CLT
UPDATE
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Gov, reform candidates
have Globe,
Dems running scared
We remain bewildered by Gov. Mitt Romney's ceaseless crusade to lower the Massachusetts state income tax. Specifically, the governor is calling for a reduction in the rate from the current 5.3 percent to 5 percent, which could cost the state as much as $500 million annually....
WCVB TV-5 editorial
September 17, 2004
Opposing Gov. Romney's Proposed State Income Tax Cut
We are bewildered by WCVB’s editorial opposition to the income tax rollback that was mandated by Massachusetts voters almost four years ago....
Editorial Response
to WCVB TV-5 editorial
By Barbara Anderson
Drawing on his connections in the financial world, Governor Mitt Romney is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Massachusetts corporate leaders, and using the donations to funnel resources and cash to Republican legislative candidates and his campaign to unseat Democrats on Beacon Hill....
Tim O'Brien, the GOP's executive director, said the Romney-recruited candidates are "complete underdogs" and will be outspent by as much as 3-to-1 by the Democratic incumbents they are challenging. He also scoffed that the Republicans are pandering to special interests, noting that the war chest of Democratic lawmakers are filled with donations from lobbyists and special-interests groups.
"These are the same rules that the Democratic Party is playing with," O'Brien said. "If there is anything unbalanced and unfair, it is the laws that Democratic legislators have written to protect themselves."
The Boston Globe
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Romney uses business links to swell GOP coffers
Critics say loophole lets donations flow
State Democratic Party leaders today denounced the amount business leaders have donated to GOP legislative candidates campaigning to unseat Democrats in this fall's election, and called on the candidates to return the money.
Speaking to the press outside the State House today, Democratic Party Chairman Phil Johnston said the Republican Party is "circumventing" state and federal campaign finance laws that limit how much individuals can donate to candidates by "bundling contributions" from employees of the same companies.
Johnston said GOP Gov. Mitt Romney is using his experience in the private sector as CEO and founder of venture capital firm Bain Capital to influence his former corporate colleagues into helping the GOP reform platform.
"This is tainted money," Johnston said. "We think it is very important for the public to understand who is funding this campaign."
State House News Service
Monday, September 20, 2004
Dem chief raps Romney on fundraising,
governor cites their "whining"
Governor Mitt Romney responded yesterday to Democratic attacks on his unprecedented campaign fund-raising from corporate executives, accusing his critics of whining and asserting that the Republican money effort is legal.
Romney said that both Democrats and Republicans aggressively seek contributions from business leaders, but he also suggested that Democratic leaders are jealous of his success in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from well-heeled executives in the state's financial, venture capital, and medical industries.
"This is no time for whining," Romney said....
Republicans accused Johnston of hypocrisy, asserting that Democrats take donations from labor unions, political action committees, and Beacon Hill lobbyists, all of whom depend on their decisions and actions on Beacon Hill. On Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry headlined a Boston Convention Center fund-raiser that garnered $2.5 million for the Democratic National Committee. Those donations have not been reported yet.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Romney answers criticism
Says fund-raising for GOP is legal
The top budget writer in the Massachusetts House of Representatives yesterday blasted Gov. W. Mitt Romney's veto of retroactive pay raises for higher education employees and pledged to restore the money.
"It's sheer politics and it's extremely unfair to the 13,000 (higher education) workers doing business here," state Rep. John H. Rogers, D-Norwood, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee ...
Rogers was in town [Springfield] yesterday for a press conference in which he and other state legislators presented Mayor Charles V. Ryan with two ceremonial checks for $4.2 million in additional local aid and $450,000 to hire eight community police officers.
Rogers was joined by state Reps. Benjamin Swan, D-Springfield, Cheryl A. Rivera, D-Springfield, and Gale D.
Candaras, D-Wilbraham....
In refusing to pay for the retroactive pay increases, Romney cited the Legislature's decision to keep the state income tax at 5.3 percent. When Romney filed his version of the mini-budget in early June, he asked the Legislature to reduce the income tax to 5 percent to comply with a referendum passed by voters in 2000.
Voters approved a phased reduction of the income tax to 5 percent, down from a then 5.85 percent. During the state's fiscal crisis in 2002, the largely Democratic legislators voted to freeze the income tax at 5.3 percent to save money and services.
Romney said previously the Democrats' refusal to go along with the proposed income tax cut would be used by Republicans to loosen their grip on the Legislature in the Nov. 2 general election.
Rogers said voters will see through Romney's political posturing.
"He is speaking out both sides of the mouth and he's hoping the people of Massachusetts, particularly Western Massachusetts, won't notice," Rogers said....
Romney said he opposed approval of retroactive pay raises, particularly when Massachusetts residents are not receiving the tax cut they approved in 2000....
Rogers said the governor's attempts to link the tax rollback and retroactive pay increases was illogical and unsound.
Rogers said a tax rollback would amount to a $500 million reduction in revenues.
Rogers said despite a $700 million surplus reported at the end of the fiscal year June 30, the state has an $800 million structural deficit gap between steady revenue and recurring expenses.
The Springfield Republican
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Romney veto of raises 'unfair'
The state's Democratic Party chairman yesterday challenged Governor Mitt Romney and other Republicans to limit party spending on legislative races to $210,000 between now and Election Day -- a suggestion the GOP immediately dismissed as an attempt to "change the rules in the middle of the game." ...
