PAC Drops Big Money In Framingham Council Race

FRAMINGHAM, MA — A Republican-leaning political action committee backed by some of Massachusetts' biggest companies is playing an outsized role in one Framingham City Council race, spending close to $25,000 to support a single candidate. The Massachusetts Majority Independent Expenditure PAC is an independent group whose spending is out of the control of individual candidates.

The PAC has supported about 15 candidates running in city-level races in Massachusetts. In Framingham, the PAC has spent $24,501 so far on at-large candidate Janet Leombruno, according to state records. That's on top of the more than $20,000 Leombruno has raised on her own, the highest amount of any candidate in the 2019 City Council races.

Since its founding in May, the MMIE PAC has received close to $1 million in donations from some of the state's biggest business leaders — like Wayfair chairman Steven Conine ($50,000), car dealership owner Daniel J. Quirk ($50,000), and Granite Telecommunications CEO Robert Hale ($100,000).

The PAC has spent about $267,000 on direct mail ads created by the Pennsylvania firm Red Maverick Media, which has focused on electing Republicans in that state. At least two rounds of direct mail pieces supporting Leombruno hit Framingham homes recently.

By law, PACs and individual campaigns are not allowed to coordinate. Leombruno expressed surprise at the PAC's support of her candidacy.

"I was shocked when I received those mailers in my mailbox. I have zero — zero — involvement with this PAC. I am more annoyed they got involved with Framingham than anyone. I am 100 percent committed to Framingham and Framingham only," she said in a statement.

Many of the biggest donors to the MMIE PAC have given to Massachusetts Republican causes, but not exclusively. Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah, for example, has in the past given to Congressman Seth Moulton and congressional candidate Dan Koh, both Democrats — but he also gave close to $34,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2018, according to federal records.

Although the Framingham City Council race is nonpartisan, Leombruno is a Republican. She has been a member of the state and local Republican committees, campaigned for Mitt Romney and Gov. Charlie Baker, and worked in the administration of former governor William Weld. Baker recently came to Framingham to support Leombruno. And recently, a photo of Leombruno posing with Donald Trump has circulated on a city politics Facebook page.

The founders of the MMIE PAC also have ties to the Republican party and Trump. Treasurer Charles Gantt works for the Beverly-based campaign finance firm Bulldog Compliance. That company is a division of Red Curve Solutions, which has done work for two of the biggest pro-Trump PACs, the Make America Great Again Committee and the Trump Victory Committee.

Leombruno is running against Gloria Pascual and incumbent George King Jr. Councilor Cheryl Tully Stoll decided not to run for reelection this year.

Here's how much each Framingham Council candidate has raised since Jan. 1, according to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance. These totals are for competitive races only.

At-large

• Janet Leombruno $20,024
• George King Jr. $8,435
• Gloria Pascual $7,919.60

District 1

• Joseph Norton $6,063.75
• Christine Long $6,655

District 2

• Richard Finlay $12,118.54
• Cesar Stewart-Morales $7,690

District 5

• Robert Case $6,639.90
• Noval Alexander $3,475

District 7

• Margareth Shepard $6,135
• William Patrick Lynch $2,425

District 8

• John Stefanini $10,110
• Mario Alvarez $4,105

District 9

• Neidy Cuellar $2,880
• Tracey Bryant $375