Tag: Martha Coakley

[Courtesy American Promise] Wicked Local @Eli_Sherman It costs a lot of money to run a successful political campaign. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both Democrats, whose campaign committees raised a combined $52 million between 2013 and Sept. 15, 2018, according to the Center for Responsive Politics based in Washington, D.C., In the current election cycle, the nine U.S. House of Representative incumbents raised a combined $13.8 million in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, Ballot Question No. “We’ve seen elections get more expensive every single cycle,” said Ben A. Gubits, national political director at Concord-based American Promise. The ballot measure, which voters will address on Nov. 6, would establish a nonpartisan, 15-member Citizens Commission to consider and recommend an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment -- if approved by Congress and ratified by the states -- would essentially overhaul the current system of political finance, including the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United that determined campaign spending by companies and other groups is protected by the free-speech clause of the First Amendment. Nonetheless, an opposition group to Ballot Question No. Lederman did not respond to calls and an email requesting comment. As of Oct. 5, the group had not yet filed any campaign finance reports. Since 2017, the group has raised $200,750 and spent about $181,348, according to campaign finance reports.