Latest news with #OfficeofCampaignandPoliticalFinance
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Josh Kraft alleges Mayor Wu violating law by doing campaign work during public work hours
The Josh Kraft campaign is alleging Boston Mayor Michelle Wu violated state campaign finance law by using public funds for political purposes. The Boston mayoral candidate sent a letter to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance on Wednesday alleging that Wu and her staffers are doing campaign work inside City Hall during work hours. Kraft wrote he has received reports of staffers, including her Chief of Policy and Planning and members of her press staff, 'pitching campaign stories and responding to media inquiries about campaign matters during office hours and using public resources' and collecting signatures. Kraft further alleges that Wu's campaign team only has three staff members, 26 fewer than his own and 15 less than her original campaign staff in 2021. Additionally, Kraft alleges that Wu and her staff are regular users of third-party messaging apps - including Signal - to allow for them to engage in political activity during office hours. Signal is the app that senior national security officials were using to discuss war plans in a chat that included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Kraft's letter continues, stating: 'Members of Mayor Wu's staff calling non-profits leaders, community leaders, and business leaders, during office hours and using public resources to demand they support mayor wu's campaign and avoid appearing with, or meeting with josh kraft, and threatening to pull city grant funding if they don't comply.' Kraft's campaign is asking OCPF to launch an investigation into these allegations. Boston 25 News has reached out to Mayor Wu's office for comment. The Kraft campaign's full letter to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance can be read below: Josh Kraft alleges Mayor Wu in violation of law by doing campaign work during public work hours by Boston 25 Desk on Scribd This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass Dems. call for state to investigate donations to Republican Mike Kennealy's gov campaign
Massachusetts Democrats have called on the state's campaign finance watchdog to investigate what they're describing as 'multiple violations' of state law by Republican gubernatorial hopeful Mike Kennealy's campaign. The call for the probe is tied to recent reporting by The Boston Herald that Kennealy, a former senior Baker administration official, accepted a series of contributions in April that exceeded the state's individual donation limit. While the more than 50 violations identified by Kennealy's campaign are 'inexcusable,' state Democrats said they also were concerned that "the solicitation materials and their pattern of practice used made specific requests of donors to cover processing fees, which would constitute additional violations.' Kennealy's campaign attributed the overages were the result of donors covering credit card processing fees and couples who contributed to the Republican hopeful as a single transaction. Such occurrences are common, Kennealy's campaign told MassLive through a spokesperson. Adam Roof, the state party's executive director, asserted in a letter to William Campbell, who runs the state's Office of Campaign and Political Finance, that the campaign's explanation 'does not negate the legal requirement to monitor, reject, or promptly refund contributions that exceed the statutory limit. Kennealy, who's looking to unseat Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, is 'actively' refunding excess donations. And the campaign is in 'full communication' with regulators to ensure compliance, the spokesperson, Logan Trupiano, told MassLive. 'The fact that the MassDems are trying to manufacture outrage over this routine matter only underscores one thing: they know Maura Healey is politically vulnerable and are desperate to distract from her failures,' Trupiano said. Last week, Kennealy's campaign touted the fact that it had raised more than $130,000 in the opening weeks of its nascent effort to win the Republican nomination and to eventually challenge Healey in 2026. Kennealy, a Lexington resident who was Baker's housing and economic development czar, said he's already committed to spending $2 million of his own money in his bid to unseat Healey, who said in February that she's running for a second term. Healey was sitting on nearly $2.9 million in her campaign account as of late last week, state filings showed. More political news Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Taunton City Councilor Estele Borges considers running for mayor. What she said
TAUNTON — Taunton City Councilor Estele Borges is considering a campaign for Taunton mayor. "I've had a lot of people from across the city and throughout the business community encouraging me to run for mayor," Borges told the Gazette in a text message. "At the same time I have become very concerned about some of the challenges facing the city so I'm exploring the idea. More to come." In a filing with the state's Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Borges also updated the "office sought" entry in her campaign committee's paperwork to indicate she is seeking the position of mayor in Taunton. Games to watch Mark your calendar for these 12 Greater Taunton area softball games this spring According to the city's Election Department, the election for city offices such as mayor and city councilor will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. A preliminary election will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. The preliminary election will essentially function as a primary in the event that multiple candidates run for mayor. City elections are nonpartisan. Impeccable Cape in desirable Taunton neighborhood sold for over $700K: Weekly home sales Borges currently serves as a Taunton city councilor and Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School Committee member. She is a Democrat. For day jobs, she's currently transitional care manager at Bayada Health and owner/broker of Borges Realty & Development. She formerly managed the District Center for the Arts. Borges previously ran for mayor against Shaunna O'Connell in 2019, and lost. Borges also mounted an unsuccessful run as the Democratic challenger to then-State Rep. O'Connell, the Republican incumbent, in the 2016 race. This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Taunton election: City Councilor Estele Borges considers run for mayor
Boston Globe
10-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Can Everett's mayor keep settlement from a lawsuit funded by campaign contributions? Past opinions say no.
