Most Massachusetts Congressmen Are Flower Children, Campaign Records Show

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2021/01/02/most-massachusetts-congressmen-are-flower-children-campaign-records-show/

What do congressional campaigns spend their money on?

Bumper stickers, lawn signs, TV ads, payroll for their staff?

Oftentimes, yes.

However, sometimes they also spend money on other things. In the case of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation, that includes flowers. A lot of flowers.

The 11 members of the delegation in the 2020 election cycle spent more than $35,000 worth of campaign funds on flowers combined. Meanwhile, none of the Republicans who ran for Congress in the state spent any money on flowers, Federal Election Commission records show.

New Boston Post reached out to each of their offices for comment on the matter on Thursday and Friday this week but did not hear back from them.

Here is a look at how each of the candidates ranks in terms of flower expenditures.

 

1.  U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III (D-Newton)

Joe Kennedy III may have lost to U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Malden) in the 2020 Massachusetts U.S. Senate Democratic Primary, but he holds one distinction in the 2020 election cycle:  he outspent the rest of the congressional delegation on flowers.

Kennedy doled out at least $10,040.17 on flowers, according to campaign finance records from the Federal Election Commission. Additionally, he has spent at least $26,306.40 on flowers since 2012.

Kennedy chose not to seek re-election to the U.S. House in 2020. Instead, he received 44.5 percent of the vote running in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary against Markey, who received 55.4 percent of it, according to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s official tally.

 

2.  U.S. Representative Richard Neal (D-Springfield)

After Kennedy, Richard Neal, who represents the state’s First Congressional District in Western Massachusetts, may have had the next most campaign expenditures on flowers. Neal has spent at least $67,006.14 on them since 2003 but in this past election cycle, that figure was $8,463.41, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Although Neal ran unopposed in the general election, he did have a challenger. He faced Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse in the Democratic primary and got 58.6 percent of the vote to Morse’s 41.2 percent, according to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office.

 

3.  U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Cambridge)

Elizabeth Warren likely placed third in flower campaign expenditures in the 2020 election cycle. She ran for president and failed to win a single state, including the state she represents in the U.S. Senate, Massachusetts. She became the first Massachusetts candidate in a presidential primary to lose in Massachusetts while still an active candidate, as New Boston Post previously reported.

Still, that didn’t stop her from buying lots of flowers. Federal Election Commission records show she purchased at least $8,300.65 worth of them during the election cycle. That increased her total amount of flowers expenditures to $36,716.39 since 2012.

 

4.  U.S. Representative Jim McGovern (D-Worcester)

McGovern beat Republican and QAnon supporter Tracy Lovvorn for the second straight time in 2020. McGovern got 65.3 percent of the vote to Lovvorn’s 34.6 percent, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office.

McGovern spent at least $3,166.96 on flowers during the 2020 election cycle. He has spent at least $49,428.79 on flowers since 2003, as Federal Election Commission records show.

 

5.  U.S. Representative Stephen F. Lynch (D-South Boston)

Stephen Lynch had no problem winning his re-election bid last year. Lynch got 80.7 percent of the vote in the general election, running against an unenrolled candidate in the Massachusetts Eighth Congressional District. He also soundly defeated a more left-wing challenger, Robbie Goldstein, in the Democratic primary, getting 66.4 percent of the vote to his opponent’s 33.5 percent, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office.

The Lynch campaign spent at least $3,655.93 on flowers during the 2020 election cycle, Federal Election Commission campaign finance reports reveal. Spending money on flowers is nothing new from Lynch’s campaign. FEC records show he has spent at least $26,474.19 on them dating back to 2003.

 

6.  U.S. Representative Katherine Clark (D-Melrose)

Katherine Clark also had no problem winning re-election against Stoneham selectman and Republican nominee Caroline Colarusso in the state’s Fifth Congressional District. The incumbent Clark got 74.3 percent of the vote to Colarusso’s 25.6 percent of the vote, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office.

During her re-election bid, Clark spent at least $2,855.62 of campaign funds on flowers, Federal Election Commission records show. That bumps her career total up to at least $6,443.17 dating back to 2013.

 

7.  U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Malden)

Markey survived his primary challenge against U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III and had no trouble defeating Dover attorney and Republican nominee Kevin O’Connor in the general election. Markey got 66.2 percent of the vote to O’Connor’s 33 percent, the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office shows.

During that election cycle, Markey spent at least $1,528.85 on flowers, which is nothing new from him. He has spent more than $20,810.02 on them since 2003, as Federal Election Commission records show

 

8.  U.S. Representative Lori Trahan (D-Westford)

Did anyone run against Lori Trahan in the state’s Third Congressional District this past year? No.

Still, that didn’t stop her from spending at least $1,024.50 on flowers during the 2020 election cycle. Federal Election Commission records suggest that when first-time candidate Trahan had opponents during the Democratic primary and the general election in 2018, she did not spend any campaign funds on flowers.

 

9.  U.S. Representative Seth Moulton (D-Salem)

It looks as though Seth Moulton did not spend any campaign dollars on flowers during the 2020 election cycle. That means he didn’t spend on flowers during his presidential bid or his re-election bid in the state’s Sixth Congressional district.

That’s not to say that Moulton has never used campaign funds to buy flowers. From 2015 to 2018, his campaign spent $2,079.67 on them, Federal Election Commission records show.

 

10.  U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Dorchester)

Of any member of the delegation who has used campaign funds to purchase flowers, Ayanna Pressley has spent the least on them. She had a pair of $100 flower expenses totaling $200 on August 31, 2018, but none during the 2020 election cycle, Federal Election Commission records show.

The modest flower expenditures came as she primaried then-U.S. Representative Mike Capuano (D-Somerville), beating him for the Democratic Party nomination in the state’s Seventh Congressional District in 2018.

 

11.  U.S. Representative Bill Keating (D-Bourne) and Congressman-elect Jake Auchincloss (D-Newton)

Bill Keating has not used reported campaign expenditures to buy flowers, and neither has Auchincloss, Federal Election Commission records show.

Keating represents the state’s Ninth Congressional District, which includes portions of the South Shore and South Coast and all of Cape Cod and the islands. Auchincloss is about to represent the state’s Fourth Congressional District, which stretches from immediately west of Boston down to the South Coast.