AG forum hinges on PAC positions
Two of the Democratic candidates running for attorney general in Massachusetts have agreed to a “People’s Pledge” to reject PAC campaign donations, while former Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell didn’t address the pledge at a forum on Thursday.
Quentin Palfrey, a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general, at the Boston College Law School forum called on his opponents to sign a “People’s Pledge,” stressing that “the biggest threat to our democracy” is corporate money in elections.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown in 2012 signed a “People’s Pledge.”
“We need to get corporate money out of our elections,” Palfrey said, later adding, “This issue of clean elections is fundamental to this race.”
“If I’m AG, I pledge to be the people’s lawyer, to be truly independent because that’s what the people’s lawyer does,” added Palfrey, who ran for lieutenant governor four years ago. “That’s the kind of AG I want to be.”
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a former candidate for U.S. Senate, said she agreed about the “People’s Pledge.” She noted that she accepted the pledge when she ran for the Senate a couple of years ago.
“I agree that all three of us should agree to the ‘People’s Pledge,’ and say no to corporate PAC money,” said LissRiordan,
founding partner of Lichten & Liss-Riordan law firm.
“I will not be beholden to anyone,” she added. “I will not be beholden to corporations. I take on corporations. I know how to hold them accountable. I have changed their practices.”
The lone holdout for agreeing to the “People’s Pledge” was Campbell, who ran for Boston mayor last year. Palfrey emphasized that corporate money flooded in for that race.
A PAC with significant charter school proponents, called “Better Boston,” made ads supporting Campbell during the mayoral race. Campbell at the Thursday forum did not address the “People’s Pledge.”
All of the candidates were asked whether they support the cap on charter schools.
The “AG’s role is not to be pushing for the expansion of charter schools,” Campbell said. “It’s to hold these education
systems accountable, and to push these systems to do better so that Black and Brown kids actually have access to a high-quality education, which is currently not the case in this state.”
GOP candidate Jay McMahon declined to attend the forum because of a prior commitment. The forum was organized by BC Law’s Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy.