"Baker denies connection between donation, investment" by Frank Phillips and Jim O’Sullivan | Globe Staff May 09, 2014
Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker donated $10,000 in May 2011 to the state party committee of Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. Only seven months later, a Christie-controlled pension fund committed $25 million to an investment firm that lists Baker as a partner.
Baker said Friday that he is exempt from the strict federal and New Jersey “pay-to-play” security regulations that bar financial executives from making donations over $250 to political figures who oversee pension funds or to committees controlled by those politicians.
“I’m not a registered investment professional,” said Baker, who joined General Catalyst Partners, a Cambridge-based venture capital firm, in March 2011, just months after losing the 2010 gubernatorial race to Governor Deval Patrick.
Baker’s contribution and his firm’s involvement with the New Jersey pension fund were first reported on Thursday by liberal journalist David Sirota on the technology website PandoDaily.
Baker said his role is to seek out startups and companies that his firm will invest in. He is referred to on the firm’s website as an “executive-in-residence/partner” and listed among the firm’s partners. He said his title makes a clear distinction between him and other partners at the firm.
“I am not an employee,” Baker said in an interview Friday. “I pay for my health care, I don’t get a W-2 tax form.”
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Baker made the political contribution, which he called his largest ever, in 2011 when he and his wife, Lauren, attended a fund-raiser that Christie held in Boston for the New Jersey Republican State Committee. Campaign finance documents show that Baker identified himself as a General Catalyst “partner.” On Friday, Baker said that was “an error.”
(I wanted to vote for the guy even though he is monied establishment because I think it's important to have a check on Democrats, but WTF?)
In December 2011, Christie’s State Investment Council approved the $25 million General Catalyst investment.
Baker said he attended Christie’s Boston event in 2011 out of loyalty to the New Jersey governor, who supported him in his race against Patrick.
“The guy was really helpful to me when I ran in ’10 and I think he’s a really good guy,’’ Baker said.
Baker said he never discussed the contribution to Christie’s fund with his fellow partners at Catalyst. He also said he was not contributing at the behest of others at the company who would more unequivocally be covered by federal and New Jersey state restrictions on campaign donations.
“I am not covered,’’ Baker said, when asked why he didn’t think there was a need to inform the firm. He added, “I was not a conduit.”
Bill Fitzgerald, Catalyst’s chief operating officer, backed up Baker’s claims that he is not involved in raising money from public pension funds for investments. He said Baker’s role is to help lead the companies in which the firm invests.
He also said Baker did not inform him or the firm of the Christie donation at the time it was given, but the firm found out about it when it was dealing with the state of New Jersey pension fund. He said he did not recall how it came to light. But it did prompt his company to check with its lawyers, who determined that a disclosure was not necessary.
“We verified Charlie’s positions and found that his role did not require any filings concerning the contribution,’’ Fitzgerald said. “What is clear is that Charlie had no role in working with the state of New Jersey on the pension funds. It is wrong to think in that context.”
Baker and Christie have collaborated in several campaign fund-raising activities. Earlier this year, both men attended a fund-raiser at a downtown Boston hotel for the Republican Governors Association, which Christie chairs.
See: Christie Had Concern About Bridge Traffic
And then his campaign started moving again.
Christie, once considered a frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has been buffeted in recent months by fallout from a lane closure scandal near the George Washington Bridge. He has denied wrongdoing.
No longer a frontrunner then?
“I still think he is a good guy,’’ Baker said when asked about the bridge controversy. “He fired the people he needed to fire and held a two-hour press conference. He did the right thing and I take him at his word.’’
Voicemails left with Christie’s press office were not returned late Friday.
In a telephone interview on his way back from Texas, where he said he had been tending to General Catalyst health care investments, Baker shrugged off the notion that his campaign finance support for Christie conflicted in any way with his firm’s business with New Jersey....
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And when he returned home:
"Fisher asked for $1 million to drop lawsuit, GOP says" by Frank Phillips | Globe Staff May 06, 2014
Massachusetts Republican Party officials are accusing Tea Party gubernatorial candidate Mark Fisher of demanding up to $1 million in exchange for dropping his legal challenge to get on the GOP primary ballot this September.
Related: Baker Makes Fish(er) Cakes
Also see: Grossman Was in Greenfield
Now getting back to our regularly-scheduled post:
In a letter shared with Republican State Committee members Tuesday evening, the party’s lawyer, Louis M. Ciavarra, outlined a series of meetings in which he advised Fisher’s attorney that it is unlawful to pay someone in exchange for dropping out of a political race.
“I advised you and your client, as well as my own clients, that . . . in layman’s terms ‘buying people off the ballot’ is illegal,” Ciavarra wrote to Fisher’s lawyer, Thomas M. Harvey, in a letter dated May 6.
Harvey confirmed Tuesday night that Fisher, who is suing for the right to face off against Republican front-runner Charlie Baker in the fall primary, had asked for $1 million, but said it was only a “starting point’’ in the negotiations.
