“The Connaughton campaign’s claim that she doesn’t accept contributions from political action committees or lobbyists is clearly wrong,” Fortune continued. “Both Connaughton and Bump are long-term Beacon Hill insiders who have amassed sizable campaign contributions from lobbyists and industries doing business with our Commonwealth.” National Institute for Money in State Politics records reveal that as of mid summer, Connaughton had already received over $16,000 in itemized contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate industries, and Bump, a former lobbyist for the American Insurance Association, had received over $8,000.
“The irony is,” noted Fortune, “Mary Connaughton is right. In accepting donations from lobbyists and special interests, Bump has impaired her ability to be independent, and, in Connaughton’s words, has ‘already sold the public out.’ But Connaughton is in the same boat.”
Concluded Fortune, “as the only candidate for this office who truly does not accept contributions from lobbyists, and a member of the only political party in Massachusetts that doesn’t accept contributions from corporations and lobbyists, voters can be confident that as state auditor, I will answer only to the people of Massachusetts.”
To subscribe to this and future campaign press releases or arrange an interview, please contact Mary Likins @ 413-584-1644 or mlikins@natfortune.org
According to the Globe, Bump claimed examption on both her PRIMARY and PRINICPAL residences in Boston and Great Barrington. Because that is SOOO different.
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p>She files taxes at her PRINCIPAL residence in Boston; she votes and has her car registered at her PRIMARY residence in Great Barrington. Oddly enough, her auto insurance there is about 1/5 what it would be at the PRINCIPAL residence…what a coincidence (Note to Rachael Kaprilian – change her auto garaging TODAY).
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p>What I love most about this is the sound bite I heard of Bump on WBZ – “I am not in violation of the law as I understand it.
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p>Don’t YOU want the auditing of the state’s books done on that basis?
It may be hard to hear, but Peter is right on this one.
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p>Watch the video linked to this story — all 5 minutes and 58 painful seconds of it — and try not to cringe as the Honorable former State Representative/Lobbyist/Cabinet Secretary Bump explains in her own words the technical basis on which she is entitled to a residential tax break for two different residences:
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p>http://www.patriotledger.com/n…
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p>Is the auditor supposed to practice evasion, or expose it? Is this the kind of nuanced argument — I didn’t get a break on those property taxes, I got a break on this other property tax! The tax break I got for saying I lived in Boston was different from the tax break I got for saying I lived in Great Barrington, so I’m not really claiming two tax breaks! — that we expect a state auditor to accept?
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p>Wasn’t it Suzanne Bump who was rightfully going after Guy Glodis for acting as if the laws applied differently to him than for everyone else? That there’s no place in the auditor’s office for tax evasion and double dealing?
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p>
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p>Look, this isn’t advanced neuroscience. It’s not even rocket scientist. If you own more than one residence you have to choose one as your primary residence, even if you live in both. Of course you live in both — isn’t that why you have them? You still have to choose one, be consistent about it, and pay your taxes accordingly.
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p>Whether you make an honest mistake, or got your hand caught in the cookie jar, the public rightfully expects you to own up to it, make amends, and pay the consequences. They aren’t looking for you to try and get yourself off on a technicality.
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p>Anybody think differently?
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p>http://ow.ly/2QmsV
It is mentioned in my press release on Connaughton that ’empowerment’ kindly posted, but in case a reader follows a link directly to my comment above and isn’t aware, then let me point on in the interests of full disclosure that I am also a candidate for state auditor, running on the Green-Rainbow party ticket.
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p>http://www.natfortune.org
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p>Oh, and I don’t have a second home!