Following an independent investigation by the Massachusetts Republican Party revealing multiple campaign finance violations, MassGOP Chairwoman Kristen Hughes filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint Tuesday against Attorney Gen. Martha Coakley, urging the committee to take whatever corrective action the committee deems appropriate against her.
Hughes called for the investigation on Coakley after the Boston Globe published a spotlight series with details showing Coakley’s campaign for governor may have illegally used money from Coakley’s federal account as attorney general instead for state activities because the balances on the account did not match certain reported expenditures.
“If it turns out that these allegations are true … this disqualifies her from getting the Democratic nomination, and certainly people would have to weigh her actions and her record against that of the Republicans,” said Will Ritter, spokesman for MassGOP.
The spotlight series by the Boston Globe, which was published Nov. 3, stated Coakley’s campaign used money from her federal account, which was set up when she ran for U.S. Senate in 2009, to pay for advertising during the state party convention before announcing that she was running for governor. Coakley also purchased volunteer database software for $35,000 during her race for Senate, which may have also been used for her state campaign.
The FEC sent emails notifying Coakley about the account, but were ignored leading to a delay in resolving the issue. Ritter said Coakley is entirely responsible and should not run in the 2014 gubernatorial election.
“For a person who is the top cop, who is the attorney general, for her to be so flagrantly out of line with her own finances just shows liberal hypocrisy and incompetence that we don’t think should be allowed in the governor’s office,” he said.
Kyle Sullivan, spokesman of the Coakley campaign, said the emails were sent to a non-functioning email address and were not seen by Coakley or her campaign, which explains why the emails were not responded to.
“At some point after the end of the Senate election, the FEC began sending notices about the Coakley federal account to an invalid email address,” he said. “The Committee was not aware of the issues with the reports because they did not receive the email notices. Once we were made aware of the issues, the campaign moved immediately to contact the FEC and address the issues.”
Sullivan said the federal account money she spent during the state party convention was due to a mistake by her campaign and steps are being now taken to close the federal account.
“It appears that a $1,200 ad placed in the state convention was incorrectly paid for from that account instead of her state account,” he said. “We regret the error and will reimburse the funds. The Coakley Committee is working with the FEC to file amended reports, and once that is complete will be taking steps to close the federal account by the end of the year.”
Katie Prisco-Buxbaum, spokesman for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said the investigation against Coakley is a political move by the Republicans to distract voters from Charlie Baker’s role in financing the Big Dig project, an expensive highway renovation project that caused a woman’s death in 2006.
“The Republican Party trying to deflect attention from the real financial issue that we should all be discussing, which is the crisis we faced in transportation as a result of the Big Dig financing decision that Republicans authored and Charlie Baker helped author,” she said.
Prisco-Buxbaum said she is not concerned about Massachusetts’s residents voting against Democrats in the upcoming election.
“They [voters] are going to see the Republican Party is making an issue of something in order to continue diverting attention away from the real issues,” she said. “Massachusetts voters will not be tricked by this move and they really know where the Republican Party stands.”
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Katie, come on, this investigation was not started by the Republicans. It was uncovered by the Globe and they were reacting to it, as they should. She broke the law on a number of occasions and paid her cousin over $35,000 to oversee a campaign database which they never used. She should step down from her job as AG until an independent investigation is completed