AMHERST — On the eve of a potential historic vote on Tuesday, the sole group in support of a new town charter has collected slightly more money for its campaign than the combined total raised by the three groups against the idea.
In reports filed with the town clerk on Monday and Tuesday, the groups had brought in $27,927, with the most collected by Amherst for All 2.0, with $15,342. The three groups against the charter change have raised a combined $12,585, with Not This Charter collecting $9,887, Vote No on the Charter $1,845 and Town Meeting Works $853.
Tuesday’s vote will decide whether Amherst retains the 240-member Town Meeting and five-member Select Board, or replaces those with a 13-member council. Both forms of government include a professional town manager. The Charter Commission recommended the change 5-3, with one abstention.
Meg Gage, a commission member who helped form Not This Charter, said the campaign shows that big money has entered Amherst politics and, that while her group has tried to keep up, this has meant soliciting loans and larger contributions than she would have preferred.
“I think this is an indication of where politics is going in particular if the charter wins,” Gage said. “If we have high stakes council elections, we will see a new era of big money and enormous fundraising campaigns.”
But Johanna Neumann, chairwoman of the Amherst for All campaign, said there is an irony in that those against money in politics have actually gotten much larger individual contributions.
“When you follow the money, it’s clear proponents of the status quo are driven by large donors, whereas Amherst for All is funded by grassroots support,” Neumann said.
Even though the pro-charter group raised the most money, from 228 donors, the average donation was just $66, with $5,541, or 36 percent, from 127 individuals who gave under $50.
In contrast, Not This Charter got just $1,569, or 16 percent of its total, from donors who gave less than $50.
The larger donations to the anti-charter campaign included $1,000 from retired elementary school teacher Terry Johnson, $600 from Linda Slakey of Amherst, $500 from Arthur Keene, Carol Pope and David Sloviter, all of Amherst, and Charles Longsworth of Athol, and $300 from Ira Addes of Amherst.
A $300 donation by Ernest May, a retired performing arts professor at the University of Massachusetts, was the largest donation the pro-charter campaign got.
“The small donor support from large numbers of everyday citizens is an inconvenient truth for proponents of the status quo, who continue to falsely claim Amherst for All is funded primarily by developers,” Neumann said.
Still, Gage said big money isn’t about corruption, but about being able to influence the message and dominate the discussion through sophisticated techniques. She also worries about constant fundraising and campaigning, leaving those with few resources unable to seek elective office in town, unlike in Town Meeting where campaigns are inexpensive.
Gage said her group prioritized being competitive in what is anticipated to be a close election, even though it meant people on fixed incomes had to give money.
“A lot of people have stepped up for us to be competitive with Amherst for All, but at a cost,” Gage said.
Carol Gray, a member of Vote No on the Charter, said she wasn’t surprised the pro-charter forces were well funded.
“Again, it is a sign of things to come if the charter passes,” Gray said. “Candidates who can raise the kind of money that Amherst for all raises will have a huge advantage for the city council, and tremendous power in our town.”
Gray added that there appears to have been an informal cap on contributions put in place by Amherst for All to show they are not tied to developers.
“But this does not change the fact that those who have a financial stake in this election are lining up in favor of this charter,” Gray said.
There are developers and members of the business community who gave exactly $100, including real estate developers Donald Laverdiere and Ronald Laverdiere, The Pub and Rafter’s owner Jerry Jolly, SWCA Environmental Consultants principal Julie Marcus, A.J. Hastings owner Sharon Povinelli, Amherst Business Improvement District Executive Director Sarah la Cour and her husband Niels La Cour and Lauria Brennan of Braintree, a Boston-based real estate broker.
Several individuals with connections to W.D. Cowls also donated, including President Cinda Jones, Cowls Building Supply owner Evan Jones, Cowls’ chief forester Shane Bojnoci and former Cowls vice president of real estate and community development Mollye Lockwood and her husband Todd Lockwood. There were also separate donations from Cowls Building Supply and The Mill District.
But Neumann said business and real estate interests are on both sides of the debate.
“The charter’s not about development, it’s about democracy,” Neumann said, adding that the 1930s-era representative Town Meeting lacks accountability and transparency, meaning it can more easily be manipulated by powerful interests who know how to work the system than the future council would be.
Not This Charter’s biggest spending was $2,653.29, which paid Peggy Matthews-Nilsen for advertisements and a website, $1,422.50 for Sunraise Printing in Hadley for lawn signs and $1,294.13 for Marcus Printing Company in Holyoke.
Amherst for All’s biggest spending was $3,275.68 for Amherst Copy and Design Works, $1,950 for Custom Mail of South Deerifield for postage and $2,299.95 for Daily Hampshire Gazette advertising.
Vote No on the Charter collected $1,845, with the bulk of this, $1,465, from donors giving under $50. Its largest contribution was $200 from Betsy Mathews of Amherst. It spent $1,198, the largest $300 for a Doug Hewitt Group performance at last weekend’s Rally for Real Democracy.
Town Meeting Works collected $853.22, $330 from its founders, Mary Wentworth and Michael Burkart, and $302.22 from donors giving under $50. It has spent $1,050.77, $948.88 of which went toward advertisements in the Gazette.
The four ballot committees previously did year-end filings that, at that time, showed they had collected more than $22,000 for their campaigns for and against the change, with the three opposition groups combining to raise just over $11,000, while Amherst for All brought in $11,196.
Not This Charter received loans and donations from Town Meeting members, including $2,200 from Maurianne Adams and $1,200 from John Fox and $700 from Janet McGowan and Kenneth Rosenthal. Its largest expense was $3,214 for advertisements in the Gazette.
Adams said as a retired professor she lives on a fixed income, but saw the contribution as protecting the common good and saving the town from a crisis caused by loss of participatory democracy and threats to the citizen voice.
“It is money I felt I had to invest in our quality of life,” Adams said.
Vote No on the Charter raised $1,465, all but $315 from those who donated at least $50. Among large donors were Adams, who gave $200, and Richard Bentley, also $200, and Sylvia Brandt at $250.
Town Meeting Works brought in $602, with $160 from who donated $50 or less. Its biggest expense was $107 to produce T-shirts.
Of the $11,196 Amherst for All at that time, $7,820 came from those who donated $100 or more, but no single supporter gave more than $250. Its largest expense was $3,463 paid to Amherst College to print and mail a campaign postcard.
