Update: Mass Dems are calling on Rep. Diehl to cancel the event
The Boston Globe is reporting that Rep. Geoff Diehl (R) who defeated Rep. Allen McCarthy in November got caught making a tiny campaign finance mistake last week… He simply distributed fundraiser invitations to third graders from his district. How did he distribute these fliers to the public school students and their parents? Through their backpacks, of course!
Third-graders in East Bridgewater and Whitman came home from school with a note last week. Typically, that’s not news. But this note included an invitation to a fundraiser for a freshman state representative, a violation of state ethics rules.
The note invited parents to enter their children in a lottery, with the winners participating in a reading of “The Ride of Paul Revere,” at Diehl’s fundraiser with former New England Patriots player Steve DeOssie, on Patriots’ Day, April 18.
“Kids 12 and under eat FREE,” the note reads. “Adults $25.”
The flier, which teachers handed out to students at the end of school, does not make clear that the proceeds go to Diehl’s campaign account.
Shame on Rep. Diehl for defying common sense and trying to pad his campaign coffers in this manner. I would think this would immediately jump out at the average person on the street as unethical – shouldn’t it stand out as a non-starter to an elected official who has been aware of the existence of campaign finance law since he opened his OCPF account upon declaring his candidacy?
I look forward to watching the pundits and our neighbors to the right carefully ignore this issue. Imagine if he was a Democrat!
Was Diehl stuffing them there? Or had the school done this before for McCarthy?
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p>At any rate, from the excerpt you referenced, it appears Diehl was wrong, and he should have free hotdogs for EVERYBODY, and avoid this ageist bigotry.
While I appreciate your trying to blame Rep. McCarthy, this is Rep. Diehl’s issue. The school certainly should have never sent anything home, but the onus was on Diehl to never give the school the opportunity. Doesn’t this appeal to you as common sense?
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p>By the way- I really hate to tell you how to live your life, Peter, but hot dogs for breakfast? That just isn’t healthy!
because we all know that public schools are hotbeds for republican activism after all…
If you have evidence that no public schools in the Commonwealth house Republican activists, please present it. We may not all know that all schools are Republican hotbeds, but I don’t think any of us know that none of them are.
Thanks for showing us the real you…change the subject by insinuating that an innocent person is guilty of the same thing.
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p>I will say this, I’ve met Geoff and he has way more class than you. He made a dumb mistake and admitted it. We didn’t hear him whine about McCarthy.
If you want to see how our neighbors on the right handle this issue, cross-post it over on RMG. Then watch the onslaught of cries of liberal media bias roll in. And of course, they’ll deflect the issue by invoking Diane Wilkerson and Sal DiMasi. Then finally, there’ll be some shots taken at the teachers’ unions, since Scott Walker is one of Diehl’s personal heroes.
Billerica Frosh GOP’er Marc Lombardo.
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I ask because not all ethics violations are obvious. Many of us are aware of the laws because we pay attention, but to be honest I’m not sure the average voter knows or cares about using State House addresses for political solicitation being wrong.
This was my old district, and I think that Diehl is a good guy, learning on the ropes. I hope that he picks these things up quickly though, because that’s a really foolish thing to do.
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p>The other question, though, is why did this only happen in 2 of the three towns of his district? Does he have antipathy toward Abington?
of course he doesn’t like abington.
Anyone with any common sense would know that using kids in this way is far from cool. What does it mean to be a “good guy” if you have to learn stuff like this?
Was a Rep for 14 years and still screwed up.
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p>Used public employees as host committee for fundraisers- duh.
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p>Was cleared of using school resources but it still was a bit unseemly. Recruited interns over the PA and on the HS web site.
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p>Also was involved in the Wilfredo Laboy scandal
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p>Here’s an OCPF link
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…that can fall in the category of civic involvement. I’ve been involved in campaigns that have actively gone through civics teachers and Social Studies department chairs to invite students to become involved in a campaign. Granted, the ones I remember were in NH and VA which may have different laws, but IMO as long as the schools allow equal access among the campaigns there shouldn’t be a problem. Sen. Finegold is my Senator and I supported him back to the primary, but he should have known better.
school issue
So why are you suggesting he did?
I was only responding to everyone jumping on the new guy for not knowing something, when Finegold in the other letter really did do something wrong.
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p>The school thing is really a slippery slope.
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p>Let’s say a candidate goes to the schoool with 1000 flyers asking for interns and requests they be sent home with students and the candidate’s name is prominently displayed.
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p>Is that okay?
You’re going to use incompetence as an excuse, why would someone ever use 3rd graders as mules for this guy’s fundraisers. How would that make sense to anyone, ever.
he was inviting children to participate, and the flyer included fundraiser information (which it shouldn’t have, just from a tact perspective).
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p>Do you honestly think that he was attempting (through a ruse) to invite parents to a fundraiser? He seem like a smart guy and that would be pretty stupid.
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p>He was inviting PARENTS to enter their CHILDREN in a lottery to recite a poem at a FUNDRAISER. He dropped off the the invitation, which included the price of admission to this event for adults, at a public school for distribution.
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p>If the kids won the “lottery”, it seems to be implied that their parents would come along and pay the $25 fee to eat and be proud. I’m willing to bet that every kid that entered that lottery would win the chance to come and read.
