The Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) recently issued a Public Resolution Letter to Vicki Danberg’s campaign committee determining that certain campaign expenditures made outside of the campaign’s bank account were not reimbursable and did not comply with campaign finance law.
Massachusetts campaign finance law requires all campaign financial activity to be made through the campaign committee’s designated depository (bank) account and be disclosed in a timely manner and that expenditures be made using the campaign committee’s bank account and/or credit/debit cards.
After a review of the Danberg Committee’s 2021 expenditure activity, OCPF found that in November 2021, the campaign made a total of $7,206.15 in reimbursements to Victoria Danberg “for a variety of campaign-related expenditures that were made outside the Committee’s depository bank account,” and “did not file a reimbursement report to disclose the underlying expenditure activity of these payments until April 2022.” The letter states that because the report was not “timely disclosed,” this “frustrated the public’s interest in accurate and timely disclosure of all campaign finance activity.”
To resolve the matter, Danberg has agreed to forgive $5,000 in loans she had made to her campaign committee and to make a $2,500 payment personally to the Commonwealth.
Danberg explained, “This was a simple misunderstanding at a busy time in the campaign. I had changed banks and did not have checks yet, so I paid for some urgent printing with my credit card. My new treasurer reimbursed me, and we did not realize we needed to include that expense detail in a reimbursement report. It was a simple error and we made it right and paid the fine.”
Separately, Danberg’s campaign was assessed a civil penalty of $1,850 ($25/day for each day that the required campaign finance report, due January 20, 2022, was late). The fine was paid on August 23.
In reviewing other candidates’ committee activities, the OCPF has issued Public Resolution Letters for other infractions:
- In March 2022, 10 candidates’ committees (Emily Norton, John Oliver, Kevin R. Riffe, Debra L. Waller, Pamela Wright, Barry Bergman, Rena Getz, Lisa Gordon, Tarik Lucas, Julia Malakie) received Public Resolution Letters stating that a joint campaign mailing was not consistent with M.G.L. Chapter 55, Section 6, which prohibits a committee organized on behalf of a candidate from contributing to another candidate’s committee in excess of $100 in a calendar year. Each of the committees resolved this issue by recalculating “the cost allocable to each committee,” made a new payment to the printer, and received a refund of the original inaccurate payment.
- In 2020, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller received a Public Resolution Letter, after the office received “multiple complaints” that alleged City of Newton resources (December 16, 2019 “Mayor’s Update” email, posting of materials on the City website, and communications with Mass State Officials) were used to influence voters with respect to the Northland ballot question. In this instance, the OCPF found that although the email was distributed, “because the City took remedial action before being contacted by OCPF, including removing the problematic sentence from the email before posting the email to the City’s website, no further action” was required, and found no issue with posting materials on the city’s website or communications with State officials.
- In 2016, although not receiving a Public Resolution letter, Amy Sangiolo’s campaign committee received a $75 civil penalty for late filing ($25/day for each day a required campaign report was late).
