FROM OUR PRINTED AUG. 1, 2021 EDITION
July 21, 2021
Mr. Scott Lemay
7 Sunday Woods Road
Weston, MA 01494
Dear Mr. Lemay:
I am responding to your letter of July 12, 2021.
While I have shared my thoughts on this matter with many of my colleagues on the State Committee, so many of whom concur with my assessment, for the purposes of this response I speak only for myself.
I will start by telling you that when someone offers me a quid pro quo, and at the end of that offer is $1mm if I do as asked, that in my opinion it is rather unseemly. Because the facts are that only the 80 State Committee members that you and your associates solicited have the power to change leadership. And furthermore as this letter will show, you are not exclusively Republican donors concerned only with the Party. Instead you are more people of influence, who would in my opinion benefit substantially from a leadership change. Given all of that, when you make it very clear and in writing that should those members do as you ask the organization over which we serve as Board Members will be the recipient of $1mm, that does not sit well with me, or many others I would guess. Personnally I think that you all should be ashamed of yourselves.
Now as I said, if you were solid hard-core Republicans who donated exclusively to Republicans and our cause, or if you had in the past shown even the slightest concern for the direction of the Party that would be one thing. But as a review of your donations will show, as well as your complete and utter past silence on our Party and our direction, you expose yourselves as people concerned only with increasing your sphere of influence.
[Before we peel back the donations, I should note that in doing this analysis, I used OCPF and FEC data going back to January 1, 2017. And in that time frame I tried as best I could to couple the donations of spouses. In the event a donor might have had more than one address, or a maiden name, I tried to account for those situations as well.]
So let’s start with the donations made by you. Oddly enough in that 5 year period, your political donations as reported to OCPF totaled $19,000, or just about $5,000 per year. Of the total, $14,000 was made directly to either Baker or Polito. The remaining $5000 was made mostly to local people. You did give $20,000 in Federal monies in 2017 and 2018, but as soon as Lyons got elected in January 2019, word immediately went out from Baker to you and the other 3 Federal contributors. Baker told you what to do and you immediately stopped giving. Which is fine, but please just don’t lie to me and tell me donations stopped because of the event of the past six weeks. That is nonsense and you know it. You stopped because you were following Baker’s orders. Leave it at that. Spare me the lectures.
One of the signers is Jessica Beeson Tocco. Her claim to fame is her recent Instagram post, where, pictured with Senator Ed Markey she posts “Always a pleasure supporting longtime friend and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey.” And my colleagues and I are supposed to quake in our boots that she might not throw us a crumb now and again? Speaking of which, her actual donations seem to back up her affection for Democrats. Of the $2866, almost all of it went to Dems and recipients too obscure to talk about. Again, she did in fact give $12,000 in Federal money to the State Party, but none after the Baker battle cry following the Lyons election. She is by the way a Registered Lobbyist.
How about Kim Dacier? She gave $2500 to DeLeo, and another $1500 to Spilka. Nothing more.
Jonathan Bush? In the period he donated a whole $500, all of it to Shawn Dooley. Heaven forbid Mr. Bush stops donating to our Party!
James Grossman? He donated just $500, all directly to Karen Polito. And these people lecture us?
But maybe these donors gave under another name. If so, I am sure the nice people at OCPF would love to know about it. Please feel free to call them.
But David Howe better than any other donor makes my case. He and his wife donated $21,500 in that period. Of that $2000 went to the acting Mayor of Boston Democrat Kim Janey. Another $3000 went to former Democrat Mayor Marty Walsh. And $6000 to Michael Flaherty. When they did get around to donating to Republicans, $2000 went directly to Baker. And $5000 did go to our state Party, but not one cent after Jim got elected as Chair. Many of us had a hunch that Baker turned off the tap after Jim got elected. Now we know it for certain.
But let’s go to some bigger money guys, like Christopher Egan. While he did contribute $88,000 in the period, and his contributions are more consistent with the Republican Party, he did however donate $1000 to Rachel Rollins, and he did make at least some other questionable donations. In his defense however he did give $20,000 in Federal funds, but again none after he got his marching orders. He might have been a great help to our Party had Baker not done what he always does – turn his back on our Party.
Dan Quirk donated $133,000. Of that $8000 was direct to Baker/Polito. But $5000 went to Democrat Bill Galvin, $4500 went to Dem State Rep Mark Cusack and $4200 went to local candidate Nina Liang. (Let’s hope Mr. Quirk never finds out Ms. Liang attended Catholic school! ) The Mass Majority Pac got $25,000 from Egan, but as we all know it proudly supports Democrats and Republicans alike. To his credit, $5000 did go to the State Party in 2019, but none after that. He gave $20,000 to the Federal pre-Lyons, but like Mr. Egan grew short arms after getting the directive.
Kingston made some decent donations also, but he was the original never-Trumper, and the guy behind Evan McMullen, who he got into the race only to deny Trump the nomination in 2016. He also made a very questionable and unsavory $2000 donation to Kirsten Hughes’ local campaign account while she was Chair and he was locked in a Primary. So who really cares about what this Hillary supporter thinks.
So at the end of the day, it is my take that you and your co-conspirators are nothing but a bunch of phonies and frauds For the most part you have little to offer, and you are to be considered more “influence peddlers” than anything else.
Your letter is full of lies. We as a Party are far from insolvent as you claim. At our last meeting we were informed that we as a Party have almost $¼ mm on hand, no thanks to you charlatans.
You speak of past success. What planet have you been living on? Since Kaufman and The Establishment Boys grabbed hold of party leadership so many years ago, we have won only 5 congressional races. If that is your definition of success, I must say that I would have loved to work for you when I was a businessman. Your low standards would have ensured my personal success!
And what of Baker? If you haven’t noticed the results since his first election in 2014, let me point out the obvious – Baker has no coattails! Period! Jim Lyons at least offers some hope for the future. Under past leadership there was none. All moo, no meat! Jim Lyons offers real hope for the future, a vision that includes a Republican Party that fights for our principles, unafraid to advocate for freedom, liberty, and personal responsibility.
You claim moral outrage, yet have been silent on our VP Controversy. And after Lyons was brave enough to come forward with concerns about how the monies you and others donated in 2017 and 2018 were spent, you said nothing. I am sure that all of you are quite proud of your success as men and women of business, but from where I stand someone needs to teach you all the value of a buck.
As for your money, I looked back at the Tank the Gas Tax ballot initiative of 2014. It was the single greatest tax victory in Massachusetts since Prop 2 ½. With the exception of Dan Quirk, not one of you donated anything in support of this most grassroots of grassroots efforts. We won without your help then and the MA GOP will win without your help very soon Jim Lyons is building a donor base that includes the grassroots, and does not need or want to depend upon lobbyists and influence peddlers for receipts.
I realize my words are strong, but I assure you I am unafraid to talk to you or any of you face to face. So feel free to call me. I will meet any time and any place. I must admit to you however that it is my strong guess that when the phone doesn’t ring, I’ll know it’s you.
Regards
Steve Aylward
Republican State Committeeman
Second Suffolk & Middlesex
