By the time you read this, you’ll know who won all the primary election races. Because this column goes to bed on Wednesdays I’ll have to wait until next week to comment on the outcomes.
It also means that some of this week’s items may be moot points as of today. And so it goes.
In the week leading up to the Thursday primary, two candidates were hit with allegations of campaign finance shenanigans. First, C. Samuel Sutter, Bristol County DA and candidate for the Ninth Congressional District, blasted Congressman William R. Keating (D) for accepting special interest donations, specifically from the American Crystal Sugar PAC.
Rep. Keating last year received $10,000 from the American Crystal Sugar PAC, which represents a Minnesota-based sugar beet harvesting and processing firm (no, I am not making that up) that, also last year, locked out 1,300 workers during a labor dispute. Half the money was donated before the lock-out.
The national arm of the AFL-CIO asked all Congressmen who received donations from “Big Sugar Beet” (my term, not theirs) to return the donations. Rep. Keating, who said he was unaware of the whole thing until recently, donated the money to the affected union workers.
Mr. Sutter nevertheless chided his Democratic rival for a slow response and reiterated his boast that he would not accept PAC money.
And then there is the latest in a series of campaign donation missteps for State Representative Demetrius J. Atsalis (D – Barnstable). The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance received this week a complaint that Rep. Atsalis had accepted inappropriate donations in excess of state limits, improperly reimbursed himself for expenses, and spent money on a campaign office he does not actually have.
The Yarmouth-based accounting agency Glivinski and Associates took the bullet for Rep. Atsalis on these offenses and took the necessary steps to correct the problems.
Point of interest: the individual who filed these complaints and sent copies to the local media did so anonymously for fear of retribution by Rep. Atsalis, but I spoke to “Robert” directly and confirmed that, despite the curious timing of the filing, it (and he) had nothing to do with Rep. Atsalis’s primary race against Brian R. Mannal.
The timing was simply due to the fact that this week was when Rep. Atsalis’s pre-primary campaign finance report was released to the public, Robert said.
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Thomas F. Keyes of Sandwich, Republican candidate for State Senator of the Plymouth and Barnstable District, continues to build his on-the-ground presence in preparation for the November general election.
Mr. Keyes recently announced that Falmouth residents Jan Perry, Debbie Aguiar, Mimi Frank, and Mary Anne and Mark Alliegro will serve as precinct captains to help boost Mr. Keyes grass-roots efforts in town.
Political news and announcements may be e-mailed to Michael Bailey, senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net.
Tags: Demetrius Atsalis, Ninth Congressional District, Sam Sutter, Tom Keyes, William Keating
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
