State Democratic Party chair says e-mails sent mistakenly
As it turns out, state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill and the Democrats do have something in common.
Four weeks after the independent gubernatorial candidate took heat for sending illicit fund-raising solicitations to official State House e-mail addresses, the state Democratic Party is defending as a mistake similar e-mails disseminated by party chairman John Walsh.
“It has come to our attention that a very small percentage — about 1 percent — of e-mails sent by the party went to government e-mail addresses,’’ Democratic Party executive director Stacey Monahan said in a statement to the News Service. “This was totally inadvertent and the fault of the party. We will be contacting [state campaign finance officials] to ask for guidance on next steps, we will be apologizing to anyone who incorrectly received the e-mail, and we have taken immediate steps to identify the e-mail addresses and make sure they are deleted from the file so this does not happen again.’’
State Republican Party officials yesterday filed a complaint with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, and party chairwoman Jennifer Nassour used the misstep as a platform to blast the Democratic leadership on Beacon Hill.
“One-party rule on Beacon Hill has bred a culture of corruption and indifference to state laws which is apparent by the inability of so many Democrats to follow even the most basic campaign finance rules,’’ she said. “The Democrats need to start respecting the law and should immediately disclose and refund all of their ill-gotten gains.’’
A spokesman for the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance said the agency recommends that campaigns and other political entities “scrub their e-mail lists of government addresses.’’ Campaign finance law forbids fund-raising solicitations sent to official state e-mail addresses, said the spokesman, Jason Tait.
Two of the e-mails in question, obtained by the News Service, were sent within the past week and requested donations to two Democratic Senate candidates, Sal DiDomenico and Peter Smulowitz.
In March, when Cahill’s campaign sent political e-mails to most members of the House and Senate, his aides also said it was an oversight. “The e-mail sent was intended only for supporters within our database,’’ a Cahill campaign official wrote.
