Mass. GOP finds new way to raise big money

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http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/03/17/mass-gop-finds-new-way-raise-big-money/cQmU0jzotCLvhn6Zs95JOI/story.html



Mass. GOP finds new way to raise big money
By Frank Phillips Globe Staff March 17, 2016

Adam Weiner, an emerging force in Boston’s development community who several years ago won state approval to build over and alongside the Mass. Pike, has donated to politicians in the past, but nothing compared to his recent showering of Charlie Baker and his political operations with campaign cash.

A month after the governor took office last year, Weiner, whose project will depend heavily on Baker administration approvals, donated $48,400 to two state GOP fund-raising groups. Much of that money ended up with committees controlled by Baker operatives. And those donations came just months after he gave $300,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which spent more than $11 million to back Baker in the 2014 election.

Weiner is just one of numerous high rollers with interests before state government who are helping to keep the usually financially strapped state GOP flush with cash.

Their interest in the Republican Party is not surprising. What’s new, however, is their ability to help Baker with single donations of up to $43,400, circumventing the state’s strict limits on political contributions and transparency requirements.