"The spending has gotten completely out of control," [Democratic Party chairman Philip] Johnston said. "These are obscene amounts of money, and we need to put limits on them."
But Republicans contended that their legislative candidates, most of whom are challengers trying to unseat well-funded Democrats, will be outspent by a large margin in this election. Because incumbents collect more cash from lobbyists and special interests with business before the Legislature, Republicans say, their GOP challengers are more reliant on party dollars to level the playing field.
"The incumbents on Beacon Hill have spent months lining their pockets with the money from special interests and lobbyists," said Tim O'Brien, executive director of the state Republican Party. "Now that they've stacked the deck they want to change the rules in the middle of the game."
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
State Democrats challenge GOP to limit spending
Republicans reject cap for 2004 races
There's a "be careful what you wish for" aspect to the recent exploits of Gov. Mitt Romney. Mocked for his many absences from the state, he has returned with a vengeance, vowing to go all-out to defeat Democratic state reps and senators in November. Democrats, understandably, are cringing. Maybe he should have stayed away.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Romney's baaack, and with vengeance
By Thomas Keane Jr.
It's a trend that has taken hold in races for US Senate and governor's offices around the country: wealthy candidates writing a substantial check to finance their campaigns.
Now, several Republican candidates for the Massachusetts Legislature are reaching into their own pockets to pay for their campaign, following the lead of Governor Mitt Romney, who spent millions of his own money to finance his successful 2002 race....
Republicans say it is the only way they can effectively challenge Democrats who have used their legislative positions to amass huge war chests. Advocates of tougher campaign finance laws say the GOP candidates' use of their own funds represents a troublesome trend, making it more difficult for citizens of average means to run for the Legislature....
Another GOP Senate candidate -- Tim Duncan, a lawyer who moved his residence recently from Cambridge to Falmouth to challenge the Senate Ways and Means chairwoman, Therese Murray -- has given $70,000 to jump-start his candidacy since late 2003. Murray has raised $221,000 this year, according to reports filed earlier this month.
Duncan argued that his contribution is dwarfed by the special-interest donations that have flowed to Murray. "She is the poster child for special interests in the state," Duncan contended. "She has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from those who expect to get something back from the state. It is appalling and shocking and undermines the system."
The Boston Globe
Thursday, September 23, 2004
GOP candidates give selves a boost
Financing much of their own races
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Oh boy, have Governor Romney, the state Republican
Party, and a host of reform candidates got the Democrat Party machine's
gears in overdrive! All week the Boston Globe has been running reports
on how much money these rooky challengers of business-as-usual on Beacon
Hill have been raising -- it's so unfair that Democrat Party Chairman
Phil Johnston has now called for "spending limits"!
When's the last time you saw a Massachusetts Democrat
limit his or her own spending?
On the same day that call went out, House Ways and
Means Chairman John Rogers (of our full-time Legislature) traveled to
Springfield to loudly present "two ceremonial checks for $4.2 million in additional local aid and $450,000 to hire eight community police
officers," accompanied by state Reps. Benjamin Swan, Cheryl Rivera,
and Gale Candaras -- all Democrats. All this bounty they delivered to
Springfield of course came from us.
Oh, and did you notice that Chairman Rogers
conveniently brought up the so-called Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation's usual dodge for avoiding tax cuts, the "structural
deficit"? At the same time he was handing out more pork after
blowing the $700 surplus with nothing going toward MTF's
concern! Again, MTF has served its purpose, providing its usual
cover of quasi-legitimacy.
But that's quite alright, no conflict there. Nope,
not a campaign contribution, just bringing home the bacon ... with a
full-court press.
My goodness, the Globe's shorts are in a knot over
how much the governor and the state Republican Party is raising ... from
the private sector, business interests you know. Goodness gracious, why
don't they do it the old-fashioned way, tap the deep pockets of unions
and special interests with their hands reaching for our pockets? Oh
right, the Democrats have already maxed them out and after hitting
them up year after year since they last won election.
Time to call for "spending limits"!
And when that doesn't work, attack candidates who
believe so much in what they're doing that they're putting their own
money into their reform crusades.
Just because they can't go to Springfield or Plymouth
and present the municipality with a big check the taxpayers wrote
doesn't give them the right to put their money into their own campaign.
I mean, we now need "spending limits"!
This is getting to be so much fun to watch.
Can you smell their panic?
Barbara and I caught the WCVB TV-5 editorial on
Sunday morning. An alert member caught it as well and let us know.
Monday morning Barbara called and arranged to present a rebuttal, faxed
it over immediately. Today she taped it at the Needham station. It will
be broadcast on Saturday during WCVB's Eyeopener news broadcast and
again on Monday on Eye at Noon.
Never let them go unchallenged! CLT is ever-vigilant!
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|
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Chip
Ford |
WCVB TV-5 editorial
Sept. 17, 2004
Opposing Gov. Romney's Proposed State Income Tax Cut
Paul La Camera, President And General Manager
We remain bewildered by Gov. Mitt Romney's ceaseless crusade to lower the Massachusetts state income tax. Specifically, the governor is calling for a reduction in the rate from the current 5.3 percent to 5 percent, which could cost the state as much as $500 million annually.
