Harrison was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1963 to 1971, representing the 16th Essex District from 1963 to 1965[1] and the 1st Essex District from 1965 to 1971.[2]
On December 7, 1968, Harrison was unanimously elected Chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.[3] He stepped down as Chairman in May 1971 after an attempt to solve the committee's heavy debt.[4]
Following his departure from the House, Harrison worked as a lobbyist on Beacon Hill. In 1972 he was the highest paid lobbyist at the Massachusetts State House.[5]
Harrison was sworn in as a district court judge on July 27, 1988.[6] He served in the Lowell District Court[7] and later was the First Justice of the Gloucester District Court.[8]
Resignation
Harrison resigned from the bench in 2006 after the Office of Bar Counsel filed a petition for discipline against him. The petition alleged that Harrison had interfered with the Commission on Judicial Conduct's inquiry of him and that he had assisted a Commission member and another judge in violating the laws protecting the confidentiality of the Commission's proceedings.[9]
In 1999, the Commission on Judicial Conduct investigated Harrison's conduct during a zoning board hearing in Gloucester, Massachusetts. During the investigation, Harrison discussed the Commission's investigation of him with Commission member Gerald Cook and he received and read a copy of the Commission's confidential memorandum.[9]
On February 13, 2006, the Board of Bar Overseers voted to recommend that Harrison's resignation be accepted as a disciplinary sanction. On March 1, 2006, the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County entered judgment accepting the respondent's affidavit of resignation as a disciplinary sanction.[9] A month later, the Supreme Judicial Court ordered that Harrison's name be "stricken from the Roll of Attorneys".[8]
