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Governor Deval Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray have continued their strong fund-raising efforts, tapping special-interest groups. (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/file 2007) |
Patrick, Murray tap special interests
Groups they'd assailed add to campaign coffers
Governor Deval Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray have raised more than $1.4 million in combined campaign contributions since taking office, much of it by aggressively soliciting the same special interest groups that, as candidates last year, the Democrats denounced as wielding too much influence on Beacon Hill.
Patrick has collected $775,000, mostly from dozens of fund-raisers thrown for him by a wide array of interests that do business with state agencies and authorities under his control. High on the list of the governor's contributors are lawyers from Boston's elite firms, prominent developers, healthcare executives, and leaders of regulated utilities and insurance companies.
Murray, Patrick's fellow Democrat, has been just as aggressive, raising $650,000 in the same span, an uncommonly large haul for a lieutenant governor. His fund-raising has come with an added twist: He has turned to Robert M. Platt, a State House lobbyist and Republican fund-raiser, for help building a campaign finance network. Platt worked against Patrick last year and supported his opponent, Republican Kerry Healey. And this year he is supporting Republican former governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.
Platt has joined Murray's inner political finance circle as the lieutenant governor, a former mayor of Worcester who has a low political profile statewide, tries to establish himself as a major political figure.
Many of the Murray contributors at a fund-raising event Platt organized at the Boston Marriott Newton in May were Platt's corporate clients at his lobbying firm, their staffs, and their family members - among them the billboard firm
Murray defended the fund- raising in an interview, saying it is conducted strictly within the law, including the restrictions placed on State House lobbyists such as Platt, and that he and the governor need to project strength to potential challengers.
"People elected us to get things done, and we are working hard on policies, initiatives, and legislative proposals," Murray said. "But part of being effective is to be politically strong and to be ready for any challenges that may come."
"It is a fine balance," he said. "The lion's share of our effort has been focused on moving the agenda ahead on a whole of range of initiatives. But you also have to pay attention to the political end. It is all part of the electoral process."
Patrick's aggressive fund- raising among special interests and Murray's decision to use a Republican lobbyist to build his campaign account follow oft-repeated pledges they made during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. As a candidate, Patrick billed himself as someone who would break the connection between lobbyist and industry money and the highest office in state government.
"If you want the same old same old, the politics of money and connections, I'm not your guy," he said in a Sept. 7 debate with Democratic opponents. "But if what you want is the politics of hope and a change of culture on Beacon Hill, I am your guy, and I want your vote."
Told of Patrick's pattern of fund-raising, Pamela Wilmot, the executive director of Common Cause of Massachusetts, said she was not surprised.
"Special interest cash is like quicksand - it traps you and pretty soon it drowns you," Wilmot said.
If the governor were truly interested in changing the traditional flow of money, she added, he would have put campaign finance reform and public funding of elections at the top of his agenda.
The spokesman for Patrick's campaign committee, Stephen Crawford, said that political contributors for the most part are responding to the governor's work on issues that affect them. He cited contributions from agricultural interests to make his point.
"Governor Patrick heard from struggling family farmers at every one of his town meetings this year," Crawford said in a statement. "He responded with a program that saved farms from foreclosure. When elected officials tackle the problems of our state's citizens, people support them for their leadership."
Although its campaign finance laws are more restrictive than most states - particularly in setting a $500 annual limit for each donor - Massachusetts is nevertheless fertile ground for raising large sums of political money a review of several specific instances of Patrick's fund-raising shows.
From July to November, Patrick collected $65,000 from people involved in real estate development at four different fund-raising events, his campaign reports show. The contributions came from engineering firm executives, real estate lawyers from high- powered Boston firms, and unions representing carpenters. They also flowed from real estate developers such as John Drew, president of The Drew Company, and Arthur Gutierrez, chairman of the Burlington-based real estate construction and development company, The Gutierrez Co.
In October, as Patrick was making a final decision on whom to appoint commissioner of agriculture, the governor raised $20,000 at an event at which farmers, commercial growers, suburban gardening outlets, and a host of other agricultural interests wrote checks to his political committee. In the end, Patrick appointed a legislator whom many in the agricultural community opposed.
Law firms that often seek lucrative contracts with the state are also a major source of contributions. Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo, whose lobbying division ML Strategies has a strong presence at the State House, raised more than $16,000. Patrick did not appear to do ML Strategies any favors when he made a concerted effort to push the division's president, Stephen P. Tocco, out as University of Massachusetts chairman.
Platt's presence in Murray's campaign organization has generated grumbling among some Democrats. Since former US Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II dropped out of the 1998 race for governor, Platt primarily raised money for Republican governors Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift, and Mitt Romney.
Platt also served as a fund- raiser for GOP gubernatorial nominee Healey in her race against Patrick. He has donated over $17,000 to the Massachusetts Republican Party in the last four years. Now, with Democrats holding the governor's office, Platt has given the state Democratic Party $4,500 in July.
"It's a big tent and we are looking forward," Murray said, asked why he brought in a Republican fund-raiser. "You need a cross- section of people to be around the table."
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
