Office of Campaign and Political Finance has long followed a practice in which small “incidental” campaign finance expenses do not trigger a need to file as a political committee. Some union giving has fallen under this guidance and the practice is thus under attack from corporations, the wealthy, and the right wing dark money group…
Author: Maurice Cunningham
Professor Cunningham Ph.D., J.D., is author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization. He retired in 2021 as associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston but he continues his research into dark money in politics. His two reports on the dark money threat to public education are available on the Network for Public Education website: Merchants of Deception: Parent Props and their Funders, and “A Citizen’s Guide to the School Privatization Movement” (forthcoming). His work has been distributed through the Independent Media Institute and has appeared in The Bucks County Beacon (PA), Shepherd Express (WI), Alternet, Tampa Bay Times, The Daily Progress (VA), Idaho Education News, New Hampshire Bulletin, The Detroit Free Press, and The Portland Press-Herald (ME), and at Diane Ravitch’s Blog, dianeravitch.net.. His work on dark money in Massachusetts has earned him the 2017 Distinguished Public Service Award from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and the 2018 MTA President’s Award from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Education historian Diane Ravitch has named Professor Cunningham to her "Honor Roll" on her education blog. He can be reached at maurice.cunningham153@gmail.com.
Publications that focus upon Massachusetts Politics include two co-written chapters in the edited volume The Politics of Massachusetts Exceptionalism: Reputation Meets Reality. He has also written “Defeating ‘Death with Dignity’: Morality and Message in a Massachusetts Referendum” in American Catholic Studies (2014); “Massachusetts Politics 2012” in New England Journal of Political Science (2012); “A Christian Coalition for Catholics?: The Massachusetts Model,” Review of Religious Research (2009); and “Massachusetts Republicans: the 2004 Challenge to Democratic Legislative Hegemony,” in New England Journal of Political Science (2008).
OCPF Should Prohibit Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance From Participating in Regulatory Procedures
Below is the text of a letter I sent today to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, asking it to disqualify the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance from submitting comments or giving testimony in an upcoming regulatory hearing, based upon MassFiscal’s refusal to comply with OCPF’s directive in CPF 16-20.
Day 827. Office of Campaign and Political Finance Held Hostage by Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance
Remember Zippy Chippy, the race horse that lost one hundred consecutive races? That pretty much sums up the recent fortunes of Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. But thanks to a two year old decision of the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance unearthed by the Boston Globe’s Scot Lehigh, things are about to get…
Charlie Baker: Governor of Dark and Grey Money
Last week Channel 5 WCVB reporter Karen Andersen did a very good report on “grey money” and Governor Baker’s campaign. (Trigger warning: I’m interviewed in the piece). Between dark money and grey money, figuring out who gives to sustain Governor Baker and his pet causes may be the most difficult job in politics. “Grey money”…
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Gets into the Voter Suppression Business
Yesterday the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, the private political dark money front run by Third CD Republican candidate Rick Green, referred what it calls its Voter Integrity Initiative to Secretary of State William Galvin. MassFiscal’s initiative has nothing to do with voter integrity. It is a blatant attempt to intimidate Latino, Asian, and African-American voters, a…
Trump, Cruz, and the Shriveling Masculinity of America’s White Male Party
Last night Donald Trump visited Texas in an attempt to save a red Senate seat by campaigning for his one-time punching bag, Ted Cruz. The surreal scene underscored the plummeting testosterone levels plaguing the Republican Party, America’s shriveling symbol of white male manhood. The Trump-Cruz tolerance-by-necessity fest was well-captured in a tweet from Princeton historian…
Can Seth Klarman Save the Village by Destroying the Village?
Seth Klarman has been the largest giver from New England to Republican candidates, the largest giver to ballot committees, the largest giver to dark money fronts, and now the largest giver from New England to Democratic candidates. His largess this year is intended to save democracy from Donald Trump. It’s a noble endeavor and it’s…
Will the U.S. Attorney’s Office SPAM Massachusetts Politics?
On Saturday the Boston Globe published an article suggesting that the United States Attorney’s Office may be looking for a way to indict the just-resigned head of the State Police Association of Massachusetts for “true source” violations of state campaign finance law. Can this be true? If so, Mr. U.S. Attorney,…
What Is the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership?
When anyone asks me why I follow so-called education reform groups in Massachusetts I tell them it’s for the same reason Willie Sutton robbed banks: it’s where the money is. So while I can’t say too much about the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership (MEEP) only 24 hours after its launch,…
Rick Green Fumbles and Bumbles the Dark Money Question
Rick Green is doing something unusual. Wealthy individuals who run dark money schemes like Green’s Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance usually stay in hiding. Secrecy is the whole purpose of a dark money operation. Instead Green is running for Congress and thus having to answer questions about his furtive dark money front. It’s not going so well….