Republican gubernatorial hopeful Mike Kennealy petitioned the state’s marketing campaign finance workplace this previous week to rethink Massachusetts’ $200,000 restrict on the amount of money a candidate for governor can mortgage themselves every election, in accordance with a letter penned by a D.C. lawyer.
Kennealy made the pitch via an legal professional weeks after he launched his bid for governor with a pledge to seed his marketing campaign with $2 million from his personal private wealth. His marketing campaign stated that waiving the mortgage restrict is important to “protect” Kennealy’s household within the occasion of a “tragedy.”
Chris Ashby, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer enlisted by Kennealy, stated a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling renders the Massachusetts state regulation capping the amount of cash a gubernatorial candidate can mortgage to themselves every election cycle unconstitutional.
However the legal professional stated the Workplace of Marketing campaign and Political Finance “may never have had the opportunity to consider the matter.”
“Therefore, for the reasons set forth below, we request that your office consider the constitutionality of the candidate loan limitation in light of (Buckley v. Valeo), and issue appropriate written guidance or other response making clear that OCPF will not enforce the loan limitation,” the letter stated.
Ben Hincher, Kennealy’s marketing campaign supervisor, stated the previous secretary of housing and financial improvement beneath Gov. Charlie Baker will hand his marketing campaign $2 million no matter what state regulators determine.
“This is a request to offer protection for Mike’s family in the unlikely event of an unforeseen tragedy, but if the request isn’t granted, Mike will be contributing $1.8 million,” Hincher stated in an announcement to the Herald Saturday.
Kennealy raised greater than $311,000 in April, a majority of which got here via a $200,000 mortgage to himself, in accordance with his marketing campaign and state information.
A spokesperson for the Workplace of Marketing campaign and Political Finance declined to touch upon the request.
Within the letter to marketing campaign finance regulators, Ashby factors to the Jan. 30, 1976, U.S. Supreme Court docket opinion within the case of former U.S. Sen. James Buckley of New York versus Francis Valeo, the then-secretary of the U.S. Senate and ex officio member of the Federal Election Fee.
Buckley and others argued that the Federal Election Marketing campaign Act of 1971 limitation on the usage of cash for political functions violated First Modification ensures without cost expression as a result of no “political expression could be made without the expenditure of money,” in accordance with the Federal Election Fee.
Ashby stated the court docket dominated {that a} “ceiling on personal expenditures by candidates on their own behalf … imposes a substantial restraint on the ability of persons to engage in protected First Amendment expression.”
The legal professional stated that beneath the ruling, the Massachusetts state regulation limiting the quantity a candidate can mortgage to themselves or their marketing campaign committee “constitutes a limitation on the candidate’s personal expenditures in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
He additionally pointed to a 2004 ruling from the US Court docket of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by which the court docket struck down a Kentucky regulation that imposed a $50,000 cap on the amount of cash a candidate may mortgage to his or her marketing campaign.
The U.S. Court docket of Appeals discovered that limitations on candidates’ loans are limitations on marketing campaign expenditures, and limitations on marketing campaign expenditures are prohibited by the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling, the letter to Massachusetts regulators stated.
“Indeed, just as the federal law at issue in Buckley, and the Kentucky law at issue in Anderson, Massachusetts law defines a ‘contribution’ to include ‘any… loan’ to a candidate or candidate’s committee,” Ashby wrote. “In fact, Massachusetts law further clarifies that a loan also is an ‘expenditure.’”
Kennealy’s push to mortgage himself hundreds of thousands got here after his marketing campaign raised greater than $130,000 in contributions in April, his first month working for governor, in accordance with his aides.
He additionally spent $54,600 in April, in accordance with state information, together with $7,266 with Opinion Diagnostics, a polling firm run by Brian Wynne, the previous marketing campaign supervisor for Baker.
Opinion Diagnostics performed a survey in April that discovered Gov. Maura Healey was in an “extremely vulnerable position” and alleged Kennealy had a greater likelihood at beating the first-term Democrat in 2026 over different potential Republican challengers.
Kennealy additionally dished out greater than $7,000 to BW Artistic Company, a advertising and marketing company that commonly does work with political candidates, and tens of hundreds to consultants and marketing campaign employees, state information confirmed.
Massachusetts Democratic Occasion Chair Steve Kerrigan stated Massachusetts voters “have no interest in weak leadership that refuses to stand up to Donald Trump’s actions that hurt Massachusetts every day.”
“The majority of his April fundraising comes from a personal donation because he has no real grassroots support. Voters are sending a clear message: we need a governor who will stand up to Donald Trump, not on the sidelines like MAGA Mike Kennealy,” Kerrigan stated in an announcement to the Herald.
Kennnealy is the solely Republican to have formally entered the 2026 gubernatorial election.
Brian Shortsleeve, a former MBTA government who helped fundraise for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, beforehand stated he’s contemplating a bid and enlisted the companies of a widely known Republican strategist.
Healey stated in February that she plans to run for reelection.
A ballot that very same month of 700 Massachusetts residents performed by the College of Massachusetts Amherst discovered Healey had a 52% general approval ranking.
The survey additionally confirmed that solely 15% of respondents would again Kennealy over Healey, and 12% would vote for Shortsleeve. However in each cases, a big share of these polled stated they had been nonetheless uncertain of who they’d help within the 2026 gubernatorial election.
Workers Photograph By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald
Gov. Maura Healey (Workers Photograph By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
