Private equity and venture capital executives are bankrolling the super PAC working to unseat Sen. Ed Markey and elect Rep. Seth Moulton in Massachusetts’ Sept. 1 primary, FEC filings show, with the largest checks coming from partners at Bain Capital, Berkshire Partners, and Insight Partners. More than 20 donors from the two industries have given more than $1.6 million to the super PAC, called Advance Progress, together accounting for over 40% of its total receipts.
Richard Wells, a director at Insight Partners, gave $400,000 across two donations. David Peeler and Robert Small, both of Berkshire Partners, gave a combined $350,000. Joshua Bekenstein and Christopher Gordon of Bain Capital gave $175,000 combined.
This finance industry support comes as Markey has pushed to eliminate a tax break that benefits private equity and venture capital fund managers. Markey is an original co-sponsor of the current Senate bill to close the carried interest loophole, which allows investment managers to have some of their compensation taxed at the lower capital gains rates. While Moulton said he supports closing the loophole in a tax plan he released while running for president in 2019, in his more than a decade as a member of the House, he has never cosponsored any of the standalone Carried Interest Fairness Acts introduced during his tenure, including the current House bill.
The PAC also received a $180,000 transfer in July from MA Progress Action, a 501(c)4 nonprofit also known as MA Advance Progress that doesn't disclose its own donors. MA Progress Action is run by Todd Kanter, a managing director at Boston-based investment advisory Silvercrest Asset Management and a strategic advisor to hedge fund CKM Partners. In April, the group ran an ad mocking Markey and other older members of Congress for suffering from what it called "chronic reelection disorder." The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the ad should have been reported to the FEC as a political expenditure and that the group should be required to register as a PAC. MA Progress Action has called the complaint "frivolous" and said its ads are "educational."
Advance Progress has spent at least $5.4 million to support Moulton and oppose Markey, according to FEC data, far more than the $2.2 million that has been spent by the pro-Markey super PAC, Commonwealth Together.
The pro-Markey outside money hails from different donors. Commonwealth Together PAC received its largest donation from Public First Action, a nonprofit organization financed by Anthropic. Its next largest donors, both of whom gave $450,000, are Granite Telecommunications CEO Robert Hale and Triumvirate Environmental CEO John McQuillan. Labor unions including 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and the Massachusetts Teachers Association provided more than a quarter of the pro-Markey group’s funds.