'You can't go around litigating things and profiting from it with your campaign funds,' said Bradley S. Balzer, who wrote the opinion in 2005 when he was the office's deputy director. 'That was the gist of the opinion at the time. You couldn't personally benefit from the use of a campaign fund for any type of legal settlement.' In that 2005 case, Frank G. Cousins Jr., then the sheriff of Essex County, was advised that if he used campaign contributions for his legal fees, then 'neither you nor your committee may retain any monetary damages that are awarded. Such funds would need to be donated to a charitable or other entity specified in the Advertisement That clause requires money left in inactive campaign finance accounts to be donated to charity, a scholarship fund, a city or town, or the state, so that money raised for campaign purposes is not converted to personal use. In a second opinion, Cousins sought a few years later, he was told he could use a legal settlement to pay back his campaign for legal fees, but that any excess would have to go to charity. Whether the earlier opinions might be applied to DeMaria's situation is unclear. The Office of Campaign and Political Finance generally only takes action if it receives a complaint or if a candidate seeks guidance. Jason Tait, a spokesman for the office, said he could not comment on DeMaria's situation. But, he added: 'When OCPF is providing guidance on how to resolve issues of settlement, we always go to the law and our past opinions to provide the best and fairest outcome.' Related : Advertisement DeMaria was traveling last week and did not respond to requests for comment from the Globe. George Regan, the public relations representative who announced DeMaria's legal victory in December, would not respond to questions. The mayor's chief of staff said she could not respond to the newspaper's questions because they do not concern city business. Last week, the Everett City Council held a special meeting and voted unanimously to ask DeMaria to pay the city back for so-called longevity bonuses that a recent report from Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro found were wrongly awarded and then concealed by the mayor's administration. While councilors said they intended to grant the mayor a $10,000 bonus for every four-year term in office, DeMaria was paid that sum for each year, inflating the total value of the perk from $40,000 to $220,000, the report found. The inspector general, an independent state office, also called on the council to provide information to the State Ethics Commission to help determine whether DeMaria had violated the state's conflict of interest law. City Council also called for an audit of the payments and plans further challenges at a meeting on Monday – including a potential no-confidence vote in the mayor. Councilors have also demanded details on how much the city has spent on the inspector general's investigation and whether the lawyer representing DeMaria's interests at last week's meeting is being paid by taxpayers. In a prepared statement, the mayor strenuously objected to the inspector general's findings and disputed his interpretation. 'I have worked too hard and too long as a public servant in the City of Everett to stand by while the Inspector General attacks my integrity and the integrity of the members of my Administration,' it said. Advertisement DeMaria filed suit against the Everett Leader Herald in October 2021 after a string of negative stories. The suit alleged that the editor had made up quotes, falsely accused DeMaria of taking kickbacks, and otherwise conspired to undermine the mayor before the November election. The resulting $1.1 million settlement in DeMaria's favor staved off a trial and included a promise to It's unclear how much the lawsuit cost DeMaria, and whether contributions from supporters covered all of it. Jeffrey S. Robbins, the attorney who handled the lawsuit, declined to reveal the costs. DeMaria's campaign account paid Robbins's firm, Saul Ewing, legal fees of $627,772, campaign finance records show. The Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr. Defense Fund raised another $280,286 for the litigation. Legal defense funds are not required to report how much of those funds were paid out, however. Gemma W. Martin, a consultant for Chick Montana Group, which established the legal defense fund and receives consulting fees from DeMaria's campaign committee, declined to speak to the Globe. DeMaria's use of a legal defense fund to pay for a lawsuit the mayor himself filed was unusual, though not prohibited by the OCPF. Since 2010, the office has allowed candidates to create such funds to defend against criminal charges or pay costs in civil cases that are 'not primarily personal in nature.' The office has viewed defamation lawsuits as an allowable use of legal defense funds in the past. Advertisement In 2014, gubernatorial candidate Mark Fisher created a legal defense fund to sue the Massachusetts Republican Party, which he alleged had manipulated the convention nominating process to bar him from the primary ballot. He did not end up receiving any contributions in the defense fund, records show, but paid legal fees through his political campaign fund, which he had loaned nearly $400,000 of his own money. When he was awarded a $240,000 settlement from the MassGOP, he repaid his campaign fund – and himself. Related : DeMaria consulted the State Ethics Commission about raising money to fund a lawsuit and was advised that he would be limited by the state's conflict of interest law. Unless he created a legal defense fund, he was told, he could only accept donations below $50 and could not use his title as 'mayor' in fund-raising. Legal defense funds can accept unlimited contributions — unlike campaign funds, which are capped at $1,000 per person — and can collect donations from corporations. The top two contributors to DeMaria's defense fund were Suffolk Construction Co. CEO John Fish, whose company built the $2.4 billion casino in Everett, and J. Derenzo, a subcontractor on the casino project. Each gave his legal fund $50,000. Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, a nonpartisan advocacy group that promotes government transparency, said in a prepared statement that DeMaria's settlement raises key questions. Among them: 'whether a candidate has a legal obligation in this situation to reimburse either or both the candidate's campaign finance committee and legal defense fund?' Foster said. 'And, in any case, does a candidate have the right to keep any funds awarded as a result of the lawsuit personally, or is there a legal obligation to donate those funds?' Advertisement Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Josh Kraft files paperwork to run for mayor of Boston
Josh Kraft, a local philanthropist and the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, has formally submitted his paperwork to run for mayor of Boston. Kraft signed off on the paperwork Friday and the document was available to view on the Office of Campaign and Political Finance website Monday morning. Kraft will oppose Mayor Michelle Wu in the November 2025 election. Kraft is the president of the New England Patriots Foundation and is responsible for the Kraft family's many philanthropic initiatives, including the Patriots Foundation, the Revolution Charitable Foundation, the Kraft Center for Community Health, and the family's participation in the REFORM Alliance, according to The Kraft Group. Before making a full-time commitment as president of the Kraft Family Philanthropies, Kraft spent 30 years with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, including 12 as the Nicholas President and CEO. Kraft also serves on the boards of Brandeis University, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Herren Project, and is a co-chair of the Hate Crimes Task Force for Massachusetts. Kraft listed a condo in the North End as his home. He is listed as a Democrat in the paperwork. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
