The politically wired attorneys at Thornton Law Firm won a partial — and ironic — victory at the Federal Election Commission last week. Andrea Estes, an investigative reporter at the Boston Globe, wrote what could wind up as the epilogue to a story she helped break three years ago. Back then, Estes and Viveca Novak […]
Office of Campaign and Political Finance
Posted inPolitics
The campaign money man
MICHAEL SULLIVAN FOLLOWS the money. Sullivan is the director of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, which monitors and publicizes how candidates for office in Massachusetts raise and spend their campaign cash. He makes sure politicians follow the rules, and in some cases he has to set the rules. He recently proposed a […]
Posted inOpinion
Like it or not, campaign regs changed for the better
LAST JANUARY, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) proposed revisions to many of their existing campaign finance regulations. While most of the proposed changes were minor and technical in nature, several had potentially substantial and serious repercussions for non-profit organizations of all types across the state. Of particular note were the changes […]
Posted inOpinion
Some things are worth protecting
FREEDOM OF SPEECH and association, our most fundamental American rights, are perpetually under attack from powerful politicians, bureaucrats, unions, and far-left interest groups. They use campaign finance law as a weapon. Silencing the opposition is easier than debating important policy publicly. Here in Massachusetts, these groups are working to silence and stomp out groups such […]
Posted inEducation
Pro-charter school group hit with record campaign finance fine
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE PROMINENT NEW YORK education group that financed the bulk of last year’s failed ballot campaign to expand charter schools in Massachusetts has agreed to pay the largest fine in state campaign finance history to resolve questions over whether it participated in a scheme to conceal the identities of well-heeled donors. […]