OCPF wants to limit labor union campaign contributions
I think most voters realize that labor unions have used their considerable power to help shape the outcomes of elections here in Mass and across the country. OCPF is proposing new limits on how much money unions can donate to campaigns. It's about time I say.
The caps would be 1000.00 for a single candidate, 500.00 to political action committees and party committees to 5000.00. It's well past the time to make this adjustment to our political system.
This is a big one. The Office of Campaign and Political Finance is
weighing a rules change that would dramatically cut the amount unions
can donate directly to candidates from $15,000 to $1,000, reports Matt Stout at the Globe and Shira Schoenberg at MassLive.
There's little doubt this could be a major sea-change in how
campaigns are funded in Massachusetts, as well as a victory for
conservative groups that have long been bothered by what they contend is
a huge union-funding loophole in state campaign finance laws. SHNS’s
Matt Murphy (pay wall) reports that Paul Craney, head of the Mass.
Fiscal Alliance, is “pleased” by the office’s action, but he said he
"can't be satisfied" because he doesn’t believe OCPF has the power to
set specific limits on unions.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 10:12 AM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
why are they targeting union donations? What about out of state donations, dark money, political action committees? this seems like a pretty unfair attack on unions. Make the donation limits the same for any and all groups, and eliminate out of state money and dark money. that would be the right thing to do
I see the ACLU challenging this. You can limit one group and not others. I think this is a good thing, but not if it only targets the unions
This is a result of the anti-labor, anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-black, anti-Muslim sentiment that exists here in our country now. Unions are valuable, more valuable in this environment than previously. When are we going to start leveling the playing field instead of corrupting it. Do you really think Union dollars are the problem in our elections? IF you do, then you missed what happened on the Nurse staffing question here last November. Nurses unions fought for the nurses, but all the deep pocket organizations poured the money in to override what the nurses wanted and showed was needed. DO we need campaign finance reform? YES! Is the unions the place to start with this, I think not.
I think this is good news. Unions have outgrown their need. Time to reel these guys in
by limiting the amount of campaign donations, overall is what we need to stop the influence that money has over who is elected and what laws are enacted. If adopted, unions would be under the same rules as individuals. I'm with Pam Wilmont from Common Cause Massachusetts on this one "all campaign finance limits should be the same for all kinds of organizations and any exceptions should have a clear reason"
I agree 100% with your last comment Jim. That is the only sensible thing to do to make this fair
If you are going after the unions then go after all the other weird stuff too. OCPF action against Stefanini is one example.
I agree ... no one should be exempt from the campaign finance rules.. no one
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