ATTORNEY GENERAL: ANDREA CAMPBELL FLIP FLOPPER! NO FOR MASSACHUSETTS! ANDREA CAMPBELL IS INCAPABLE OF IMPARTIALITY!

ANDREA CAMPBELL talks a good game...FLIP FLOPPER!

ANDREA CAMPBELL IS NOT A CANDIDATE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL! 

EXCERPT FROM MASSterList:

By Matt Murphy with help from Keith Regan Ethics raised in AG race view today's edition online

Today's News

Good Thursday morning. Candidate for attorney general Quentin Palfrey is escalating his fight to keep outside spending from the race to succeed Attorney General Maura Healey. Palfrey is raising concerns that rival Andrea Campbell's unwillingness to disavow a super PAC created to support her campaign last year for mayor would force her to recuse herself from cases involving major donors, casting doubt on her ability to fully fulfill the role of attorney general. "We've never had a corporate super PAC supporting an AG candidate in Massachusetts history so we're in uncharted territory," Palfrey told MASSterList. His main concern is Better Boston, a super PAC that spent $1.6 million to support Campbell in her unsuccessful run for Boston mayor last year and remains open, though silent on its intentions moving forward. For instance, Palfrey asked, what would have happened if the Walmart family's Jim Walton (who gave $45,000 to Better Boston) had spent large sums in support of Attorney General Martha Coakley before she filed a lawsuit and settled with Walmart in 2009 over alleged violations of the state's meal break laws for employees. Palfrey's concerns are being echoed by some legal scholars and past prosecutors in the attorney general's office. "If someone were asking me would this raise a question or an issue, I would say, 'Yes,' given that we're in uncharted waters here," said David Friedman, senior vice president for legal and government affairs for the Red Sox and a former first assistant attorney general under Attorney General Martha Coakley. Friedman said it's hard to predict how a court would respond to a challenge raised by an entity the attorney general might be investigating or suing, but even an appearance of conflict could matter. Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard University law professor and campaign finance reform advocate, said the role of the attorney general is more akin to a judge than a legislative representative. "It does raise serious questions of conflict," Lessig said. And Jeff Clements, the CEO of American Progress and a former assistant attorney general under both Coakley and Scott Harshbarger, said, "I do think it's serious. The people have to have faith that the attorney general is not unduly influenced." Campbell campaign manager Will Stockton dismissed the concerns of Palfrey and others, telling MASSterList, "It's not an issue because there are no super PACs involved in the race for attorney general." Stockton said Campbell, who has raised nearly $774,000 this year for her own committee, has done so from grassroots donors, far outpacing her rivals. "Andrea's running a people powered campaign. She's not beholden to large corporations or corporate super PACs. She's beholden to the people," Stockton said. "It's unfortunate that during such a tumultuous time Democrats are spreading misinformation about other Democrats."

It’s an Andrea Campbell pile-on

By LISA KASHINSKY 

 

05/12/2022 07:14 AM EDT

KNIVES OUT — With a lackluster fundraising month behind them and the Democratic nominating convention just three weeks away, attorney general candidates Shannon Liss-Riordan and Quentin Palfrey are lobbing new attacks against polling and fundraising leader Andrea Campbell.

Liss-Riordan is accusing Campbell of another "flip-flop," this time over safe consumption sites. As a candidate for Boston mayor last year, Campbell said she supported supervised drug consumption spaces in a questionnaire sponsored by the three Boston-based chapters of Progressive Massachusetts. But when asked in another Progressive Massachusetts questionnaire for attorney general candidates this year whether she’d support legalizing safe consumption sites, Campbell wrote “NO.”

“Safe consumption sites must be part of our strategy to save lives and help get people on the road to recovery from addiction,” Liss-Riordan said in a statement shared first with Playbook.

Palfrey’s latest salvo against Campbell is more convoluted. 

Palfrey is calling on the MassINC Polling Group to stop running polls that are funded by Education Reform Now Advocacy, or to at least add a better disclaimer about who’s funding the polls and where the money’s coming from. That’s because, as Palfrey claims based on blog posts from a former UMass Boston political science professor, Education Reform Now has historically taken millions of dollars from the Walton Family Foundation.

So what does this have to do with Campbell? Jim Walton, a Walmart heir, donated $45,000 in July to the “Better Boston” super PAC that supported Campbell in the mayor’s race. And Campbell led the January MassINC poll of the attorney general race (and others) that was sponsored by Education Reform Now Advocacy.

“Now that we know that Jim Walton is involved in supporting a super PAC that has been in support of one of these candidates, we don’t think it is appropriate for there to simultaneously be money from Walton and the organizations that he is associated with funding polls in this race, and certainly not without a disclosure,” Palfrey said in an interview.

Palfrey did not provide evidence that Walton Family Foundation contributions to Education Reform Now were directly used to pay for the January 2022 poll. Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, said in a statement: “As a matter of policy, The MassINC Polling Group identifies the funder of each poll on every document showing poll results.” Campbell’s campaign declined comment. Education Reform Now did not respond. Full disclosure: Your Playbook scribe hosts a podcast with Koczela.

Palfrey’s calling out MassINC Polling here, but he’s also trying to take a swipe at Campbell. Palfrey’s been on a crusade to get Campbell to disavow Better Boston, which spent $1.6 million in the mayor’s race. And he wants to prevent the PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited sums but can’t coordinate with candidates, from wading into the attorney general race. He’s also had no luck getting Campbell to join Liss-Riordan in signing onto his “People’s Pledge” to limit third-party spending in the race.

“This is a real issue that affects the integrity of the election and could affect the independence of the attorney general,” Palfrey said.

He’s also hammered Campbell over her past support for charter schools, which is where Walton comes in again. Walton poured more than $1.1 million into the failed 2016 ballot campaign to lift the charter school cap. His donation was noted by several media outlets at the time. But Walton’s $45,000 contribution to Better Boston, and Campbell’s stance on charter schools, flew somewhat under the radar in the mayor’s race.

The fresh wave of attacks against Campbell come after Palfrey and Liss-Riordan both posted their lowest fundraising hauls in months in April, and as the state Democratic Party convention, which will help determine who gets on the primary ballot, looms in June.

Massachusetts Playbook