FITCHBURG — The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance calls itself a nonpartisan voter-education group, and as a result, doesn’t have to pay taxes or disclose its contributors.
That nonprofit status is now under review, however, as a result of an email the organization sent out during the recent Fitchburg state-representative election.
When Democratic state Rep. Stephan Hay was running for office in February, the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance sent out a political mailer targeting him for failing to respond to a political questionnaire it had sent him.
A month later, the Democratic Party has a complaint against Mass Fiscal Alliance pending with the Office for Campaign and Political Finance, arguing the mailer and an email preceding it calling for a funding “blitz” prove Mass Fiscal is operating as a political action committee.
The state Democratic Party have filed these complaints before, but this one is being “seriously investigated,” The Boston Globe reported, citing an unnamed source.
“I think (the language in this email) was the result of them getting comfortable,” said state Democratic Party Press Secretary Pat Beaudry. “We caught them slipping.”
Hay said the February mailer implied he had declined to answer directly questions about publicizing meeting minutes, taxing Internet sales and prioritizing illegal immigrants over veterans in public housing.
He was frustrated with the wrongful implication that he was refusing to answer questions that his opponent, Republican Dean Tran, was willing to answer. Hay said he was never contacted directly, and his “denial to respond” was simply a decision not to fill out one of many questionnaires he received from groups during the campaign season.
The Massachusetts Democratic Party was even more frustrated to see that Mass Fiscal Alliance Finance Director Jordanne Anderson had sent an email to potential donors just days before the mailer went out, calling for an “all-out blitz” to “execute Mass Fiscal’s mission.”
“Your help is important to our success,” the email continued, “and the sooner you can send your donation, the greater our chances are.”
Mass Fiscal Alliance ultimately spent $2,987 on designing, printing and sending the mailers to Fitchburg and Lunenburg voters.
The Democratic Party saw the plan for a “blitz” the week before special elections in Fitchburg and Peabody as fundraising to attack Democrats running for the Fitchburg and Peabody seats, with the “mission” of getting their Republican opponents elected.
This would be considered partisan activity, which could threaten Mass. Fiscal Alliance’s 501c4 nonprofit status.
“I hope they lose their 501c4 status,” said Hay. “To me, an ‘all-out blitz’ means you’re going against somebody.”
The complaint, filed in mid-March by state Sen. Tom McGee, chairman of the state Democratic Party, alleges that Mass. Fiscal Alliance “is soliciting funds to support specific candidates in two upcoming special elections, (and) by doing so, is operating as a political action committee.”
Jason Tait, communications director for the Office for Campaign and Political Finance, said the organization cannot comment on complaints under review, but clarified the office’s definition of a PAC: “an entity that raises and spends money for the purpose of supporting or opposing candidates.”
The problem, Tait said, is “there’s a lot of gray area” when it comes to what constitutes supporting a candidate.
Mass. Fiscal Alliance, however, operates as a 501c4 organization, meaning it doesn’t have to disclose financial contributions or whom they’re from.
This status is what the Democratic Party has taken issue with.
“They have the right to campaign against me, but they don’t have the right to do that and not let us see who their contributors are,” Hay said.
“They’ve been operating as a Super PAC but have not operated under the PAC regulations in terms of disclosing their funding,” said Beaudry. “Their leadership is packed with Republican political operatives, and they’re clearly getting money from the state GOP.”
Rick Green, chairman of Mass. Fiscal Alliance’s board of directors, is a former candidate for chairman of the state Republican Party. Finance Chairman Jim Rappaport is a former chairman of the state GOP, a former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and a former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
Political Director Carl Copeland is former chief of staff for then-Rep. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, and Republican Rep. Kevin Kuros, while Legislative Director Laurie Belsito previously worked at conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
Anderson was campaign manager for Fattman’s successful run for state Senate, and Mass. Fiscal Alliance Executive Director Paul Craney is a former regional director of the state GOP and former executive director of the Washington, D.C., GOP.
Craney said Mass. Fiscal Alliance’s “legislator scorecard,” in which it grades state legislators based on their votes on issues related to taxes, spending, budgets and government transparency, is a good example of its nonpartisanship.
“I do hear it from Republicans, like I hear it from Democrats, that they don’t like how we score votes,” Craney said. “Our scorecard has all 200 legislators listed, and this session, only two people received a grade of 100 percent.”
Both of these legislators, state Reps. Marc Lombardo and James Lyons, are Republicans. The highest-rated senator was Fattman, at 97 percent. No Republicans scored below an 83 percent.
Conversely, no Democrat scored above 63 percent, and only four had a score above a 40. The lowest Democrat, state Rep. Martha Walz, scored a 0.
Beaudry said Mass. Fiscal Alliance has a history of targeting Democratic legislators during election season.
“I’ve been here since August 2014, and during the 2014 election cycle, we saw Mass. Fiscal flood the mailboxes of 20 incumbent Democrat state rep districts with (a mailer similar to this one),” he said.
That year, the state Democratic Party filed a complaint with the OCPF alleging that the organization was purposely painting Democratic candidates in a negative light, and was campaigning to oppose them rather than informing voters on the issues.
Beaudry said Democrats “fought hard” to get Mass. Fiscal Alliance to register as a PAC in 2014, but their complaint was closed administratively, meaning it was found to be legally baseless.
Complaints can be resolved by an administrative closure, where there is no reason to move forward, said the OCPF’s Tait.
If there is reason to move forward with an investigation, a complaint will have some sort of public resolution, like a resolution letter stating no further action is warranted, a disposition agreement that requires a fine to be paid, or a referral to the Attorney General’s Office.
Tait had records of two complaints filed by the state Democratic Party against Mass. Fiscal Alliance, one in 2012 and one in 2014.
Both complaints were closed administratively.
Craney said there was no merit to these complaints, especially because Mass. Fiscal Alliance typically gets mailers’ language approved by the OCPF before sending them out. It also got the Hay/Tran mailer pre-approved, he added.
Though past complaints have not resulted in any action against Mass. Fiscal Alliance, Beaudry said the party has a particularly strong case this time.
“We found the language in that email especially blatant,” Beaudry said. “The fact that they were calling for an ‘all-out blitz’ right before an election struck us. I don’t understand why a nonprofit would be putting out an all-out educational blitz. It felt like they were building up a warchest to attack Stephan Hay.”
Craney disagreed.
“(The email) does not mention a candidate, and it’s very hard to solicit money for a candidate without mentioning the candidate,” he said.
He added that “it’s totally permissible for groups like us to get engaged in elections.”
“Some groups are trying to get voters to think about energy issues or environmental issues, and we’re trying to put in the minds of our voters fiscal responsibility issues,” Craney said. “There’s nothing illegal about it; it’s completely normal.”
Complaints filed with the OCPF can take weeks, months or years to resolve, said Tait.
The complaint against Mass. Fiscal Alliance is presumably under review right now, because it has been filed and information about it is not yet public.
When it’s resolved, the resolution will become public information.
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