Now the governor is correct that Massachusetts voters endorsed a ballot question in the year 2000 that provided for such a reduction. However, lest we forget, 2000 was a very different time. The dot-com boom had not imploded as yet, and we all believed that trees, particularly Massachusetts trees, would grow to the sky. And, if you also recall, we soon experienced a rude awakening in the form of a major-league economic recession.
Now, times are presumably better with the economy rebounding, however tentatively. State revenues are up, but there are any number of critical needs where this money should be directed, beginning with rebuilding a rainy day fund for the next revenue setback.
Massachusetts Senate President Robert Travaglini and House Speaker Thomas Finneran have shown much better judgment not only in staving off the governor, but also in working towards a constitutional amendment that would institutionalize a state reserve fund for future difficult times.
We learned from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation just last week that our state's residents already pay among the lowest state and local taxes in the nation as a function of our income. This is not the time for a state tax cut. It is the time to get this state back on a firm economic footing and to make provisions for what remains an uncertain economic future for Massachusetts.
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Editorial Response
to Paul La Camera, President And General Manager , on September 19
From Barbara Anderson
Executive Director, Citizens for Limited Taxation
submitted September 20th
To be broadcast on "Eyeopener," Sat.,
September 25 and
"Eye at Noon," Monday, September 27
We are bewildered by WCVB’s editorial opposition to the income tax rollback that was mandated by Massachusetts voters almost four years ago.
Our income tax rate has traditionally been 5 percent. It was raised “temporarily” in 1989 during a fiscal crisis. Over the next decade, even with record state surpluses, the Legislature refused to keep its promise that the tax hike would be temporary. So in November 2000 the voters themselves ordered the rate phased down to 5 percent; but the Legislature froze that rollback.
Governor Romney’s desire to defrost it reflects not only respect for the voters but an attempt to avoid another round of fiscal irresponsibility. The state has a surplus and legislators are piling pork into supplemental budgets; soon they will have spent the state into another fiscal crisis.
Massachusetts per capita tax burden is fourth highest in the nation. Our national reputation for political hijinks and fiscal foolishness also ranks at the top.
Governor Romney’s crusade is about the three R’s: Reform, respect for the voters, and the replacement of some disrespectful incumbents in November.
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The Boston Globe
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Romney uses business links to swell GOP coffers
Critics say loophole lets donations flow
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
Drawing on his connections in the financial world, Governor Mitt Romney is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Massachusetts corporate leaders, and using the donations to funnel resources and cash to Republican legislative candidates and his campaign to unseat Democrats on Beacon Hill.
In doing so, Romney and his GOP operatives are sidestepping the cap that limits an individual donation to a candidate to $500 a year and are using what advocates of campaign-finance change say are seriously flawed loopholes in the state and federal laws to allow individuals to donate a total of $15,000 to two committees run by the state Republican Party.
The result, according to campaign-finance reports, is that Romney, a former venture capitalist, is able to use his wide network of business contacts to tap corporate executives to finance what he is billing as a "reform" campaign to elect Republicans to the Legislature this fall.
"These are major loopholes that essentially make a mockery of the contribution limits we have for the rest of us," said Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause of Massachusetts.
"It is a way to pass corporate money through the party apparatus and direct it to individual state legislative campaign coffers," added Galen Nelson, research director at the Massachusetts Money and Politics Project. "When a donor makes a $500 contribution, you can't allege that there is some access and influence buying. But when a donor makes a $10,000 contribution, their employers can't go unnoticed by the party. It will make the party all the more indebted to the special interest."
Executives at Fidelity Investments, which often lobbies lawmakers and governors over tax issues and investment regulations, have donated $203,000 to the Republican's state and federal accounts since January 2003, according to a Globe analysis of the two Republican Party accounts. Officials from Bain Capital, which Romney founded in 1984 and where he served as CEO for 17 years, have given $92,000.
Venture capitalists and financial interests were particularly generous. Of the $2.7 million donated to the federal campaign account run by the Massachusetts Republican Party since January 2003, nearly $500,000 came from venture capitalists, $338,000 came from financial interests including investors and investment houses, and more than $90,000 came from medical interests, including doctors and dentists.
Many of the donors gave the maximum allowed by state and federal law. The party's federal account received 99 donations of $10,000 each, the maximum allowed, and another 103 donations of $5,000. A separate state GOP war chest collected 100 donations of $5,000, the maximum allowable for that account, the Globe found.
The money is going to rebuild what GOP strategists call a long-dormant Republican Party, as Romney seeks to cut into the Democrats' overwhelming majority in the House and Senate. The state Republican Party has distributed over $1 million in the last few months to some 92 candidates recruited by the governor to run against incumbent Democratic legislators or for open seats. The party is helping to fund mailings and advertising, and also deliver unlimited in-kind donations such as computerized voting lists.
Tim O'Brien, the GOP's executive director, said the Romney-recruited candidates are "complete underdogs" and will be outspent by as much as 3-to-1 by the Democratic incumbents they are challenging. He also scoffed that the Republicans are pandering to special interests, noting that the war chest of Democratic lawmakers are filled with donations from lobbyists and special-interests groups.
"These are the same rules that the Democratic Party is playing with," O'Brien said. "If there is anything unbalanced and unfair, it is the laws that Democratic legislators have written to protect themselves."
Indeed, the flow of corporate money to both parties has been heavy in recent years. House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran won a referendum he put on the state ballot to prevent the funding of Clean Elections, after raising $616,000 in several weeks. He used the funds to air a barrage of campaign ads; currently, he has more than $500,000 in his campaign account.