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p>So, to answer your question:
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p>Yes, I honestly do think that he was attempting (through a ruse) to invite parents to a fundraiser. I agree that he seems like a smart guy, and I agree that this was very stupid of him.
I just nearly fainted from the severe shock of learning about these enslaved third graders. Truly, the scandal of the year.
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p>Hmm. Dunno, maybe this just illustrates how dumb most campaign finance laws are, existing mostly as a series of traps for the unwary (and a barrier to entry for aspiring politicians).
you’d have no problem with soliciting for a fundraiser through schoolchildren? Please clarify.
Was the violation i) soliciting through schoolchildren or was it ii) the failure to put the disclosure “proceeds go to Diehl’s campaign account” or was it iii) giving the flyers to teachers or iv) something else altogether ?
So that makes everything pretty much fair game unless someone files a complaint. Right now in my neck of the woods:
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p>A town DYS van dropped off kids at the polling location who then stood out (this was on election day). Complaint filed on this.
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p>A candidate said (on TV at the end of a selectman’s meeting) “I am now working at such and such law firm” Complaint filed on this also.
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p>Lawrence has more examples than the rest of the MV combined, but everything is fair game unless someone files a complaint, it’s investigated, and there is a ruling.
Is this one of those “I don’t know what rule was violated but I know a violation when I see it”?
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p>Seriously, what was the violation?
OCPF audits all campaign finance reports and reviews complaints alleging violations of the campaign finance law. These audits and reviews may result in enforcement actions or rulings such as:
Public Resolution Letters – May be issued in instances where the office found “no reason to believe” a violation occurred; where “no further action” or investigation is warranted; or where a subject “did not comply” with the law but, in OCPF’s view, the case is able to be settled in an informal fashion with an educational letter or a requirement that some corrective action be taken. A public resolution letter does not necessarily imply wrongdoing on the part of a subject and does not require agreement by a subject.
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p>Disposition Agreements – A voluntary written agreement entered into between the subject of a review and OCPF, in which the subject agrees to take certain specific actions.
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p>Referral – OCPF has the option of referring matters to the Office of the Attorney General for further action.
OCPF does not comment on any matter under review, nor does the office confirm or deny that it has received a specific complaint. The identity of any complainant is kept confidential. Public resolution letters and disposition agreements are matters of public record once cases are concluded.
But, what’s the violation?
Diehl was soliciting for campaign contributions in a public building.
“it’s a dick move, so he should have known better” things. Whether it’s actually illegal or not, it’s wrong to use children to lobby their parents to help your campaign. If my daughter came home with something like that, you can bet I’d be in the principal’s office the next morning demanding an explanation. I wouldn’t be alone, either.
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p>Possibly you don’t see it as a problem, which is telling.
They send home flyers in my town telling the parents to lobby the school committee which is in contract negotiations.
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p>Same or different?
That seems wrong to me as well, but at least in that case the matter is directly related to the education of the students. It kind of depends on the content of the flyers. Having kids carry flyers promoting a politician or a business for that matter, doesn’t even have that excuse.
Principal, I strenuously object to the exposure of my child to the civic life of our community. His young mind is far too precious for exposure to such sinister things as an invitation to a pancake breakfast, especially one endorsed by a retired football player. I, and my friend here who also supports someone opposed to the guy having the pancake breakfast, demand an explanation of how our children — children, mind you!!– were not fully and completely insulated from this.
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p>And make it fast, because we’re off to a meeting to lobby for greater emphasis on civics in the official curriculum frameworks. It’s appalling how little people know about how our government works!
to be solicited to participate in gambling while at school. I do not expect to receive solicitations of any kind routed through her. That is not what I send her to school for. That’s not her job at this stage of her life, and I do not want her learning the lessons implicit in having major authority figures using their influence over her in that way. Nor do I want to be in the position of telling her that no, she can’t participate in a neat-sounding activity that is actually a cynical attempt to separate me from some money for a purpose irrelevant to her education.
that any third grader would be crushed when told that they may not enter a lottery to win the chance to read The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere in front of a bunch of old farts and Steve DeOssie. Being told no is such a trauma for the little ones.
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p>It is a far better lesson to discover that adults are outraged that she was “influenced” by carrying a flyer in her backpack. This, like the zero-tolerance two week suspension she will one day get for bringing a butter knife for her bagel, will teach her the valuable lessons that most adults are not capable of distinguishing between things vitally important and things trivial.
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p>And indeed, politicians and political activists are a breed even more sordid than the neighborhood bookie.
The only solution here is to establish a zone in, and say, 500 ft beyond all schools banning guns, drugs, religious and political flyers, for the children.
I don’t find having a flyer come home in the backpack to be terribly burdensome. As I said, the incident demonstrates this guy’s foolishness for not being aware of the rule, and also how the campaign finance rules are stupid.
as you describe yourself.
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p>What it illustrates is you making excuses for an obvious dumb move, this guy is an a**. That should be your only thought on this.
Look over there, a democrat did something stupid too, but it pails by comparison.
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That’s not a pail. It’s a big pot. I don’t think that they should add babies to their chili, but I guess they do a lot of things differently in Boone County. (Kentucky?)
Note bocomo and the white around MO in Democrats.
fyi, local paper reporting that Diehl cancelled the event.
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p>http://southshorexpress.com/wh…
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p>So now we’re paying Diehl’s legislative aide to assist with communications about his fundraiser? This guy keeps giving!