachusetts Republican Party as communications director.
Evolving personally
Of his political career and the challenges he has taken on, Duffy readily admits, "I do identify with the underdog, with people fighting an uphill battle." He continues to face challenges, though not always of a political nature. Just as Duffy has evolved politically from a conservative to a progressive Republican, he has evolved personally, he says. Prior to running for office in 1990, he informed his parents that he was gay and ran as an openly-gay candidate. "The process of coming out is a gradual one. It happened over the years I was in college and accelerated when I was at Harvard," he said. Duffy believes that providing Trinity's students with a supportive environment is important, and in 1995 he co-founded Trinity's Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Alumni Association with Caitlin Dean '89. With support from Eugenie Devine, the College's director of alumni relations, they are working to build interest in the organization and to improve the campus climate for gay students. Duffy hopes that ultimately the group will help to recruit prospective gay students and establish a scholarship fund for them.
"Trinity contributed to making me who I am. My roots in politics go back to Trinity." he said. "I really owe the school a lot."
-- Suzanne Zack