Fidelity and other major corporations also made substantial contributions to the Democratic Party convention in July. Others paid $100,000 or more each to sponsor a special benefit for US Senator Edward M. Kennedy during the convention.
Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's communications director, declined to comment.
Romney has carefully crafted an image as a clean government figure who denounces the Democrats' legislative leaders for taking special-interest money and thwarting his efforts for reform and to "clean up the mess" at the State House. Wilmot and other advocates say Romney has taken fund-raising to a new level, when compared with previous Bay State governors of either party.
The advocates argue that Romney and the GOP are breaking down the legal barriers that bar corporate money from being used in state political campaigns.
Romney's ability to draw among his peers in the corporate world was evident from the donations from executives at the Waters Corp. in Milford, who contributed a total of $85,000. The company makes instruments for scientific laboratories, and its executives met Romney when Bain, Romney's old company, helped finance Waters's spin-off from Millipore in 1994.
"That is when I learned about Mitt Romney, about his capabilities and business practices," said Douglas A.
Berthiaume, Waters's president, chairman, and chief executive officer. He said Romney came to his company headquarters in June for a fund-raising event that he had arranged for his executives.
Berthiaume disputed critics' assertions that Waters's donations were a form of corporate funding of campaigns. He said the fund-raising event was low-key, aimed at allowing his colleagues who felt ideologically in tune with the GOP/Romney agenda to donate.
"I don't think it is corporate money," Berthiaume said in an interview last week. "Speaking for myself and my associates, it is all individual money. People are digging deep into their own pocket. There is no mysterious ways of reimbursing, no aggressive arm twisting. People are giving by their own volition. I know of a number of people who attended the event and did not write checks to the Republican Party and to Mitt Romney. Some felt they are good Democrats."
Romney's fund-raising game plan is evident from the records filed with the Federal Election Commission in Washington and with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance on Beacon Hill. The records also show that some company executives, in apparently coordinated donations, gave the maximum to each of the committees, often at roughly the same time of the year.
In late May and early June of this year, for example, Fidelity executives donated a total of $35,000 to the federal Republican account. Fidelity employees gave another $55,000 to the federal Republican account in mid-September of 2003, the records show.
"The number of people who make those high-level donations is pretty much limited to a tiny percentage of our population, who have unlimited personal wealth, who are invested in politics for business and are expected to do so," Wilmot said. "The list is huge as to the kind of decisions the governor makes day in and day out that affect the business of donors."
Fidelity executives also supported some Democrats in this election cycle, the records show. Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, a Democrat who is considering a run against Romney in 2006, received about $9,000, for example.
Over the years, Fidelity has sought tax relief from Beacon Hill, including playing a role in getting Democratic lawmakers in 1996 to extend to all mutual firms a tax break for adding jobs in the state.
Vincent G. Loporchio, Fidelity spokesman, said the company and its executives are bipartisan in their political donations, noting the firm had given $1 million to help finance the Democratic Party's convention in July. He also sharply disputed any assertion that Fidelity is looking for access through its fund-raising activities.
"We are one of the largest employers in Massachusetts, so we have the ability to meet with the state's public officials," he said. "Fidelity has long encouraged our employees to participate in civic affairs.... We are bipartisan."
Globe correspondents Emma Stickgold and Bill Dedman contributed to this report.
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State House News Service
Monday, September 20, 2004
Dem chief raps Romney on fundraising,
governor cites their "whining"
By Amy Lambiaso
State Democratic Party leaders today denounced the amount business leaders have donated to GOP legislative candidates campaigning to unseat Democrats in this fall's election, and called on the candidates to return the money.
Speaking to the press outside the State House today, Democratic Party Chairman Phil Johnston said the Republican Party is "circumventing" state and federal campaign finance laws that limit how much individuals can donate to candidates by "bundling contributions" from employees of the same companies.
Johnston said GOP Gov. Mitt Romney is using his experience in the private sector as CEO and founder of venture capital firm Bain Capital to influence his former corporate colleagues into helping the GOP reform platform.
"This is tainted money," Johnston said. "We think it is very important for the public to understand who is funding this campaign."
Romney quickly defended his actions. He said the GOP is "doing our job" to raise money for candidates.
"We both play by the same rules," Romney said this morning at an unrelated press conference. "It's no time for whining. It's time for going to work."
Johnston says Romney is soliciting funds from corporations, who in turn will seek to have more influence on lawmakers. Romney "talks about reform when he's really talking about allowing the corporations in this state to own the Massachusetts Legislature," Johnston said.
The charge comes one day after The Boston Globe reported that employees at Bain and Fidelity Investments have contributed nearly $500,000 to the Republican Party's federal campaign account that has accumulated $2.7 million since January 2003.
Under federal campaign guidelines, individuals cannot donate more than $10,000 per year to a state party. State law limits individuals from donating more than $500 to a candidate and $5,000 to a state party.
Political watchdog groups say a loophole exists in the campaign finance laws that allow state parties to contribute unlimited amounts to individual candidates. Pamela Wilmot, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause Massachusetts, pushed today for changes in the law that would close the loophole and allow for "no strings attached" public money to be donated to candidates.
But Romney today defended the law and said the fundraising is part of the party's overall effort to encourage a more balanced, two-party system in the state Legislature. Romney is heading the charge for the largest field of Republican candidates this fall since 1990, with 134 candidates running for 200 legislative seats.
