Office of Campaign and Political Finance

Instead of ordering expensive books I can teach my students all they need to know about American politics using two headlines. But that won't work for my Massachusetts Politics class; for that I'll have to use Office of Campaign and Political Finance press releases.

Recent revelations by OCPF of the true donors to dark money political fronts by a Financial Privatization Cabal confronts Massachusetts with a grim threat: is our democracy slipping away? 

Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance has shuttered yet another dark money operation, Strong Economy for Growth. OCPF's enforcement actions reveal a shocking level of illegality in our ballot measure campaigns.What to do?

Dark money political front Families for Excellent Schools has been banned in Boston but appears to be resurrected in the form of a new dark money operation: Bay State Action Fund.

Massachusetts Board of Secondary and Elementary Education chair Paul Sagan recently issued a seven page letter defending his dark money contributions to banned-in-Boston Families for Excellent Schools Advocacy. His defense may be a violation of the precept, if you are in a hole, stop digging.

Last week Stand for Children blocked me on Twitter. Maybe it's because I've suggested that the Office of Campaign and Political Finance and Attorney General Maura Healey investigate its dark money operations. No hard feelings though, so let's welcome Stand for Children back to Massachusetts politics with a Special Edition of Your Dark Money Reader.

The bombshell Office of Campaign and Political Finance investigation into the activities of Families for Excellent Schools did more than impose a record fine and the death penalty on that dark money front. It raised questions about FES's tax status as a charity, questions that the IRS or state attorneys general may want to answer.

Families for Excellent Schools Advocacy is already a goner, given the death penalty by Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. What's next for the dark money/charter school industrial complex?

The Philanthrocapitalists who spent over $17 million in dark money to buy education policy in Massachusetts in 2016 remain hidden. That can, and should, change.

It's a disturbing fact: when we're talking dark money in Massachusetts politics, we're talking covert money from offshore interests.