A advisor for a Boston Metropolis Council candidate was hit with a marketing campaign finance violation and $5,000 effective, for exercise that led to a presumption of unlawful coordination between the marketing campaign and a supportive labor union he additionally labored for.
Christopher Keohan, a advisor with CK Methods, LLC who did work for the 2023 committee to reelect Metropolis Councilor Erin Murphy, was notified of the violation on Nov. 20 however the letter from the state Workplace of Marketing campaign and Political Finance was not posted publicly till Wednesday.
“This office has completed its review of a complaint alleging what appeared to be a coordinated expenditure by the International Association of Fire Fighters made to support the 2023 reelection campaign of Erin Murphy for Boston City Council,” OCPF Director William Campbell wrote.
“Based on our review, OCPF has determined that both you and CK Strategies, LLC did not comply with the requirements of the campaign finance law,” he added. “While OCPF did not find evidence of an intentional violation in this instance, we believe that the failure to comply with the requirements of the campaign finance law was due in large part to a lack of understanding of those requirements.”
The marketing campaign finance violation was first reported by the Boston Globe.
The crux of the violation facilities round work Keohan’s consulting agency was retained to do for marketing campaign work, together with marketing campaign mailers and promoting for the committee to elect Murphy, whereas on the identical time doing related work for the Worldwide Affiliation of Fireplace Fighters, which included designing, producing and distributing a mailer that endorsed Murphy and one other candidate.
The IAFF’s mailer was supposed to be an unbiased expenditure, paid for by the union’s common treasury fund. The IAFF filed an unbiased expenditure report disclosing that the worth of the endorsement mailer for Murphy was $13,229, the OCPF letter states.
“OCPF received a complaint raising concerns that the mailers showed evidence of coordinated expenditures as they utilized similar fonts and layouts, as well as the same mail permit,” Campbell wrote.
Campbell’s letter explains that the work performed by Keohan on behalf of each the Murphy marketing campaign committee and the union endorsing her led to a presumption that the IAFF mailer didn’t meet the factors for an unbiased expenditure, as there seemed to be coordination between the candidate’s marketing campaign and IAFF.
Thus, the expenditure ought to have been filed as a marketing campaign contribution to Murphy, and, at greater than $13,000, exceeded the annual $1,000 restrict for particular person contributions in 2023, per the OCPF letter.
“The presumption may be rebutted by evidence demonstrating that the services were provided consistent with a previously established written firewall policy that prohibits the flow of strategic non-public information to the person or entity making the expenditure, or other evidence indicating that the common consultant actually prohibited the flow of strategic, non-public information between the entity making an independent expenditure and the candidate, candidate’s committee or agent,” Campbell’s letter states.
Campbell mentioned a firewall coverage should designate particular workers to work solely for the candidate and different workers that may work just for the people or entities making unbiased expenditures — on this case, Murphy and IAFF.
That was not the case on this occasion, the OCPF discovered. Keohan acknowledged doing work for each Murphy and the IAFF and acknowledged that CK Methods doesn’t have a written firewall coverage, although it has a verbal one in place.
“Both Murphy and the IAFF filed affidavits with the OCPF, under the pains and penalties of perjury, stating that they were unaware of your status as a common consultant, and that the committee, Murphy and the IAFF did not directly receive any strategic, non-public information from the other,” Campbell wrote.
“However, OCPF has concluded that your simultaneous work for both entities absent proper firewalling triggered the presumption of coordination between the IAFF and the committee, and no evidence has been provided to rebut that presumption,” he added.
To resolve the matter, Keohan made a $5,000 contribution to the commonwealth.
Keohan informed the Herald Thursday that he paid the effective to resolve the matter, however believes that “we did everything by the book.”
“It was a presumptive finding,” Keohan mentioned. “We decided not to fight it in order to get past the issue. We still believe we did everything by the book, but in the interest of time and ensuring that something like this never happens again, we worked with OCPF to create our own written firewall policy and have moved past it.”
