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…
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).
“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…
National Parents Union and Parents Defending Education in Faux Civil War! Can Charles Koch Save Them?
A mock civil war is raging between bogus National Parents Union and sham Parents Defending Education and only one man can feign to suppress it: Charles Koch. Koch funds both National Parents Union and (almost certainly) Parents Defending Education so he has a fantasy moral obligation to pretend to step in. The latest blanks in…
New York Times Covers AG’s Race and Misses the Story
Last week as the Massachusetts Democrats gathered in convention the New York Times rolled out Inside the Audition for Democrats’ Next Crusading Attorney General projecting the race for the party’s nominee as a signal of where the national party is headed. Then the Times just went for the usual horse race stuff. Too bad because…
Will the MassDems Address the Money Corruption in Their Midst?
“It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we’ve just…
Knives Out (and the Voters Get It in the Back)
Imagine my surprise, as an amiable old retiree trying to find my misplaced orthotics while sipping Metamucil-laced protein supplement, to find myself almost mentioned in a Massachusetts Politico piece titled “Knives Out” today. I say almost because attorney general candidate Quentin Palfrey used research from my blog posts to make a point about the Walton…
The Barr Foundation-Hostetter Political Team
The Waltons Political Team of Arkansas tosses millions of dollars around to privatize Massachusetts public schools but they can’t do it alone. They need local investments and lately they’ve been getting a lot of them from the Barr Foundation and its patron, Boston billionaire Amos Hostetter. Let’s take a look. First, a little political science….