From Nat Fortune for State Auditor:
October 6th, 2010
CONNAUGHTON OVERLOOKS OWN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM LOBBYISTS
In brief remarks today, Green-Rainbow Party State Auditor candidate Nat Fortune said Republican candidate Mary Connaughton was right to criticize Democratic candidate Suzanne Bump’s reliance on contributions from political action committees and lobbyists, but also noted that Connaughton failed to bring up her own campaign’s dependence on industry and lobbyists.
“Looks like Mary Connaughton needs to do a closer audit of her own campaign,” said Fortune. “As of 20 July 2010, the independent watchdog group National Institute for Money in State Politics http://www.followthemoney.org/ had identified at least a dozen contributions from lobbyists to her campaign, including prominent Beacon Hill lobbyists Thomas Trimarco of O’Neil and Associates and Robert White of Robert White and Associates,” Fortune continued. Other contributors included Daniel Haley and William Weld of the New York based lobbying group McDermett, Will, and Emery, recent lobbyists in Massachusetts for Raytheon Corporation and the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers (2008).
“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.”
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