The following is a recent posting made to ne.politics regarding
the destruction of rent control in Mass. The campaign claimed to be
a grassroots movement of poor landlords. Please consider adding ne.politics
into the header if following up. The dollar amounts spent by the real
estate industry listed below are remarkable for a local referendum.
Steve Boursy
In article , ruthe wrote:
>
>Well, I've gathered all the financial data on the Mass. Homeowner's
>Coalition, the group that funded the elimination of rent control. (It's
>now my belief that rent control had very little to do with the campaign --
>it was VACANCY DECONTROL that was the real target. By eliminating it,
>Boston, instead of half of all apartments limited to 10% increases per
>year, is now a completely unregulated market. Look at the numbers of
>apartments affected, if you doubt me. Rent control made a good
>poster-child for the real strategy. Which was pretty damn shrewd, and
>tenants all over the city are now seeing $100 to $300 rent increases as
>their leases expire. The collective rage will be slow to build, but
>eventually they'll figure out what happened to them.)
> Anyway, Salim claims that the Mass. Homeowner's Coalition is a grass-
>roots movement of "ma's and pa's" (his term). I always figured that was a
>lie, so I went out and did the research and here's what I found out:
>
> NUMBER OF
>TYPE CONTRIBUTORS PERCENTAGE DOLLAR AMT. PERCENTAGE
>
>Under $500: 539 .73 $ 84,236.00 .1141 or 11%
>$500 to $2,000 149 .20 135,539.10 .1836 or 18%
>Over $2,000 43 .06 518,405.47 .7022 or 70%
>
>Total 731 .99 $738,180.57 .9999
>
>
>Ma's & Pa's 423 .58 $ 63,430.00 .0859 or 9%
>Non Ma's & Pa's 308 .42 674,750.57 .9140 or 91%
>
>Total 731 1.00 $738,180.57 .9999
>
>
>Out-of-state: 53 $ 29,325.00
>
>Seventy-three percent of contributors contributed only 11% of the total
>dollar amount. These were the under-$500 contributions. If you break out
>these small contributors even further (that is, take out realtors,
>doctors, corporations, trusts, any "non-Ma or non-Pa"), you find that 58
>percent of contributors accounted for only 9% of the total dollars.
>
>The over-$2,000 folks, obviously not Ma's & Pa's, accounted for 70 percent
>of the total. Non-Ma's & Pa's of all dollar amounts (again: realtors,
>doctors, corporations, trusts) accounted for 91 percent of the total
>dollars.
>
>In other words, Salim, you're a lying shit. And so are all of you who
>swear up and down that Question 9 was a grass-roots, small-property-owner
>movement. Your token Ma's and Pa's were just that: token contributors.
>They make good cover, but their piddly contributions wouldn't have bought
>you this legislation. You needed the big money contributors to squeak by
>with a 1% win. And these realtors (for that's what most of them are,
>listed by name on the disclosure sheets) contributed some big bucks, as
>you'll see if you peruse the list that appears at the end of this message.
>(I assume that some of the big-money contributors who AREN'T listed as
>real estate folks actually are, but they just omitted the info.)
>
>Where did I get my facts? I went to the Office of Campaign & Political
>Finance, following Salim's directions (BTW, it's in the John W. McCormack
>Bldg., not the Saltonstall, but why quibble over details -- after all, you
>were just the treasurer for God's sake!) I photocopied all the financial
>records of the Massachusetts Homeowners Coalition. Then I sat down with my
>keyboard and entered every single item. Lucky for me, I can play my Word
>Perfect like a violin, letting it alphabetize, line count, and calculate.
>It still wasn't easy. Records were month to month, and alphabetized pretty
>haphazardly. I had to study the list carefully, but the study was
>fruitful. For example, W. White of The Niles Company might be listed
>variously under W, N or even T (for The). And realtors tend to list their
>contributions under the name of their real estate entities, with their
>name in parenthesis. My favorite example of this was Nancy Brokerick. She
>always made contributions of $4,000, but did this under the following
>entity names:
> Palmer Green
> Georgetowne I
> Georgetowne II
> Colonial Est. Lmtd.
> Beacon Chathem West Assoc. II
> Beacon Pine Grove Assoc. I
> Beacon Pine Grove Assoc. II
> Blake Est. Assoc. I
> Blake Est. Assoc. II
> Beacon Baystate Apts. Co.
> Beacon Chatham West Assoc. I
>In the end, Nancy's total contribution was a whopping $48,000. We're
>talking big money real estate speculators, as some of us have contended
>all along. (How many "homes" does the average Mass. Homeowner Coalition
>member own anyway!?!)
> Now I'm sure some of you will say "get a life" or tell me to just
>shut up and learn to live with defeat. But what irks me enough to spend
>hours calculating all this stuff is the bold, arrogant, and completely
>disingenuous assertion by the "players" here that theirs is a grass-roots
>movement of small property-owners (picture triple deckers, everyone!) It's
>a bald-faced lie, and it was a pleasure to prove it.
> I was somewhat surprised to see that only $29,325 was from out of
>state (there was even one from Germany), but it ain't peanuts either.
