“I think the play here is to set up an independent expenditure committee for your re-election, specifically with a goal of raising two million or something. . . . the beauty of the IE, it’s a 501(c)(4) corporate donations are allowed and they’re unlimited. . . . I can put in a million or two…
Category: Walton family
Two and a Half Ways (Maybe 3?) the Waltons (and Charles Koch?) Welcome Themselves into the Democratic Primaries
In the world of dark money, things are never what they seem. So as the Democrats try to pick a presidential nominee is it a surprise that the Waltons and Charles Koch (?) are funding front operations to influence the process, disrupting an Elizabeth Warren speech, forming an anti-union “union”, and trying to nudge the…
National Parents Union, the Anti-union Union
The National Parents Union front for the Walton family’s dive into the Democratic Party’s primaries decided to adopt the name union, though it is not only not a union but is virulently anti-union—a posture that surely satisfies the WalMart heirs. A union is “An organization of workers, formed for the purpose of negotiating with employers…
The Waltons: From Dark Money to Dark Store Theory, It’s All About Taxes
The Walton Family of Arkansas has been funding a robust Massachusetts Political Team—over $3.3 million worth in 2017 and 2018, and all tax deductible! Will their Arkansas retail giant WalMart also bring its dark store tax dodge to Massachusetts soon? WalMart and other big box corporations have been appealing local tax assessments in over twenty…
Walton Family Political Front Disrupts Elizabeth Warren Speech
Last night a southern unit of the Walton family’s national private political operation attempted to shut down a speech by Elizabeth Warren. Ostensibly this was about charter schools. Realistically, it was probably about the wealth tax. Not much gets past Central Massachusetts political observer Lance Harris, who tweeted last night that a Walton family political…
Pioneer Institute Throws Out Welcome Mat for Koch Funded Institute for Justice
It’s getting harder to keep track of the right wing groups operating in Massachusetts but when one interferes in the Green Line extension, dives into cosmetology, and pumps up school privatization, take notice. That’s the Institute for Justice, and when you’re an out of state libertarian law firm you need a friend; that would be…
Education Funding and the Wal-Mart/State Street Axis
As House and Senate members work out their differences on the education funding bill my thoughts are drawn back to Pioneer Institute Introduces the Beamer vs. Beater Theory of Democracy. That concerned a proposal by Pioneer to keep poor and minority communities from having the same say in their schools as wealthier and whiter communities….
New Revelations from the World of Dark Money
Two recently released documents offer insight into dark money sources that reach into Massachusetts. Let’s take a look at the donor list from the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Job Security and to the program from the annual meeting of the right wing State Policy Network. After years of legal battles the Center for Responsibility and…
The Walton Family’s Massachusetts Political Team, 2019
The Wednesday vote in the House on the Education Funding bill is a crucial test for interest groups opposing the Senate version, and all of them are influenced or controlled by the Walton Family of Arkansas. Let’s meet The Walton Family’s Massachusetts Political Team, 2019. The selected groups all have some political purpose and all…
The Waltons and the Politics of Education Funding
The three interest groups pushing to undermine the Massachusetts senate’s education funding bill are all Walton funded, two of them essentially full-time agents of the Waltons. They have to solve a problem for the right-wing Wal-Mart heirs: not that funding public education might fail, but that it will succeed. The Waltons, who contributed over $2…