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MassGOP

Pressure mounts on Beacon Hill to pass bill with migrant aid, union contract dollars

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Pressure mounted Monday on Beacon Hill lawmakers to find a deal on a $2.8 billion bill that includes money for more than 90 collective bargaining agreements and strained emergency shelters across the state housing migrant and homeless families.

House Republicans pushed Democratic negotiators in a letter to split off the union dollars from the main proposal as the shelter aid continued to hold up talks that broke down at the end of formal law making last week.

There is clear consensus in both the House and Senate to fund the union contracts, most of which were agreed to months ago, Republicans wrote in the letter.

“These (collective bargaining agreements) contain pay raises for approximately 100,000 workers, many of whom have gone without a COLA or raise in quite some time, even as the cost of living in Massachusetts has continued to climb. These CBAs were negotiated in good faith, and it is imperative that the state fulfill its obligation to fund these contracts,” the letter said.

Sen. John Keenan, a Quincy Democrat, also called on negotiators to advance the collective bargaining agreement money and funding for school districts impacted by special education tuition rate increases.

“Regarding the collective bargaining agreements, the failure to act immediately on these overdue raises would represent a severe injustice to workers who serve the Commonwealth and negotiated in good faith. I respectfully implore the conference committee to report out these and other agreed upon provisions of the spending bill for consideration during an informal legislative session before Thanksgiving,” he said in a Friday letter.

Legislative conservatives made their push to advance the contract funding as hundreds of public employees rallied at the State House early in the day as both branches held their first informal sessions of the week.

SEIU Local 509 President David Foley said members of the union were “preparing to navigate winter holiday and heating bills with wages that were already insufficient last year.”

“Because the Commonwealth has continually failed to make a meaningful investment in our agencies, our members are also facing major staffing, caseload and workplace safety issues daily,” Foley said in a statement. “We’re floored by the total disregard the Legislature has shown for our agencies and our families, and all of our public-sector union siblings.”

The spending bill, which also closes out the books on fiscal year 2023, includes just over $378 million for bargaining agreements. House Republicans told the Herald last week that this may be the latest closeout spending bill in years, something that could have negative effects on the state’s financial health.

Union leaders said they want to see the funding for the contracts land on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk before Thanksgiving.

“We are not interested in excuses. We are not interested in watching legislative leaders play the blame game and point fingers at each other. We view this as everyone’s responsibility, Democrats and Republicans alike, from the first term legislators to the member with the most seniority,” AFSCME Council 93 member Kelly Abreu said in a statement.

Six lawmakers were tasked last week to negotiate a compromise bill, a development Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said allows for “the productive bi-partisan conversation we need among the conferees, representing the members, to at least have a chance for better results than we have seen so far.”

“With bond rating agencies on Wall Street watching, there is a lot hanging in the balance, including funding for a wide array of collective bargaining agreements for thousands of state employees that were negotiated in good faith and deserve to be funded, to millions of dollars in disaster relief for communities impacted by numerous severe weather events,” Tarr said in a Monday statement.

As legislators kicked off a seven-week holiday break that will take them into the new year, advocates for the homeless and migrants held a vigil outside the State House Monday afternoon where they called on Healey to create a state-funded overflow site for families placed on a waitlist for emergency shelter.

Emergency shelters hit Healey’s self-imposed max capacity of 7,500 families earlier this month, triggering a waitlist for future placements and uncertainty among advocates about where people would sleep during cold nights.

Democratic leadership in the House proposed funding a state-run overflow site in the $2.8 billion spending bill, a proposal counterparts in the Senate disagreed with and something that has since held up talks.

Healey has called on the federal government to stand up a large-scale overflow site and moved to create a grant program for overnight shelters administered by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay.

A conference room at the state Transportation Building in Boston will house 25 families, the Healey administration said Monday.

House Speaker Ronald Mariano said families sleeping in a government building is “emblematic of the need for funding that is specifically reserved for overflow shelter options with greater capacity.”