Wilmot agreed that neither party is breaking the law, but said the rules need to be changed.
"It is often said that he who has the gold makes the rules," Wilmot said. "We have a political system that skews the public policy debate in favor of wealthy donors. Sometimes that's good in just setting the table, but there are often lots of things excluded from that table."
Republicans have long questioned public employee union group's contributions to Democratic candidates, with Romney last year questioning the propriety of automatic state employee payroll deductions to finance union political action committees (PAC).
In a recent article in Commonwealth magazine, Administration and Finance Secretary Eric Kriss argues that Massachusetts has created a "union monopoly" where unions fund candidates who strongly back their special interests. For example, he says, of the 20 PACs that donated the most money to candidates during the last election cycle, 16 were union or labor organizations.
In turn, lawmakers backed by union groups support laws that benefit the unions and "thwart attempts to keep union power in check," Kriss said.
"Union clout is the primary reason why government, at every level, seems to deliver less and less in spite of growing resources," he said in the article.
Johnston did not deny union leader's contributions to Democratic lawmakers, but said it is a "huge difference" because unions represent "working families."
"I don't think they're investing this kind of money because they're good citizens," Johnston said, referring to corporate leaders.
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The Boston Globe
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Romney answers criticism
Says fund-raising for GOP is legal
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
Governor Mitt Romney responded yesterday to Democratic attacks on his unprecedented campaign fund-raising from corporate executives, accusing his critics of whining and asserting that the Republican money effort is legal.
Romney said that both Democrats and Republicans aggressively seek contributions from business leaders, but he also suggested that Democratic leaders are jealous of his success in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from well-heeled executives in the state's financial, venture capital, and medical industries.
"This is no time for whining," Romney said.
"We both play by the same rules," he said, pointing out that local Democrats raised millions of dollars in corporate funds to finance the party's national convention.
"The rules are the same for both parties, and I think that some Democrats were mad that we were out doing our job, that we were out raising money trying to preserve a small minority party and trying to make it stronger," the governor said.
Democratic leaders yesterday called on Romney and the GOP to return what they said is tainted money, and Romney faced questions about his fund-raising at a State House press conference after the Globe reported Sunday that the governor has helped raise more than $3 million for two state Republican campaign accounts in the last 18 months. Republicans have distributed $1 million in cash and in-kind contributions to legislative candidates and have spent thousands more rebuilding what strategists say has long been a dormant party.
Campaign finance watchdogs say that the governor is exploiting a loophole in the state and federal campaign finance laws that allows individuals to give up to $5,000 to the party's state account and $10,000 to the party's federal account. State campaign finance laws restrict individual donations to $500 a year to a candidate, but the donations to party accounts can be much higher. The party, in turn, can give $3,000 in cash to a legislative candidate and make unlimited in-kind donations.
The Globe reported that Fidelity Investment executives donated more than $200,000 to the two party accounts. Top executives in some cases appeared to coordinate their donations, so they gave the maximum to each of the two accounts. The campaign finance watchdogs said that Romney's extensive use of the two party accounts is essentially allowing corporate money to seep into the accounts of GOP legislative candidates. Corporations cannot legally use their funds to donate to individual candidates.
"I think all the campaign contributions in both parties were raised by people who work for companies; most of us work for one company or another," Romney said at a press conference he had called concerning sex offenders. "No corporate funds were raised. We raised the money according to the rules, and the rules are applicable to both parties."
Putting his political prestige on the line, the governor is backing a slate of 130 House and Senate candidates and GOP incumbents, using a slogan of reform to call for change on Beacon Hill.
"If that's reform, I'll eat my hat," said Democratic Party chairman Philip Johnston, describing the GOP fund-raising as being in sharp conflict with Romney's public position to bring reform to the political system and free it from special-interest influences.
"I don't think they're investing this kind of money because they're good citizens," Johnston said.
Republicans accused Johnston of hypocrisy, asserting that Democrats take donations from labor unions, political action committees, and Beacon Hill lobbyists, all of whom depend on their decisions and actions on Beacon Hill. On Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry headlined a Boston Convention Center fund-raiser that garnered $2.5 million for the Democratic National Committee. Those donations have not been reported yet.
Romney has blasted Democrats, singling out House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, for bending to special interests and blocking his proposed changes.
"As the Democrats' most feared, controlling, and vindictive party boss, Speaker Finneran has made it his personal business to co-opt any reform efforts I put forth," Romney said in a recent fund-raising letter. "From legislators who owe him their careers, Committee chairmanships and Chairman salaries ... to special interest groups who fill his campaign coffers in exchange for political favors, Finneran uses his power to maintain the status quo and stop our reform efforts."
Globe correspondent Elise Castelli contributed to this report.
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The Springfield Republican
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Romney veto of raises 'unfair'
By Bea O'Quinn Dewberry and Dan Ring
Staff writers
The top budget writer in the Massachusetts House of Representatives yesterday blasted Gov. W. Mitt Romney's veto of retroactive pay raises for higher education employees and pledged to restore the money.
"It's sheer politics and it's extremely unfair to the 13,000 (higher education) workers doing business here," state Rep. John H. Rogers, D-Norwood, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said of Romney's move to cut $32 million in pay signed under collective bargaining contracts in 2001 with former acting Gov. Jane M. Swift. "He's constitutionally bound to honor those contracts."
