AG Candidate Palfrey Calls for Massachusetts Legislature to Take Up Campaign Finance Reform

In full transparency, the following is a press release from the Palfrey campaign submitted to SOURCE media. (stock photo)

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BOSTON – Former Assistant Attorney General Quentin Palfrey called on the Massachusetts legislature to take up campaign finance reform to tackle the corrosive influence of special interest money in politics.

“This election is a textbook case of what is wrong with our campaign finance system,” Palfrey said. “With rich candidates self-financing multimillion dollar advertising campaigns and corporate special interest donors polluting our campaigns through superPACs, big donors have too much power on Beacon Hill and special interest money threatens to drown out grassroots voices in our elections.” 

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Palfrey called for four immediate reforms:

1. Fully fund the public financing system so that all candidates who agree to limit expenditures can benefit from clean elections support to counter the effect of multi-million dollar self-financed candidates and corporate superPACs.

2. Ban “red-boxing” – a strategy for bypassing rules against candidates coordinating with superPACs through dedicated website pages that aim to signal where and how candidates would like help from affiliated superPACs. 

3. Require superPACs that receive dark money from 501(c)(4) organizations to disclose their donors, closing a loophole that allows unlimited undisclosed donations to come into Massachusetts campaigns.

4. Clarify conflict-of-interest rules to make it clear that elected officials covered by the Rules of Professional Conduct for Lawyers may not work on matters involving large corporate donors to superPACs.

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“Since Citizens United, corporate special interest money has polluted our elections and undermined faith in our democracy,” Palfrey said. “This year’s elections make it clear that reforms are badly needed to ensure that our elections are free and fair. Voters deserve to base their decisions on which candidates have the best experience and policies for the job, not based on which multi-millionaires and corporate superPACs spend the most on advertising.”

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