“The House remains committed to ensuring that families in Massachusetts have somewhere safe and warm to sleep at night, and will continue to urge the Administration to identify additional overflow shelter sites going forward,” he said.

Rep. Peter Durant to be sworn-in as state senator on Nov. 29, officials confirm

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State Rep. Peter Durant will be sworn-in as a senator the afternoon of Nov. 29 after winning a special election for a Central Massachusetts seat last week, Senate President Karen Spilka’s office confirmed Wednesday.

Durant, a Spencer Republican, claimed victory over Rep. Jon Zlotnik, a Gardner Democrat who plans to run for reelection to his House seat next year. Durant succeeds Anne Gobi, a Democrat who left the Legislature to serve as rural affairs director for the Healey administration.

“I’m looking forward to our new role and we’re currently working on transition from the old district to make sure that no constituent issues fall through the cracks,” Durant said in a statement to the Herald Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Spilka said the ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. in a yet-to-be-determined location.

Durant will bring the total number of Republicans in the Senate to four, well below the number necessary to break Democrats’ veto-proof majority in the chamber.

But the Massachusetts Republican Party took a victory lap after the election, with MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale saying last week that Durant’s win “signals a comeback for the MassGOP.”

Rep. Peter Durant declares victory in Senate special Republican primary

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State Rep. Peter Durant declared victory Tuesday night in a Republican special primary election for a central Massachusetts Senate seat that was vacated earlier this year by Anne Gobi, who left the Legislature to serve in the Healey administration.

Unofficial election results streamed in as soon as polls closed at 8 p.m. and Durant told the Herald he was declaring victory just before 10 p.m., saying it was “statistically impossible” for his Republican challenger, Bruce Chester, to make up the difference in votes according to unofficial results from town clerks.

The one Democrat in the race, Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik, faced no challenger in his primary and swiftly moved on to the Nov. 7 general election, where he is poised to face off against Durant, a House colleague.

Durant said people are upset about gun rights and the cost of living in Massachusetts.

“And this just proves that the guy from the small town can make a big impact. So we’re very happy with tonight’s results. I think it gives us momentum going into this general election,” he said in an interview. “ I commend (Chester), he put up a very good campaign, and it was pretty hard fought.”

Chester said he conceded to Durant in a phone call after he realized he could not make up the difference in votes.

“But it’s not the end. I talked to (Durant), we’re gonna work together as we should. And, I’m looking forward to making some progress,” he told the Herald. “There’s still the state (representative) race that’s coming up next year. So I’ll be considering that. Right now, I haven’t made up my mind quite yet.”

Republicans have viewed the Senate race as a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in the Senate, where only three conservative lawmakers serve. MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said the Senate district has consistently voted Republican in statewide elections.

“We would expect going into November, that the district will support the Republican nominee. Obviously, we’ll be working to get the message out and communicate with voters,” Carnevale told the Herald. “But we are optimistic headed into November that we’ll be adding to our ranks in the state Senate.”

Durant spent the day in Boston, where a legislative committee was reviewing a major firearms reform bill that Durant said was of particular importance to his constituents.

Durant has primarily focused his campaign on immigration issues, blasting the Healey administration for what he has called an “out-of-hand” situation in Massachusetts. More than 6,800 families, including migrants and homeless individuals, were living in state shelters as of last week as federal officials visited the state to assess the situation.

Local elections typically focus on issues specific to the communities in the district, Durant said, but as the campaign progressed, gun reform and immigration moved “front and center.”

“That was what was on everybody’s mind so it has kind of morphed that way,” he said in an interview hours before polls closed.

Chester, a self-described Constitutional conservative, said he spent the morning working at Fitchburg State University, where he serves as an adjunct professor, with plans to head out to polls later in the afternoon. Chester has previously run against Zlotnik for a local House seat.

A Massachusetts National Guard veteran with a deployment to Iraq under his belt, Chester said he wanted to focus on three main areas — government transparency and accessibility, economic development, and education.

He said he wanted to introduce a “parents bill of rights,” which he described as a working relationship between parents, teachers, and administrators “to where one group isn’t blaming the other.”