Because the Legislature remains in informal session, Rogers said there will not be a vote on any vetoes. But he said the cuts will be addressed immediately upon return to formal session Jan. 1.
"January is around the corner and the entire newly formed House and Senate will override the governor's veto," Rogers said.
Rogers was in town yesterday for a press conference in which he and other state legislators presented Mayor Charles V. Ryan with two ceremonial checks for $4.2 million in additional local aid and $450,000 to hire eight community police officers.
Rogers was joined by state Reps. Benjamin Swan, D-Springfield, Cheryl A. Rivera, D-Springfield, and Gale D.
Candaras, D-Wilbraham.
Rogers said another key issue to be addressed by the Legislature is the governor's move to eliminate $15 million in Medicaid reimbursement funds for state hospitals. Medicaid is the federal- and state-funded insurance program administered by the state for the poor.
Some Massachusetts hospitals have cited Medicaid reimbursement rates as low as 68 and 78 cents for every dollar of the costs of providing care.
Romney on Friday vetoed about $76 million from a $515 million "mini-budget" approved by the state Legislature. The governor cut about $28 million for six months of retroactive pay increases for 13,000 employees of the university and state and community colleges. He also cut an additional $3.7 million to cover 1 percent pay increases for faculty and professional staff at the state's community colleges.
In refusing to pay for the retroactive pay increases, Romney cited the Legislature's decision to keep the state income tax at 5.3 percent. When Romney filed his version of the mini-budget in early June, he asked the Legislature to reduce the income tax to 5 percent to comply with a referendum passed by voters in 2000.
Voters approved a phased reduction of the income tax to 5 percent, down from a then 5.85 percent. During the state's fiscal crisis in 2002, the largely Democratic legislators voted to freeze the income tax at 5.3 percent to save money and services.
Romney said previously the Democrats' refusal to go along with the proposed income tax cut would be used by Republicans to loosen their grip on the Legislature in the Nov. 2 general election.
Rogers said voters will see through Romney's political posturing.
"He is speaking out both sides of the mouth and he's hoping the people of Massachusetts, particularly Western Massachusetts, won't notice," Rogers said.
Linda L. Hillenbrand of Amherst, vice president of a union of clerical and technical workers at the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts, yesterday said she was outraged at the governor's veto.
Hillenbrand said the state owes the retroactive raises under a negotiated contract. She said Romney is wrong to violate the terms of that contract. "It's unfair for him to take swipes at us," Hillenbrand said. "We work for the state."
Romney said he opposed approval of retroactive pay raises, particularly when Massachusetts residents are not receiving the tax cut they approved in 2000.
"The Legislature did not appropriate the funds in the relevant years and now to go back and say, 'We didn't appropriate it in the past but now we're going to fund it ...' I believe is a mistake," the governor said Friday.
The contract with higher education employees allows for annual pay raises up to 15 percent for employees at the University of Massachusetts and state colleges and universities.
In November Romney approved about $34 million to allow the higher education pay raises to go into effect Jan. 1 for the second half of the fiscal year, said Shawn K. Feddeman, press secretary for the governor. Romney also approved $70 million in this fiscal year's state budget to fund the pay raises for the current fiscal year, she said.
Rogers said the governor's attempts to link the tax rollback and retroactive pay increases was illogical and unsound.
Rogers said a tax rollback would amount to a $500 million reduction in revenues.
Rogers said despite a $700 million surplus reported at the end of the fiscal year June 30, the state has an $800 million structural deficit gap between steady revenue and recurring expenses. Rogers said the majority of the surplus was comprised of "non-recurring" or one-time funds from payments that include estate tax, bonuses and capital gains tax.
Jerome Spindel, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which represents some employees at the Amherst campus, including faculty and librarians, said higher education employees were counting on the retroactive money to pay for basic living expenses.
Romney's veto "broke faith with the people who negotiated and signed that contract," Spindel said. "It's outrageous to keep people waiting for contracts that were signed and sealed."
Peter Goonan contributed to this report
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The Boston Globe
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
State Democrats challenge GOP to limit spending
Republicans reject cap for 2004 races
By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff
The state's Democratic Party chairman yesterday challenged Governor Mitt Romney and other Republicans to limit party spending on legislative races to $210,000 between now and Election Day -- a suggestion the GOP immediately dismissed as an attempt to "change the rules in the middle of the game."
Philip W. Johnston said his party planned to spend as much as $500,000 to help Democrats in legislative races between now and Nov. 2, and has already raised and spent $1.8 million. Johnston acknowledged that the proposed limit would have little practical effect, at least for the Democrats, but he insisted "it will go a long way toward establishing the bipartisan principle that we should be very serious about campaign finance reform."
Johnston cited a recent Globe report showing that Romney has tapped his connections in the financial world to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the state GOP's campaign committees. At the end of August, the Republicans had $374,649 in their state committee coffers, compared with $129,772 for the Democrats, according to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
"The spending has gotten completely out of control," Johnston said. "These are obscene amounts of money, and we need to put limits on them."
But Republicans contended that their legislative candidates, most of whom are challengers trying to unseat well-funded Democrats, will be outspent by a large margin in this election. Because incumbents collect more cash from lobbyists and special interests with business before the Legislature, Republicans say, their GOP challengers are more reliant on party dollars to level the playing field.
