With just days to go before Boston’s mayoral election, mystery money is flooding the race, most of it going to benefit Marty Walsh.
CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow called it “dark money” in a report last week that documented how funds raised by shadowy outside PACs were flowing into Boston to help elect Walsh. The money is dark because the donors won’t be identified until long after the election and their donations are not subject to standard campaign spending limits.
McMorrow reported last week that spending by the outside groups on a per capita basis far exceeds anything seen nationally, even in big-city mayoral races in New York and Los Angeles. David Bernstein, writing in Boston magazine, asks whether the Boston mayoral race is for sale.
The pace of outside spending in the Boston race seems to be accelerating in the final days before the election. The Globe reports that a newly formed group called One Boston is pumping $480,000 into television advertising on behalf of Walsh. One Boston is headed by a 55-year-old Roslindale woman who has not voted in three of the last four municipal elections. The group’s donors won’t be identified until January.
The other group muscling its way into the Boston mayoral election is called American Working Families. The group, which is spending $1.1 million on behalf of Walsh, lists as its address a UPS store in Virginia. The only name associated with the group is Bud Jackson, a Democratic media consultant.
On Twitter, McMorrow offers a nifty chart showing the impact of the outside spending on the race. The Globe reports that outside groups have independently spent $2.4 million on behalf of Walsh, whose campaign had raised and spent only $1.7 million through Oct. 15. Two education groups that have been active in Massachusetts politics in previous years have spent $713,000 supporting Walsh’s rival, John Connolly.
Walsh tells the Globe and the Herald he knows nothing about the outside groups supporting him. The groups are barred by law from coordinating their activities with the campaign.
The state Office of Campaign and Political Finance urged the outside groups in September to identify their donors, but so far they have refused. Bernstein says he suspects most of the money backing Walsh is coming from union sources.
BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
Gov. Deval Patrick signs a bill into law that would create a commission to study the feasibility of Boston hosting the Olympics, the Lowell Sun reports.
CASINOS
The Globe editorializes against the Suffolk Downs casino referendum on the ballot next Tuesday for East Boston voters. “With questionable financial backing, an unknown casino operator, and plans that could well hinge on the immediate success of slot machines in the converted grandstand, Suffolk Downs is asking voters to take too much on faith,” the paper says.
Grey2K, the group that led the successful push to ban greyhound racing in Massachusetts, has joined the battle to put a referendum on next year’s ballot to repeal the casino law.
MGM is confident that it will pass the “suitability” test in its quest for a Springfield casino.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
A federal appeals court allows Texas restrictions on abortion to go into effect while an appeal of the law, which was recently struck down, is heard.
Paul Krugman praises Ohio Gov. John Kasich for his apparent willingness to read Krugman columns, and also for denouncing what he called a Republican “war on the poor.”
ELECTIONS
Writing for CommonWealth’s “Mayor Matters” series, Richard Dimino, president of the advocacy group A Better City, tees up the transportation and climate change issues that he says should be at the top of the next mayor’s agenda.
Greater Boston is the latest to look at the role of race in the Boston mayoral election. Racial diversity was the focus of the cover story in CommonWealth’s fall issue.
The Herald reports that Marty Walsh filed a pair of pair of bills that would benefit his unions soon after taking a top job with the Building Trades Council.
Common Cause plans to send observers to monitor polling places in Lawrence after reports of irregularities during the preliminary election, the Eagle-Tribune reports. Secretary of State William Galvin, who oversees elections, won’t reveal whether he’s ordered any changes at Lawrence polling places.
Dan Payne and Todd Domke, the Democrat and Republican political consultants who as pundits are often the point-counterpoint of Massachusetts politics, are working for the same independent gubernatorial candidate, CommonWealth reports.
The battle between the Tea Party and the GOP’s traditional wing moves to Alabama.
EDUCATION
Boston schools embrace autonomy in hiring, CommonWealth reports.
Hampshire College in Amherst is making big waves as a center of entrepreneurship.
A for-profit school in Brockton has reached a settlement with the attorney general’s office to reimburse students $425,000, shut down some its programs, and change its advertising practices after being hit with allegations of misleading claims about its curriculum and job placements.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, on a tour of UMass Lowell, says amazing things are happening at the school, the Sun reports.
HEALTH CARE
Abortion is invisible on the healthcare.gov website, reopening a debate that started when lawmakers were voting on Obamacare, NPR reports.
TRANSPORTATION
In a meeting with southeastern Massachusetts public and business officials, Gov. Deval Patrick reaffirmed his support for South Coast Rail but, despite prodding, provided few details about funding for the project.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Acushnet is seeking to become only the second community in the southeastern region to have the state’s “green community” designation.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
An appeals court in New York removes the judge who blocked the city’s stop-and-frisk policy and puts the decision on hold, the Huffington Post reports. The appeals court says the judge violated judicial conduct codes by steering the case to her courtroom.
The Lowell Sun learns the city paid $642,000 to a former cop in 2011 to satisfy a court judgment of discrimination.
The Globe reports that former state probation commissioner John O’Brien is seeking to have his federal corruption indictment dismissed, arguing that he is charged with engaging in patronage activities that are a way of local life, not a crime.
Ed Davis reflects on his tenure as Boston police commissioner.
MEDIA
The Globe reports its daily circulation increased 3 percent to 253,371, fueled largely by an increase in online subscriptions. Online customers, who pay less than print subscribers, now account for 34 percent of the Globe’s daily circulation. The New York Times Co. reports a third quarter loss due largely to taxes and expenses related to the sale of the Globe and Telegram & Gazette.