“But in reality, the parents have to have the final word because it’s their kids,” Chester said.

Chester had only $56 cash on hand days before the special election after spending nearly $18,000 and pulling in $11,770 in September, according to state campaign finance records. He has also pulled in top donations from major figures in Massachusetts’ Republican orbit.

Former MassGOP chair Jim Lyons donated $1,000 as did Rick Green, the head of 1A  Auto Parts and a major benefactor of Republican causes in the state. Former Republican candidate for attorney general Jay McMahon donated $100 to the campaign.

Durant reported more than $32,000 cash on hand as of Oct. 3, according to the state’s campaign finance office. The Spencer Republican spent nearly $15,000 and brought in over $17,000, records showed.

Top contributors for Durant include Brian Shortsleeve, who runs the venture capital firm M33 Growth, former MassGOP chair Jennifer Nasour, and former gubernatorial candidate Chris Doughty.

Zlotnik reported more than $53,000 cash on hand as of Oct. 4, according to state records.

The Gardner Democrat pointed to workforce and economic development as one of his top priorities in a district where there are both city and rural issues, heavy manufacturing and farming, a college, a hospital, a small airport, and biotech.

“Sometimes there just aren’t people to work, but just as often there’s a skills gap. And I think it needs more attention in terms of job training or retraining,” he said.

MassGOP Chair: Geoff Diehl campaign liable for bulk of party’s $600K debt

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MassGOP officials say the party should not be on the hook for its whopping $600,000 debt, pointing to an audit that shows losing Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl’s campaign is responsible for a majority of the charges.

Party Chair Amy Carnevale said the bulk, or $404,000 of the $602,000 in unpaid invoices she inherited from past Chair Jim Lyons are from advertising and media-related expenses authorized and signed by the Diehl campaign, “but incredibly were billed well after Election Day to the MassGOP.”

“Not on my watch,” Carnevale said in a Friday email to state Republicans. “We are auditing all these invoices to determine who is ultimately responsible for paying them because we have not received sufficient documentation from the vendor.”

The majority of these charges were for radio and television ads related to the governor’s race, according to MassGOP Executive Director John Milligan. The audit, he said, will differentiate between what expenses the party is liable for, which includes appearances authorized and hosted by MassGOP, and what Diehl’s campaign should pay for.

“There will be some amount of that $404,000 that the party is liable for,” Carnevale, who defeated Lyons for party leadership in January, told the Herald. “But it’s clear that a significant amount of that expense is Diehl-related, that should never have been billed to the MassGOP in the first place.”

Diehl and Lyons did not respond to a request for comment.

While on a “much smaller scale,” Milligan said a similar situation occurred with other Republican candidates, for state senator and representative, in the past election cycle.

Between those campaigns, the party was billed a total of $29,500 by Mittcom, the same vendor that sent the unpaid invoices for Diehl, he said.

The remainder of the party’s “enormous debt,” as described by Friday’s email, is due to issues with how the party handled candidate payment for coordinated mail, Milligan said.

Since MassGOP has an “indicia,” a marking that is used as a substitute for stamps, candidates will direct the businesses that design and print their campaign mail to bill the party, to receive its bulk mail discount.

Candidates will then send a check to MassGOP to cover those printing costs, Milligan said, “but what ended up happening here is that the money that was coming in from candidates was spent in other ways,” rather than going toward paying those small businesses.

“In this case, it’s not that what happened was in violation of any campaign finance law to my knowledge, but the candidates did give the money to the party with an expectation that their printers would be paid,” Milligan said.

Expenses the audit deems are not the party’s responsibility, however, will not be paid by MassGOP, he said. It will likely be up to the vendor, Mittcom, to redirect those invoices to the campaigns that authorized the payment.

Carnevale and Milligan are clear, though, on blaming former Chair Lyons, for saddling the party with its massive debt.

There are always leftover invoices when there’s a transition in party leadership, but Milligan said everyone he’s spoken to, whether from the Republican National Committee, state parties or vendors, “are continually shocked by the situation that we’ve been left with.”

