BOSTON – When Stanley Rosenberg left Beacon Hill in the spring of 2018 under less than desirable circumstances, no one could say for sure if or when the Amherst Democrat might resurface after a career spent in public service.

But Rosenberg, who once ascended the political platform in Massachusetts to become the first openly gay and Jewish president of the Senate, is back, and in a position he never imagined for himself. He's a lobbyist.

"Not me, never in a thousand years did I think that," Rosenberg laughed, speaking virtually with the State House News Service this week from his home in Amherst.

Rosenberg opened up in the latest episode of the "State House Takeout" podcast about everything from his new professional activities, to the vacancy on the Supreme Court, the state of progressive politics in Massachusetts, his legislative regrets, and why investing in transportation now is as important as it was before the pandemic.

As part of his agreement to do the interview, Rosenberg declined to discuss the circumstances of his departure from the Legislature after a more than 30-year career on Beacon Hill that came to end more than two years ago when he resigned after an investigation into the activities of his husband, Bryon Hefner, including allegations that Hefner had sexually assaulted four men.

While the Ethics Committee did not find that Rosenberg had violated any Senate rules or allowed Hefner to influence Senate business, the committee led by Sen. Michael Rodrigues, who is now the chairman of Ways and Means, recommended barring Rosenberg from any leadership positions or committee chairs for one term.

Rosenberg registered New Horizons Consulting with Secretary of State William Galvin's office on Feb. 5, starting a second chapter of his professional life that includes consulting for the Yes on 1 auto repair ballot campaign.

Among his paying clients, Rosenberg listed real estate developer and philanthropist Harold Grinspoon, for whom he lobbied for a rent-freeze bill, the legislation-tracking company InstaTrac and Red Cardinal, an integrated cannabis company that plans cultivation, manufacturing and three retail sites in central and western Massachusetts.

"I finally bit the bullet and registered with the secretary of state so I am now among the minions," Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg said he's also working pro-bono on a project with local schools and students to research energy conservation ideas and present them to the community through a fair, and to build an advanced manufacturing lab near the UMass Amherst campus that will bring together academic and business partners with private researchers to develop new processes for manufacturing.

Rosenberg said the lab has the potential to bring jobs home from overseas and use laser and 3D printing technology to build products as large as buildings, boats and planes.

"That's not a paying client yet," he said. "Someday I hope it will reach the point, but I'm doing that one out of passion. It's a way of helping UMass move to its next level out here in terms of economic development."

Rosenberg talked with the "State House Takeout" on Tuesday, just hours after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said he would support pushing ahead with the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the election.

Rosenberg said he was "disappointed" by Romney's choice, and said it reminded him of his own regrets in having supported bills to change the process for filling a U.S. Senate vacancy in Massachusetts when state Democrats first thought John Kerry might become president, and then again when Edward Kennedy died.

"I have to take my lashings for that one and I think it's a sign of hypocrisy to keep changing the rules to accommodate your political party's interest," Rosenberg said, noting that four years ago Republicans refused to consider President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court after Antonin Scalia's death.

In light of Ginsburg's death, Rosenberg said progressives on Beacon Hill are right to push now for passage of the ROE Act, which would expand and solidify abortion access in Massachusetts, and said he felt that progressive politics were alive and well on Beacon Hill.

"I think the elections are tipping in the direction of more progressives being elected," he said.

Rosenberg said House Speaker Robert DeLeo "is who he is," and called Senate President Karen Spilka a "pragmatic progressive, fiscally responsible and socially and programmatically progressive."

"She's got as big a heart as you could have as Senate president and she's as fiscally prudent as she needs to be," he said.

Rosenberg even credited Gov. Charlie Baker with signing a good deal of progressive legislation over the past six years.

"He's been a good listener," Rosenberg said of Baker. "He's not one of those people who isolates himself and if he hears a good idea he doesn't care whose good idea it is. He moves forward with it and he actually usually gives them some credit, which is nice. I've worked with governors who did the opposite. They took the great ideas. They ran with it and they asked for the crown on their head."

While Rosenberg gave the Legislature and Baker good marks for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said Beacon Hill must not lose sight of the need to invest in transportation infrastructure. He said he didn't have any insight into why the Senate didn't jump to embrace the House's transportation tax package before the pandemic.

"Transportation in this state is a mess and it's one of the two major elements that will compromise the continued growth and strength of our economy if it's not fixed. Transportation and housing have got to be addressed," he said.

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