"The incumbents on Beacon Hill have spent months lining their pockets with the money from special interests and lobbyists," said Tim O'Brien, executive director of the state Republican Party. "Now that they've stacked the deck they want to change the rules in the middle of the game."
He also suggested that Johnston is proposing a cap now because the Democrats have less to spend.
O'Brien said the state Republican Party has given a total of about $36,000 to its 12 incumbents who have challengers and more than $800,000 worth of in-kind contributions, such as computerized voting lists, to its 101 challengers.
But he said the party is poised to pour a lot more money into legislative races as the election approaches.
"We are saving our bullets for when it matters," he said.
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The Boston Herald
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Romney's baaack, and with vengeance
By Thomas Keane Jr.
There's a "be careful what you wish for" aspect to the recent exploits of Gov. Mitt Romney. Mocked for his many absences from the state, he has returned with a vengeance, vowing to go all-out to defeat Democratic state reps and senators in November. Democrats, understandably, are cringing. Maybe he should have stayed away.
Many others are cringing as well. Mitt's a new kind of Massachusetts Republican: harsh, partisan and aggressive. We remember Bill Weld, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift with affectionate nostalgia. Romney, on the other hand, looks more and more like, well, a Tom Delay - a take-no-prisoners kind of fellow who would just as soon kick sand in your face as build castles together.
True, Romney has been elsewhere for the last few months. He went to Lake Winnipesaukee for vacation. He wrote a book (immodestly titled "Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games") and went on tour to promote it. He took a trip to Athens to inspect the Olympics (just in case the Greeks had a crisis that might require some leadership). He spent a week at the Republican National Convention in New York, making a big speech and dropping in at various state delegation parties.
The governor's globetrotting ways prompted lots of jokes (one group distributed fliers with Romney's face on a milk carton and the question, "Have you seen me?"). The Democratic Party accused the governory is being "disengaged." The argument, I suppose, was that Romney wasn't focused on Massachusetts and that his personal ambitions were interfering with the vital affairs of the commonwealth.
Actually, I thought it a good summer. With Romney gone and the Legislature off, the state seemed to coast along just fine. And let's face it: It isn't Romney's national ambitions or his shilling for a presidential candidate that bothers so many. We have a long tradition of pols looking elsewhere - Mike Dukakis, Paul Tsongas, Ted Kennedy and, of course, John Kerry [related, bio] come instantly to mind. And if Romney were out on the hustings boosting Kerry's candidacy, the Democrats would all be thrilled.
The problem, really, isn't one of ethics or attention to the job. It's that Romney's a Republican in a Democratic state and he's aggressively supporting an incumbent president against a hometown guy.
The problem, in other words, is political. A recent Boston Globe poll suggested as much, with Romney's favorable rating falling from 61 percent in the spring to 54 percent today. That's not much of a drop, and it's hardly a surprise - is there any other state that has such a great animus against George W. Bush? Still, the governor's political team couldn't let it stand.
So Romney returned, vowing to wage war on Democratic incumbents. This has been a long-standing plan and, with 134 contested races (a 14-year high) and a promise to spend millions, it has put Democrats on edge. The talking points are familiar: rolling back the state income tax rate, pushing for structural reforms and beating up on the Democratic establishment, which means taking on Senate President Robert Travaglini and House Speaker Thomas Finneran.
In truth, I'm not sure Democratic incumbents should worry too much. Many have noted that the GOP candidates aren't, as a group, particularly strong, and Romney almost seems to be conceding in advance when he says it would be "a victory" to pick up even one seat. Still, facing a challenger is never a pleasant experience. Moreover, it is yet another sign that Romney is far different from the Republicans to which Massachusetts is accustomed.
To a degree, most of those who follow state politics keep trying to put Romney into the Weld box, thinking him another version of that genial governor's centrist politician. But Romney is the opposite. Despite campaigning against State House leaders, Weld worked effectively with them. That comity, legislators say, is now gone. There is little communication and little compromise. On both sides, politics have turned acrimonious.
All of which makes for some uncomfortable times. Yet as uncomfortable as it may be, Romney may be on to something. The old model - of GOP acquiescence to the Democratic hegemony - kept state Republicans on the sidelines, trading off real power for minor influence. Romney, plainly, is no longer willing to do that. Whether it's for reasons of national ambition, personal belief or mere tactics, he's adopted a new model, the confrontational approach so effectively used by national Republicans. He doesn't want compromises; he wants wins. And whether it's campaigning for Bush or governing the state day-to-day, the only way he wins is when Democrats lose.
Ah, for the days when the state's political leaders would sit down, hash out problems and make things happen. As long as Romney is governor, I suspect, those days won't be returning.
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The Boston Globe
Thursday, September 23, 2004
GOP candidates give selves a boost
Financing much of their own races
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
It's a trend that has taken hold in races for US Senate and governor's offices around the country: wealthy candidates writing a substantial check to finance their campaigns.
Now, several Republican candidates for the Massachusetts Legislature are reaching into their own pockets to pay for their campaign, following the lead of Governor Mitt Romney, who spent millions of his own money to finance his successful 2002 race.
A Globe review of campaign finance reports shows that at least six Republican challengers in this year's legislative campaigns -- all of them in what the governor sees as high-priority races -- have donated tens of thousands of dollars to their own campaigns. In three cases, Senate candidates spent more than $70,000, more than half of the $120,000 average cost of a campaign.