“I would say that it’s definitely difficult,” Milligan said. “I think some donors are skittish about giving money to an organization to basically pay off what they see as other people’s debt. So that definitely is impacting us.”

The party is back in the black, for now, Carnevale said, thanks to $100,000 raised in March by MassGOP donors.

Carnevale said the party is also working with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to audit invoices shared between the MassGOP and dozens of campaign committees, regarding $300,000 in spending that was misreported during the last campaign cycle.

This will require “scores of candidates” to amend their OCPF filings along with the party, work that Carnevale described as “ongoing but nearing conclusion.”

Further, Carnevale, for the first time, recommended that Republican State Committee members take the advice of outside counsel Brian Kelly, and vote to dismiss a lawsuit Lyons filed against MassGOP Treasurer Patrick Crowley last year, for control of the party’s bank account.

The lawsuit is the only one that remains of the four Carnevale said she inherited from the former chair, all of which involved using MassGOP finances to pursue inter-party litigation.

In the past, Carnevale said her position had been to let State Committee members determine whether to continue with the remaining litigation. But she said she decided to make her view known because continued litigation would result in “serious and significant” consequences for the party.

It’s time to get “past the cycle of Republicans suing Republicans,” she said, and focus on elections.

“This is a painful circumstance we inherited, and it will not be easy to resolve,” Carnevale said.

MassGOP picks Amy Carnevale to steer party’s future

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Massachusetts Republicans nearly stuck with party chairman Jim Lyons for another two-year term, despite disastrous election results over his four-year tenure, but instead narrowly decided Tuesday night to give Amy Carnevale a shot at running the shrinking party.

Members of the Republican State Committee voted 37-34 to pick Carnevale as the MassGOP’s next top leader, placing the job of restoring the Grand Old Party’s diminished influence on Beacon Hill and among voters in the hands of a longtime lobbyist and former Capitol Hill staffer.

Republicans needed two rounds of voting to make a final decision after no candidate earned the needed 37 votes on the first ballot, according to POLITICO, a reflection of the tense fight that had played out in the weeks and months leading up to the leadership shuffle.

“Congratulations are in order for the newest chair of the party, Amy @CarnevaleMHD!” the official MassGOP account tweeted Tuesday night. “Best of luck to Amy, a very capable leader, who will work to unite the MassGOP!”

The vote boots Lyons, a former state representative and conservative hard-liner, from the party chair role after a four-year stint during which he repeatedly clashed with popular moderate Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and fellow state committee members.

In that span, the Republican super-minority in the House and Senate shrunk even smaller, the party’s finances fell into disarray, and Democrats seized back the corner office with the election of Gov. Maura Healey, giving them trifecta control atop Beacon Hill.

Carnevale spent a decade working for former U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican who entered office in 1995 after unseating House Speaker Tom Foley, eventually as his chief of staff.

Since 2005, she has worked in both state and federal government affairs for K&L Gates, an influential firm, according to her LinkedIn. Baker appointed Carnevale to the Governor’s Commission on Intellectual Disability in 2017.

The Boston Globe reported that Carnevale pitched fellow state committee members Tuesday on rebuilding and professionalizing the party’s operations.

“By every metric, we are failing,” Carnevale said, according to the Globe. “For the sake of the conservative policies we advocate, our remaining officeholders, members of our party, and future candidates, we need a fresh start.”

Like Lyons, who made his vocal and repeated support of former President Donald Trump a central theme of his chairmanship, Carnevale was a backer of the Republican president. She helped campaign for Trump in 2016 and praised him during his time in office.

She condemned the violent Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s election, calling the intrusion “a serious crime” and arguing that Trump “should have made absolutely clear that he was committed to the orderly transfer of power.”

Carnevale criticized Lyons’s approach as chair, telling talk show personality Howie Carr in December that he was “a distraction to Republicans running for office and a hindrance to raising money.”

MassGOP chair investigated two party members; leadership vote looms

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MassGOP Treasurer Patrick Crowley said the firm that Chairman Jim Lyons hired to allegedly investigate the governor’s personal life was also used to conduct “opposition research” into two Republican state committee members.