> I'm not privy to all the numbers, of course. I've heard (but can't
>substantiate with my own research) that there were other large out-of-
>state contributions by Chicago real estate firms, but these must have been
>buried (or else made to SPOA instead of Mass. Homeowners). But there is
>certainly enough information here to prove Salim and all his buddies are
>lying through their teeth, and this misleading posture helped them go out
>and buy themselves a law.
>
> Another interesting thing to consider is how this grass-roots
>movement spent its money. You'd think a movement as simple and clear as
>that wouldn't need to put so much "spin" on their message, but apparently
>legislation doesn't get bought with just simple truths -- you need to pay
>some hefty fees for consulting, writing experts, lawyers, you know, SPIN:
>
>CONSULTING:
> BMC Consultants $ 15,000
> " 12,500
> " 8,211.22
> " (Materiel) (sic -- how apt!) 32,000
> " (Staff & Material) 27,302.30
> " (") 33,975.92
> " (") 18,640.34
> " (Management) 23,500
> " (Pub. Communication) 131,800.00
> $302,929.78
>
> Bradford & Assoc.
> (Writing expert) $ 17,687.53
> Northeast Legislative Strategies $100,040.60
> Opinion Dynamics (Consult & Study) $ 13,300.00
>
> Jeffrey Myron
> (Economics Consultant) 10,000.00
> " (Study) 10,000.00
> $ 20,000.00
>
> Rolf Goetze, Ph.D. (Study) $ 4,000.00
>
> Total spin doctor funds: $457,957.91
>
>LEGAL FEES:
> Sullivan & McDermott $ 52,062.06
> Jon Maddox 2,388.60
> Sherburn Powers & Needham 2,500.00
>
> Total legal fees: $ 56,950.66
>
> Total legal and spin: $514,908.57
>
>Other fun expenses to note:
> Northland Equipment (Forklift) 515
> Matthew Gilligan (Field Service)* 1,460
> William Hines (Field Work)* 100
> Sullivan & Cogliano (Field Work)* 215
> Democratic State Committee 150
> Lumber Liquidators (Lumber) 6,568.87
> Robbi Tool Sales (Staples) 220.66
> " " " (Stapleguns) 334
>
>*I wonder what "field service" or "field work" is...?
>
>This data ought to be instructive (and depressing) to tenant activists,
>because it shows just how much money big business is willing to throw at
>legislation that benefits it. I know from personal experience that it was
>a rare tenant who could cough up $100. I don't know how tenants will ever
>compete, but maybe if enough of them get mad enough...? We'll just have to
>wait and see.
>
>What follows is a list of the over-$2,000 contributors, cause they're just
>SO impressive! Anyone who wants to stop reading now can do so, but it's a
>cute list and some of you will get a kick out of it. I'll post the other
>lists (under-$500, $500-$2,000) in another post for those who are
>interested.
>
>Beal Company 2,500
>Nancy Broderick (multiple r.e. holdings) 48,000
>Claremont Management Co. 5,000
>Chestnut Hill Realty (loan 9,000) 9,000
>Coopers & Lybrand 3,500
>Coppola, John A. (multiple r.e. holdings) 2,400
>Craigie Arms 4,000
>Donum, Abram (Ramon Realty) 2,270
>Eaubacci, Rosemary (Corcoran Mgmt) 2,585
>Fehlin, Bruce N. (Avalon Properties) 5,000
>Fish, Edward (Peabody Properties) 5,000
>Gorin, H.N. Agency 5,000
>Greater Boston R. E. Board (loan 50,000) 68,500
>Hsu, Nien-Hsi & Boyee Leung 2,600
>Jillson, Denise 9,000
>Johnson, Albridge (multiple r.e. holdings) 5,950
>Johnson, C. (Gen. Invest.& Develp. Co.) 11,685
>Kargman, Wm. (multiple r.e. holdings) 20,000
>Kaufman, Marina (multiple r.e. holdings) 12,500
>Levine, Maria (multiple r.e. holdings) 18,500
>Mass. Assoc. of Realtors 20,000
>McGillicuddy, Susan (Harlow Properties) 5,800
>McNeil, Linda (multiple r.e. holdings) 5,000
>Medhara, Elliot 3,100
>Metropolitan Chapter #4-IREM 10,000
>Nadler, R. W. (Warwick Co.) 10,000
>The Niles Company (W. White) 29,265.47
>Thomas Niles 10,000
>Olmstead, Michael (Union Sq.Apts.Lmtd.Ptrshp) 16,000
>Rubin & Rudman 3,500
>Samia Cos. Agency Acct. 10,000
>Southview Coop Housing Corp. (loan 2,000) 13,500
>(Stanley Shulman) Stanton Trust 2,200
>(S. Rothman) Stu-Lin Mgmt 31,000
>Russell, Peter (Stanton Realty Trust) 2,500
>Saunders, Donald (Saunders R.E.) 4,000
>Southview Coop. Housing Co. (loan 2,000) 28,000
>Starr, Carol (Nat'l Multi-Housing Council) 10,000
>Toulopoulos, John & Pam (JVI Realty) 2,300
>Wolfberg, Stephen 9,000
>Wordblom Mgmt. co. 5,000
>Yogel, Murray, Eric & David 3,250
>Zuker, (Chestnut Hill Realty) (loan 5,000) 42,000
>
>Total contributions over $2,000: $ 518,405.47