Republicans say it is the only way they can effectively challenge Democrats who have used their legislative positions to amass huge war chests. Advocates of tougher campaign finance laws say the GOP candidates' use of their own funds represents a troublesome trend, making it more difficult for citizens of average means to run for the Legislature.
"Candidates are increasingly providing substantial financial support to their own campaigns, driving up the market rate to run for office," said Galen Nelson, director of the Massachusetts Money and Politics Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that researches and analyzes campaign finance trends.
Nelson said the uptick of wealthy candidates putting their own funds into their political accounts is "creating a political gated community that discourages nonwealthy citizens from running for office." That, he said, results in a Legislature that is "less representative of average citizens in the Commonwealth."
Two Senate Democratic candidates, Gerald A. Wasserman of Needham and Karen
Spilka, each put more than $30,000 of their own funds into their campaigns this year. Wasserman lost a primary fight involving three other candidates, while
Spilka, a state representative from Ashland, won a three-way primary.
But Republican challengers, often successful business people like Romney, are involved in the highest-profile races, especially for the Senate.
John Thibault, a wealthy Republican businessman from Chelmsford, spent $75,000 of his own money in cash contributions and another $52,000 in in-kind contributions, such as office space, by early this month. The $75,000 in cash accounts for about half of the contributions he received this year, records show. He said this week that he has donated more to his campaign, bringing his cash contribution to $115,000.
"We are trying to stop a complete takeover of the state of Massachusetts by a single party, and every now and then, extraordinary efforts have to be made," said
Thibault, who helped found GeoTel Communications Corp. of Lowell. "You need to have resources to be competitive. If that means have your own funds, that may be what you need."
Gail Lese, a Republican nominee for the state Senate, a medical doctor, and a former Fidelity Investments executive, has given her campaign $75,000, part of the $183,000 she raised this year. Last year, she bought a house on Cape Cod and is now challenging an incumbent state senator, Robert A. O'Leary, Democrat of Barnstable. Richard L. Babson has put $30,000 of his own money into his race for a House seat in Back Bay.
Another GOP Senate candidate -- Tim Duncan, a lawyer who moved his residence recently from Cambridge to Falmouth to challenge the Senate Ways and Means chairwoman, Therese Murray -- has given $70,000 to jump-start his candidacy since late 2003. Murray has raised $221,000 this year, according to reports filed earlier this month.
Duncan argued that his contribution is dwarfed by the special-interest donations that have flowed to Murray. "She is the poster child for special interests in the state," Duncan contended. "She has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from those who expect to get something back from the state. It is appalling and shocking and undermines the system."
Kevin O'Reilly, Murray's campaign manager, rejected Duncan's allegations, saying that the GOP candidate selected the district because it includes some Republican strongholds and would give him a better chance than running from his Cambridge residence. "I think that is the lamest excuse I have ever heard for not doing the grass-roots work necessary to run a campaign," O'Reilly said.
Similarly, Thibault said that the GOP needed to take extraordinary measures. That may mean turning to candidates who could partially finance their own candidacies, because the Democrats have "the special-interest machine" behind their campaigns, he said. He faces Senator Susan Fargo, an incumbent Democrat.
But Thibault's assertions about Democrats loading up campaign accounts with special-interest funding does not seem to apply to Fargo. She raised less than $29,000 in the first eight months of the year, a paltry amount for an incumbent facing a well-financed challenge. Democratic leaders say they are worried about her ability to hold the seat. Fargo gave her first campaign for the Senate a boost in 1996 with a $25,000 loan to her committee. She loaned herself $10,000 in her 1998 reelection.
According to a study by Nelson's group, reports filed this month with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance show that, since January, Democrats gave or loaned their legislative campaigns $816,146, for an average loan of $3,850. Republicans loaned themselves $512,047, for an average of $4,145.
Nationally, the races for US House and Senate seats are drawing wealthy candidates who are pouring their own funds into their campaigns. But well-heeled self-financing doesn't seem to guarantee success. Of the 29 candidates who spent $500,000 or more of their own money in 2002, only three were elected, according to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group in Washington, D.C.
In Massachusetts, the highest-profile success in federal elections occurred when Senator John F. Kerry -- in a fierce contest with William F. Weld to retain his seat in 1996 -- ran out of cash and used his Beacon Hill mansion to borrow more than $1 million to fund the last few weeks of ads. In doing so, he broke a nationally acclaimed agreement with Weld to limit campaign spending and the use of personal funds.
But Republicans strongly defend their candidates' self-financing.
"If there is a reason that Beacon Hill is gated, it is because of the rules the incumbents have set up to protect themselves," said Tim O'Brien, executive director of the state Republican Party. "For every reform they block, it is another dollar in their pocket from lobbyists and special interests."
The Republican donations have left the party open to charges that it is buying the seats. The Democratic Party chairman, Philip Johnston, said the Republicans who are running the most serious challenges are for the most part "wealthy transplants who have no history in their districts."
Several GOP candidates said they would prefer a Clean Election funding system, but contended that the Democrat-controlled Legislature killed the voter-approved law, which would have provided significant public funds to candidates. But Romney cooperated with the Democratic leadership to kill the law, which was enacted in 1998 by ballot initiative.
Globe correspondent Elise Castelli contributed to this report.
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