Those two members, Lindsay Valanzola and Matthew Sisk, have been critical of Lyons’ leadership style, another committee member said.

“As part of my due diligence as treasurer of the party, I re-reviewed the campaign finance reports that have been filed since February 2022 to make sure the reports are accurate,” Crowley said in a Friday email to committee members that was shared with the Herald.

“As part of this review, I have identified another discrepancy that will require amending our filings.”

According to Crowley, the party’s April 2022 quarterly Federal Election Commission report lists a vendor named “STRIM” with no address, for “IT services.”

Crowley said he reached out to STIRM group, the private investigations firm Lyons hired to allegedly conduct opposition research into Democrat Maura Healey during the gubernatorial campaign, and was provided with an invoice for a “background check that was conducted on Lindsay Valanzola.”

“As this was the second discrepancy with this vendor, I asked for information regarding any additional work that was done for the MA GOP,” Crowley wrote. “As a partial response to this inquiry, I was provided the attached invoice for an investigation on another state committee member.”

According to the invoices, also provided to the Herald, Lyons was billed $800 for “investigation fees,” dated Sept. 1, 2021, for Valanzola and $1,000 for a background investigation into Sisk, dated May 13, 2021, which included retrieving his records from Norfolk Probate and Family Court.

Crowley told committee members on Thursday that the party was on the hook for a $52,467 payment for the Healey probe, and wrote Friday that party resources were also used to pay for the Valanzola investigation, citing campaign finance filings.

The Sisk investigation was paid for by a third party, Crowley said, referencing a check for $1,000 he provided to committee members, “and does not appear on any campaign finance filings of the party.”

This check was made out to STIRM group, from a party that lists its address as 2119 Main St. in Tewksbury, which, according to an internet search, is the same address as Lyons’ family business, Dandi-Lyons.

“Once I get guidance from the OCPF and/or FEC, I will let you know what actions I need to take regarding this expenditure,” Crowley wrote.

According to sources, Lyons was investigating whether Valanzola lives in Massachusetts, as part of his bid to remove her from the state committee, and was looking into Sisk’s divorce and the legitimacy of his first marriage.

Sisk’s first wife is foreign, but was legally in the United States with a H1-B visa, which allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, a source said.

Sisk declined comment, and Valanzola did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Michael Valanzola, another state committee member, told the Herald Lyons hired a private investigator to follow his sister, Lindsay, across the country when she was on business trips.

“It’s sad and weird and odd and pretty much consistent with his, you know, behaviors in general,” Michael Valanzola said. “So I can’t say I’m stunned — just disappointed.”

Lindsay Valanzola is listed on her LinkedIn account as a pre-sales operation manager who works in Nashville, and Lyons was trying to prove that she lived there as well, her brother said.

Michael Valanzola said Lindsay works “in between Newton and Nashville,” and is a resident and registered voter in “good standing” in Massachusetts.

Lindsay Valanzola is listed as the committee’s assistant secretary on the MassGOP website, but her seat is listed as vacant on a list of state committee members.

According to Michael Valanzola, Lyons has been attempting to remove his sister from the state committee for about two years, but has been unsuccessful in several avenues.

Lyons made attempts through an investigatory committee consisting of MassGOP committee members, the secretary of state’s office, and their hometown board of registrars in Wales, according to Michael Valanzola.

“There’s nothing removable and he doesn’t have the authority to do it,” Michael said. “So, now he’s just arbitrarily decided he’s going to declare a vacancy. This is really all because this is going to be a close election, and he’s attempting to remove any members that he believes won’t vote for him.”

Lyons did not respond to a request for comment.

Amy Carnevale, a frontrunner in the race for chair, said “these kinds of actions perpetuate a culture of dysfunction on the committee.”

“It is troubling that the chairman would investigate members of his own committee using a private investigative service, whether that was paid for with committee dollars or personal dollars,” Carnevale said.

The MassGOP chair election will be held on Jan. 31 in Marlboro.