How Allston’s State Representatives Fund Their Campaigns

Michael J. Moran and Kevin G. Honan have served in the Massachusetts State House for decades — Moran for 20 years and Honan for nearly 40. Yet Moran, who has also served as majority leader of the house since 2023, draws from a far wider-reaching network of donors than Honan and maintains a higher cash amount in his campaign account.

Just 20 percent of Moran’s donors from 2022 to 2024 reported addresses in Boston, compared to 49 percent of Honan’s. During the same period, Moran also raised about $41,000 in contributions from non-Massachusetts donors, while Honan raised a tenth of that.

Moran has enjoyed a successful career representing the 18th Suffolk legislative district in the State House since he was elected in 2005. After serving as the chair of the Joint Committee on Election Laws and the Special Joint Committee on redistricting, Moran was appointed assistant majority leader in 2017. But despite running unopposed since 2008, he has raised more than $700,000 in campaign contributions since the beginning of 2022.

In contrast, Honan raised about $178,800 in campaign contributions over the same period — representing just more than a quarter of Moran’s fundraising. The longest continuously serving legislator in the State House, Honan worked as the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing for 15 years before serving as the Chair of the House Committee on Steering, Policy, and Scheduling.

Neither Moran nor Honan responded to requests for comment on this article.

Both representatives receive a plurality of their individual campaign contributions from individuals that report their occupation as ‘attorney’ to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

John H. Portz, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, said that many attorneys will donate to state representatives because of the greater affiliation they feel toward local elected officials, many of whom have law backgrounds themselves.

“It’s creating a network. And the legal world is a pretty important network around what happens in government,” Portz said.

Portz added that another factor contributing to attorney donations is the establishment of a relationship between law firms and state legislatures.

“Another person that is a client of the law firm has interest in what’s going on in the legislature, and so the attorney can be in a position to help advise them, if not communicate with people in the state house,” Portz said.

Individuals who self-reported as attorneys comprised six percent of Moran’s donors and nine percent of Honan’s. Beyond attorney donations, the contributions of contributors who registered their occupation as real estate or construction made up two percent of Moran’s 2022-24 contributions and six percent of Honan’s.

According to Massachusetts state law, individuals may not donate more than $1,000 to any single campaign within a calendar year. This does not prevent multiple individuals employed by the same company from donating to a candidate — a prevalent trend in both Honan and Moran’s records.

Employees from Chestnut Hill Real Estate, which offers hundreds of estate listings in the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods, donated $3,000 to Honan’s campaign during the 2022-2024 period. This represents the second largest aggregate sum from a company’s employees according to publicly available information.

Employees from the New Balance Corporation — which is headquartered in the Allston neighborhood — also donated $3,000 over the same period. Employees from the Newton-Wellesley Hospital donated the most to Moran’s campaign at $3,100.

While much of Honan’s donations came from inside Boston, Moran drew funds from across — and outside of — the state.

Enterprise Mobility, a rental car and rideshare service based out of Missouri, is the firm with the largest sum of employee donations to Moran’s campaign during the 2022-24 period. The second most represented firm was Enterprise Holdings, the rental car conglomerate that owns Enterprise Mobility, also based out of Missouri.

Tied for third on Moran’s list were Davis Companies, a real estate developer whose portfolio includes more than 400 units in Allston and Brighton, and Martignetti Companies, the largest alcohol distributor in New England.

Rachael V. Cobb, an associate professor of political science and legal studies at Suffolk University, said that it is not uncommon for state legislators — especially those in higher positions of power — to get donations from national or even international businesses.

“We could just take the biotech industry. It’s certainly not a local Boston industry, right? It’s international, and so business-oriented organizations — associations — that are national or international in focus are keeping their eye on legislation in all of the states,” Cobb said.

“They do not want to have different rules in different states that make their life more difficult, and they also don’t want one state to pass a set of regulations that other states are going to copy that they don’t like. They want to encourage regulations that they do like,” Cobb added.

Scotia M. Hille, a pro-transparency activist at Act On Mass, added that high-ranking incumbents tend to see a lot of repeat donations from lobbyists or businesses.

“For a lot of these members of leadership, you will see that a huge part of their donations come from lobbyists or businesses, people with a vested interest in certain policy outcomes in the state house,” said Hille, adding that it is especially true for Moran, “one of the most powerful members of the House.”

Despite Honan and Moran’s broad fundraising differences, both candidates raised more than $20,000 from registered political action committees during the 2022-24 period.

As the elections for state representatives approach in 2026, Moran has more than $250,000 in his bank account, while Honan has nearly $69,000 as of February.

Portz said that it is not unusual for incumbents who have gone unchallenged for long periods of time to keep large sums of money on hand.

“You never want to take winning for granted,” he said.

“There could always be a challenger, and so you want to be prepared, and so you fundraise. I mean, some people will fundraise every year. They won’t necessarily wait till it’s an election year,” he added.

—Staff writer Angelina J. Parker can be reached at angelina.parker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @angelinajparker.