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Also see: Patrick Parties On While State Wastes More Taxpayer Money
"Patrick sidesteps fund-raising law with lavish party; Invitation to picnic includes $5,500 pitch" by Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | July 15, 2008
Governor Deval Patrick has scheduled a picnic fund-raiser this month at his vacation estate in the Berkshires, where he will once again exploit a method he pioneered for skirting state campaign contribution limits, a funding system the Legislature so far has declined to shut down.
Guests at the gathering at the 7,500-square-foot mansion situated on 77 acres in Richmond are being asked to contribute up to $5,500 to the governor's Seventy-First Fund. What the invitation does not say is that the Democratic Party, in turn, uses most of its share of the money to pay off Patrick's campaign expenses. That allows Patrick to get around the state's $500 limit on individual contributions to candidates, by giving him most of the benefit of the additional $5,000, the maximum an individual can give to a political party.
Patrick's political finance aides declined to release the list of those planning to attend the picnic, but the names will include the Democrats' bevy of wealthy activists along with corporate executives of regulated businesses - bankers, utility operators, and healthcare executives - whose financial interests depend on the administration's actions.
Oh, is that why they just shat in his face?
Please see: Massachusetts' One-Party State
Among those who donated to the Seventy-First Fund in the last several months are: casino executive Irwin M. Chafetz, who gave $1,375 and who advocated on Beacon Hill for Patrick's casino legislation; Cleve Killingsworth, chief executive of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, $5,500, whose health insurance firm is heavily regulated by the state; real estate developer Thomas M. Alperin, who gave $5,500; banker Lawrence Fish, chairman of Citizens Financial Group, who donated $1,000; and Joshua Boger, a $5,000 donor who, as chief executive of one of the best-known biotech firms in the state,
Yeah, he's JUST AS BAD as the REPUBLICANS and THEIR SPECIAL INTERESTS!!!!
What a STINK SHIT GOVERNOR we have here!
Wow, we we ever BAMBOOZELED by this guy in the last election!!!
Democratic lawmakers have been quick to make changes in the campaign finance law when previous political figures found creative ways to raise funds. For example, when Republican William F. Weld loaned $1.2 million to his campaign in the 1990 election and then paid himself back through aggressive fund-raising after he got elected, the Legislature passed a law in the early 1990s that limited what a campaign committee can repay the candidate to $200,000.
Oh, WHAT HYPOCRITES!! Massachusetts DemocraPs are TOTAL SHIT!!!!!!!
Yup, they changed the law when it was a REPUBLICAN BENEFITTING!
Fuck you, DemocraPs!! What a SHIT STATE I LIVE IN!!!!!!!!!!!
Advocates for reducing the influence of money on politics decried Patrick's system as a circumvention of state campaign finance laws. Advocates said the practice is also troubling because Patrick based his 2006 campaign on his status as an outsider, running against special-influence politics.
Well, that was just a BUNCH of BULLSHIT, wasn't it?
Look, we got Massachusetts' version of Obama here!
The Globe story in January said that, using proceeds from the Seventy-First Fund, the Democratic Party in 2007 paid $339,000 of the governor's campaign-related expenses, including bills for a media consultant and banquet halls.
Is that why you contributed to his campaign, Mass. residents?
So your hard-earned money could be used to throw parties?!?
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