Friday, May 19, 2006

More Lobbying from the Mass "Family" Institute

I wrote yesterday about the MFI, a supposedly not-for-profit and "educational" business in treading the water of lobbying, which I believe is not allowed. Well, today they sent out another email with the MFI's header telling people to contact their legislators. I believe this IS lobbying:

MFI has created a quick summary about the constitutionality of the Marriage Amendment, and need YOU to send it to your elected officials. This is critical as some legislators may try to hide behind false constitutionality questions to avoid voting for the Marriage Amendment.

Clicking on the link below will quickly guide you through sending an email that already includes the proper information to educate your senator and representative, and asks them to respond to you. Thank you for your help with this important campaign.

I think their tax exempt status should be revoked and their financial records examined.

Addition: When you click on the "continue" button on the MFI you get asked to enter lots of personal information. It is collected by a company called VoterVoice. VoteVoice is apparently charging MFI for this service. This company then sends an email to your legislator just like you sent it (but they retain all your information):

Will governmental offices know that my message is being sent from voterVOICE?

No, any messages sent from the voterVOICE system will look like they are coming directly from the sender's own email address or fax machine. There will be nothing to indicate that the message came from our grassroots advocacy system. Also, the message will NOT be identified as coming from any particular group or organization, unless the administrator of the organization includes that information in the message.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Someone should take a look at Article8/Massresistance as well. What exactly does their non-profit "research operations" do, anyway? Are tax payer funds being used to dig up dirt on BostonBud?

https://www.parentsrightscoalition.org/article8donations.htm

Donations to MassResistance / Article 8 Alliance are not tax deductible and are completely confidential. Tax-deductible contributions to fund our research and educational operations can be made by check to "Parents' Educational Foundation", and mailed to the above address, or call us at 781-899-4905.

Anonymous said...

Last year I checked to see if Mass News and Article 8 had filed the proper reports with the Atty General and the Sec of State and found they had not complied with the reporting procedures.

I contacted GLAD about helping me file complaints but I never heard back from them.

I will look into it again.

I will also check with the Sec of State to see if Evelyn Reilly and Chris Mineau are registered as paid lobbyists.