Lisa Graves and Alyssa Bowen at True North Research have a new research article at Truthout Tax Docs Link Right-Wing “Parents Group” to Leonard Leo’s Dark Money Network. It’s stunning. Stop reading this and go read Graves and Bowen right now. Ah, you’re back. The Truthout piece is a masterful use of research and logic…
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).
DFER, a Campaign Finance Bundler, Scores Op-ed in Boston Globe
A recent commentary in the Boston Globe by Mary Tamer, state director of Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts, was notable in that you don’t see a newspaper cede op-ed space to political money “bundlers” every day. Note the quotation marks. I’m not calling DFER a bundler I’m quoting DFER’s former president calling DFER a bundler….
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Brings Koch’s Circus to Town
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, the Koch-tied operation, held a press event in Boston with other New England Koch allied fronts and I always wonder what milquetoast description the media that cover MFA will hide behind. How about “fiscal watchdogs” (Boston Herald)? Or this one: “Business-minded, small government groups.” Here’s one I’ve seen often: “right-leaning.” MassFiscal is…
Yvonne Abraham Explains Why Robert Kraft and Jim Davis “would be fools to appear in their own ads”
On Sunday the Boston Globe’s Metro columnist Yvonne Abraham wrote The face of opposition to Question 1 admits proposed tax wouldn’t hurt him much: ‘I’m not struggling.’ The face of opposition was Leo Cakounes who made some standard conservative talking points about government and then Ms. Abraham got to the important point: Fair enough. But…
Management Follies: Chaos at National Parents Union
That must have been some “convening” National Parents Union held in September because by October two of NPU’s five board members had disappeared, as had four of the nine individuals on their September 17 “Our Leadership” page and all—ALL—of NPU’s “delegates.” NPU,—not national, not about parents, not a union—is routinely mismanaged, but it seems to…
The Privatization Cabal and Agenda Setting by Poll–Primary Day Edition
Really, do voters need a “tracking” poll released on Primary Day eve telling them a candidates is in the lead? Someone explain the public value to me. OK there is none—except the third poll in a series backed by school privatizers and designed to bolster the campaign of Andrea Campbell for Attorney General. While an…
“labor is the superior — greatly the superior — of capital”—Abraham Lincoln
On September 30, 1859 Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in Milwaukee in which he repeated his long held position, that “labor is the superior — greatly the superior — of capital.” Lincoln was responding to an 1858 speech by Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, the “mud sill” speech. Hammond stated that: In all…
#ParentSham2020: Ten Questions about National Parents Union’s Financials
The Koch-Walton front National Parents Union appears to be facing serious mismanagement: two boards of directors (again), two presidents, the unexplained disappearance of the co-founder/board member/secretary-treasurer as money was pouring in and leaders were not being paid, and an upcoming election of officers (not!). The organization is holding a #parentpower2020 “convening” September 2-4. Last year…
National Parents Union’s Mythical Membership: Letter to Los Angeles Times
On July 24, 2022 a story in the Los Angeles Times included this whopper: “. . . according to Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. Her organization has seen its membership rise from 185 local activist and advocacy groups to over 600 since its inception in January 2020.” The LATimes doesn’t give an…
Bidding Now Open in the Political Futures Market
The Boston Globe’s Matt Stout reported with some amazement yesterday on a new SuperPAC “that could command millions of dollars” for the sparse political investment of the office of lieutenant governor. There’s no reason for amazement if you understand things like the Lexington (KY) Selected Yearling Sale. The sale is one of several occasions when…