Isn't that the kind of thing that landed an Illinois governor in jail?
“We’re trying to negotiate a reasonable settlement and you have to start somewhere,’’ he said.
The attorney said that Fisher’s request for compensation was reasonable and not illegal because the candidate has “put out a lot into this” and should be rightly compensated.
Fisher argues that party leaders cheated him out of a spot on the ballot at the Republican convention in March.
“Mark Fisher wants to be made whole financially,” Harvey said.
He's fi$hing around for a payoff!
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Fisher, a wealthy Shrewsbury businessman who has financed his campaign with $340,000 of his own money, filed the suit after the party said he failed by an exceedingly slim margin to win enough delegate votes at its March 22 convention to be able to participate in the primary.
His legal battle has roiled an already divided Republican Party.
Fisher has said party leaders manipulated the delegate counting, although he had several representatives present, including his lawyer.
GOP officials noted that the Fisher team did not object to the final results at the time.
State chairwoman Kirsten Hughes strongly denies there was any manipulation of the ballot counting.
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Fisher has picked up some support from state committee members who back Baker but feel that the GOP’s image has been tarnished by the allegations that the GOP blocked his access to the ballot.
They are urging the party to allow Fisher to run in the primary, arguing that the contest would help the party and the heavily favored Baker by drawing attention to the GOP campaign at a time when Democratic race is dominating the political news....
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Time to CHANGE the SUBJECT and HURL ACCUSATIONS to DEFLECT ATTENTION from CRIMINAL CONDUCT:
Time to CHANGE the SUBJECT and HURL ACCUSATIONS to DEFLECT ATTENTION from CRIMINAL CONDUCT:
"GOP candidate demands answers from Charlie Baker, party on dispute; Says nominee fails to show leadership" by Stephanie Ebbert and Frank Phillips | Globe staff May 08, 2014
Challenger Mark R. Fisher has called on Charlie Baker, the Republican nominee for governor, to show leadership and to urge party leaders to release documents substantiating the vote that kept Fisher off the ballot.
“You want to lead the state as governor and you’re not leading on this one issue?” Fisher, a member of the Tea Party movement, chided Baker at a press conference Thursday.
Baker spokesman Tim Buckley responded in a statement e-mailed to the Globe: “For several weeks now, Charlie has made his intentions known that he wants a fair and quick resolution to this matter, and if that means a primary, then we welcome it. Despite Mr. Fisher’s latest performance, Charlie’s position remains the same, and he hopes Mr. Fisher will work with the party for a reasonable resolution.”
Fisher’s comments marked the first time that the candidate lashed out at Baker, whom he called the Republicans’ titular leader, as he faulted him for failing to lead their party through the divisive dispute that erupted after the March 22 convention.
In a lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Fisher contends party leaders cheated him out of a spot on the ballot to make Baker the sole nominee for governor. GOP leaders sharply dispute the charge.
Nothing about the BRIBE he ASKED FOR?
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Though he did not provide any information implicating Baker, Fisher used sharper language Thursday to suggest that the tally sheets of the delegate vote that day would show criminality by party leaders and collusion with Baker’s campaign.
“What did Charlie Baker know and when did he know it?” Fisher demanded.
Fisher repeated but refused to elaborate on his most explosive allegation, made to the Globe a day earlier, that party leaders had offered him $1 million to get out of the race before he filed his lawsuit.
Even as his LAWYER ADMITTED HE ASKED FOR IT?
He could not explain why someone would have made the offer to a newcomer whose chances of making the ballot were always in doubt.
“Why is the MassGOP afraid of me? I’m a political outsider,” Fisher said.
Fisher refused to name the state committee member he says made the offer, erroneously citing a gag order from the court. Fisher later said that his lawyer advised him not to name names.
This LIAR really does STINK like FISH -- with all apologies to the fish!
He also could not explain how the party, which currently has just over $200,000 on hand in its state campaign finance account, could have produced the money.
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Fisher called the press conference after the Globe published details of a letter from the GOP’s attorney saying that Fisher had demanded $1 million to drop his lawsuit, a figure his lawyer called a “starting point” in negotiations. Fisher said that he threw out that number because it was what was originally offered to him in December and because the party’s lawyer had been pressing him for a dollar figure at which he would settle....
This guy is a REAL F***ING PIECE of WORK!
“I don’t want to get money out of the party,” Fisher told reporters. “I want to be reimbursed for the damages they caused me. . . . I need it now to buy lawn signs and go forward with the campaign.”
Go borrow it!
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The rancorous and public back-and-forth with the party has only strengthened his resolve to get on the ballot, he said. “There’s no amount of money that would get me out of this race.”
Rigged voting machines will.
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Related: GOP offers Fisher spot on ballot, won’t disclose convention tally
Judge clears way for Fisher to be put on GOP gubernatorial primary ballot
I think they are all scum!
And I'm their base.
