The Attorney General’s office, perhaps more than any other in state government (save the judiciary, which doesn’t have to worry about winning elections), needs to be free of influence from moneyed special interests, to the extent possible. So it would be terrific if the Democratic AG candidates could agree to a People’s Pledge that will effectively ban third-party spending on that race. (As far as I know, nobody sees the Republican candidate, whoever he is, as a serious threat at this point.)
Apparently, both Warren Tolman and Maura Healey have previously indicated their desire to keep third parties out of the race. Today, Maura Healey made a formal proposal via letter:
May 29, 2014
Dear Warren,
In response to an inquiry from Matt Stout of The Boston Herald regarding the formation of a new Massachusetts Super PAC supporting LGBT candidates, our campaign released the following statement:
“As someone who has seen the corrosive effects of heavy outside and unregulated spending in campaigns, particularly since the Citizens United ruling, I will ask my fellow candidate, Warren Tolman, to join me in agreeing to ban all independent expenditures by PACs or other outside groups. While organizations dedicated to advancing LGBT equality and other progressive causes are close to my heart, I don’t believe we should have unregulated special interest money in this campaign. In this campaign, we should draw a clear line and do everything we can to be clean and transparent.”
We were pleased to see your campaign manager’s quote in the same article, that outside groups, “have no place in this race,” and to read that your campaign was open to reaching an agreement to ban outside spending in this race. This reaffirms your statement on November 13 to the Somerville Democratic City Committee that you would sign a People’s Pledge.
In the interest of reaching that agreement, I have attached a signed Pledge, modeled on the agreement between Senator Edward Markey and Representative Stephen Lynch for their special election primary. If you agree to it, please sign yourself. If you have amendments, we should give ourselves one week to work out the language. With our shared commitment to banning special interest spending in this race and your record as a candidate and a legislator in support of Clean Elections, I am confident we will have a signed Pledge in a matter of days.
Together, we can make this a campaign about our experience and vision for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and avoid a campaign dictated by the spending of outside interests, PACs and Super PACs.
Sincerely,
Maura Healey
Here’s hoping that the candidates can quickly come to agreement on this issue.
what, exactly?
shouldn’t be advertising. Same as all the other People’s Pledges. This really isn’t that complicated.
So unions count. Unions should not be spending in the AG race, per this pledge.
As Unions have always had the ability to contact their members and members’ families both on an individual and AFL-CIO level, this doesn’t impact any of that is my understanding.
Not sure I viewed outside money as an issue in the AG’s race but better safe than sorry.
They can spend all they want on GOTV etc. with a Pledge in place. But they, like other interest groups, can’t run TV or radio ads, or maybe (depending on the specific terms of the pledge) do direct mail or robocalls.
David, thanks so much for posting and keeping up with our race. This is an important issue and I hope my opponent joins me in signing the People’s Pledge as soon as possible. As a newcomer to politics – but not the issues that are critically important for our next Attorney General – this seems like common sense to me. We all ought to be as transparent as we can and our campaign ought to be waged on the issues, on substance, on our records and our visions for the future – not defined by the special interests. We’ve heard back from Warren Tolman’s campaign and are planning to meet soon, hopefully to sign the pledge we’ve modeled on the successful one used by Senator Markey and Congressman Lynch. We’ll keep you posted and thanks again for following our race. There’s so much at stake and we are so pleased that people are engaging in advance of the convention and well before the primary.
If Maura Healey really wanted to get something signed, she should have just called Warren Tolman directly. You don’t do real negotiations with press releases! This press release is just a feeble attempt to get some ink. Healey is using the same kinds of tactics that Scott Brown used. This press release stunt makes me think that she is not qualified to be attorney general.
while I do understand that this is a place for opinions, I really hope that the downrating doesn’t start a Marty Walsh style avalanche.
Of course this is politically motivated, it’s a political race and Healey did a nice job going after a Tolman strength, clean elections, and challenging that mantel. Is it grandstanding, sure is. But it’s only bad if it’s a person’s entire campaign (a la Scotto). I see both candidates as having more substance.
Bluewatch can certainly challenge the grandstanding, it’s part of the territory if you go that route.
Bluewatch could save the sharper knives for the general, though. Comparing Healey to Scott Brown isn’t really called for (unless she runs an ad claiming the mantel of JFK, or some such).
I hardly think what bluewatch is saying is worse than what has been said many times about many of the candidates this cycle on BMG. Not sure why you would single him out.
I’ve criticized others’ comments too. I’m an equal opportunity busybody.
This kind of “grandstanding,” as you call it, is exactly what got us a People’s Pledge in the Brown-Warren race. Never would’ve happened if it had just been behind closed doors. You know it, I know it, and the American people know it.
As for a “Marty Walsh style avalanche,” I have no idea what that means.
A “Marty Walsh style avalanche” means?
it was in full force here during the mayoral election.
Between Tolman and Healey, really? When both have already mentioned it? That’s a bizarre take. Truly bizarre.