Next year’s proposed ballot question on workers’ rights, which is funded by corporate giants like Uber and Lyft, will likely shatter campaign spending records in Massachusetts. Campaign finance disclosure laws have been rendered archaic in the post-Citizens United era. It’s time for the Legislature to update our laws, and for the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to hold ballot committees accountable and give the public the information it deserves.
In Massachusetts, new records have been set on ballot measure spending in 2014, 2016, and 2020. Big Tech companies funding the attack on Massachusetts workers’ rights spent over $200 million — much of it foreign money — winning a similar measure in California. Ballot committees have been set up for and against the measure, but almost no disclosure is required until January 2022 and then not again until September 2022.
That’s grossly inadequate.
In 2016, wealthy individuals poured millions of dollars into the ballot measure to increase charter schools in Massachusetts, a dark-money scheme that hid true donors behind upbeat names like Families for Excellent Schools. FES used images of women and children of color in their advertising. When the Office of Campaign and Political Finance ordered disclosure, it was revealed that the hidden funders were wealthy and white, and the decision makers and high-level staff were white professionals. FES’s ballot committee, called Great Schools Massachusetts, spent almost $22 million, but only $317,000 went directly to women and/or minority-owned firms.
Similar to FES, Big Tech’s campaign prominently features workers of color. The California proposition misled voters and harmed workers. Uber stock immediately rose 14% and shareholders — largely foreign governments and corporations — increased their wealth by $10.5 billion.
The Office of Campaign and Political Finance has cracked down on dark money. Now we can see the real check writers. But we can only do that when disclosure is required. Right now, we don’t have enough disclosure. The public will be in the dark until 2021 year-end reports are filed on Jan. 20, 2022. We won’t get another peek inside until Sept. 9, 2022.
There may be a way to get a look at the money raised and spent so far. On Aug. 3, the Flexibility and Benefits for Massachusetts Drivers (funded by the corporations) and the Coalition to Protect Workers Rights (unions and community groups) ballot committees filed organization papers with OCPF. The latter committee voluntarily filed a fundraising and spending report, while FBMD did not. FBMD’s filing includes a check mark next to the statement “I certify that no money has been raised or spent prior to the organization of the ballot committee with OCPF.” But it looks like there was.
On Aug. 3, the Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work — an ally of FBMD — livestreamed press events announcing the ballot question, including signs printed with the disclosure “Paid by for Flexibility and Benefits for Massachusetts Drivers.” This suggests that funds were raised and expended by the ballot committee prior to the date it filed its organization papers.
OCPF updated its ballot question advice in 2020 to indicate that corporations must disclose “certain expenditures made in anticipation that a question will appear on the ballot.” The agency declared that if corporations make expenditures other than directly to a ballot committee to promote or oppose a ballot question, including “promises to pay,” those sums must be disclosed.
The independent corporate disclosure might not come until the end-of-year report, but if the promises to pay were made to the ballot committee, OCPF should order that those donations and any sums raised be disclosed by the ballot committee now.
Permanent reforms to our disclosure laws will take legislative action. Here are three suggestions:
- Ballot committees should disclose monthly, year-round, up to the 60-day report. Legislative and statewide candidates already do this.
- OCPF should be able to bring ballot committee enforcement actions during the campaign, when disclosure can help voters.
- And CEOs and other top-donating organization heads should be personally identified in disclaimers. Write the check, take the responsibility.
Citizens United isn’t going away for a while. Full and timely disclosure is the best tool the public has to make judgments about ballot committees. The legislature and OCPF must act, aggressively.
Maurice T. Cunningham is author of "Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization."
