THE ARGUS EYE: Rep. Neal gets a challenger, junk fees get a spotlight, and The Argus gets on WAMC
In this edition of The Argus Eye, news of what may be an interesting race for Congress in western Massachusetts next year.
Hello everyone,
Three items in this edition of The Argus Eye.
First: Last week I joined WAMC Northeast Public Radio to talk about my reporting on the Berkshire Health Systems data breach and the questions it raised about the 4,000-employee network’s data security and privacy practices.
I spoke with Josh Landes, the station’s Berkshire bureau chief, known for asking tough questions and chasing stories other outlets often overlook. You can listen to our conversation here.
Josh Landes
Second: Congressman Richard Neal, the Springfield Democrat who has represented some or all of western Massachusetts since 1989, has a primary challenger.
Jeromie Whalen, a 38-year-old teacher from South Hadley, will formally launch his campaign on Saturday with a week of events culminating in a Springfield rally on September 13.
Whalen, who grew up in Belchertown, is running on an unapologetically progressive platform and highlighting generational change—Neal is 76—and Neal’s long reliance on corporate PAC and lobbyist money.
And Neal has a lot of it: As of June 30, Neal’s principal campaign committee had $3.9 million in cash on hand, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Of the nearly $800,000 Neal has raised so far this year, only $1,165 came from small donors giving less than two hundred dollars. The rest came mostly from large donations from corporate PACs, lobbyists, and the lobbyists’ clients. In the last election cycle, seventy-five percent of his funds came from PACs—the highest percentage in Congress.
I spoke briefly with Whalen earlier this year. He struck me as energetic and still shaping the language of a new campaign—something that usually sharpens with time on the trail. His campaign promises a contrast: younger, more online, and eager to challenge the status quo. Whether he can deliver substance beyond energy and vibes may well determine how much traction he gets.
The Whalen campaign released what it calls a "teaser" video in advance of a planned campaign launch on September 6. (YouTube/Whalen for Congress)
Neal, for his part, remains a formidable incumbent: He’s chair-in-waiting of the House Ways and Means Committee if Democrats retake the chamber. But the political moment, which includes a number of older Democrats retiring or facing younger challengers who seek to transform the Democratic Party, is filled with uncertainty that could make this race unpredictable.
By way of full disclosure: I ran in the 2012 Democratic primary in this district with a message focused on the need for Democrats to champion major democracy reform and advance transformative policies to address inequality and restore economic fairness—long-term party failures that, arguably, laid the groundwork for Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and his return to the Oval Office this year.
If past is prologue, Neal’s campaign will again lean on staged events, television ads, and the support of Democratic electeds tasked with delivering their voters. That creates a balancing act for western Massachusetts lawmakers and municipal officials who promote progressive policies but sidestep Neal’s corporate-friendly, clubby, old-school politics.
(Notably, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has never, to my knowledge, criticized Neal on this front—even as she rails against the very corporate interests that fuel his campaigns.)
Ambitious western Massachusetts politicians eyeing Neal’s seat must decide whether to join his campaign—at the risk of angering their progressive supporters—or to hang back, wary that a Whalen upset could block their own path to Congress.
Neal has proven remarkably resilient in the face of all recent challenges. He handily defeated me and former Pittsfield State Senator Andrea Nuciforo in 2012, Springfield attorney Tahira Amatul-Wadud in 2018, former Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse in 2020, and independent candidate Nadia Milleron last year.
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Interestingly, while Politico and media outlets in the Pioneer Valley have already covered Whalen’s campaign for several weeks—see here, here, here, and here—Berkshire County media haven’t mentioned it. The editorial board of the county-wide Berkshire Eagle has endorsed Neal in every race, citing his seniority and ability to steer funds home. And The Eagle has rarely scrutinized his fundraising or behind-the-scenes work to advance, or block, arcane tax changes that benefit his donors but cost the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars. (The most recent examination of Neal’s reliance on corporate funds was published last fall by The Shoestring.)
It’s a personal point of pride that the now-defunct North Adams Transcript, which was acquired in 1996 by the same ownership group that formerly owned The Eagle, endorsed my campaign in 2012. But a little more than a year later, The Transcript was shuttered and folded into The Eagle. Correlation but not causation, of course. I think…
And finally: New “junk fee” regulations take effect today in Massachusetts. Merchants must now show you the actual cost of what you’re buying up front, instead of discovering mysterious and sometimes sizeable surcharges for vague “handling fees” revealed only at checkout.
This is an issue near and dear to my frugal heart: Last year I wrote about Tanglewood’s nine dollar “handling fee” levied on each and every ticket it sells online. So I checked the Tanglewood website this morning. Good news: it’s disclosed earlier. Less-good news: It’s now $9.99 per ticket.
Bill Shein
The regulatory changes also cover trial offers and make it easier to cancel recurring subscriptions. These new rules mean more transparency, but if you were hoping for the endless fees and add-on charges to vanish into the mist, I regret to inform you that they will live on in their better-labeled form.
Indeed, one estimate last year suggested junk fees cost Americans more than $90 billion a year. So it’s hard to see the fee purveyors giving up that handling-fee revenue anytime soon. Unless, of course, they can figure out a way to charge a “convenience fee” for waiving their “handling fee.”
More soon,
Bill
