Longmeadow Daze is an occasional series about Longmeadow politics & government.

Dark money invades Longmeadow. (created via Lucasfilm and Google map images)

For some in Longmeadow, it may seem like there has been somebody—or some thing—new in town for the better part of the last two years. As the town has moved toward developing its own municipal fiber, that is local Internet service, a nebulous and shadowy advocacy group and one of the nation’s largest telecommunications groups have moved in—at least on Facebook in Longmeadow.

This coming Tuesday could be a denouement of sorts for municipal fiber. At Town Meeting there will be an order to place a debt exclusion question on the ballot. It needs 2/3 of Town Meeting participants to put it on a town-wide referendum. If voters approve that, Longmeadow will borrow money to begin building town-owned internet infrastructure. Comcast, the principal cable provider and therefore Internet provider stands to lose out. A nebulous advocacy group Mass Priorities, an offshoot of a Minnesota entity, appears to be taking Comcast’s side.

“The idea is that internet is a utility and we should be able to provide good, fast, reliable internet at cost to our residents,” said Vineeth Hemavathi, a member of the Select Board.

Hemavathi took a lead on the proposal shorty after joining the Select Board in 2023. He said the notion gained currency as he and others heard from the growing remote workers in town. Residents generally had become dissatisfied with the price spikes and uneven responsiveness of the current provider.

Comcast representatives are said to have lurked on Zoom during the town’s municipal task force meetings. Mass Priorities’ leader virtually popped into Select Board meetings. The group also tried to kill the establishment of a Longmeadow municipal light plant, a technical step that lets the town run a utility.

It is no surprise that that incumbent internet service provider would rather Longmeadow reject this project. However, it has not revealed what it is doing to oppose Longmeadow’s journey toward municipally-owned internet. Instead, the town finds itself on one branch of a vast, confusing thicket of corporations, vendors, and special interests stretching from Fall River to Colorado.

If the debt exclusion survives Town Meeting and a voter referendum, the cost of debt service would be allocated to taxpayers outside the normal restrictions of Proposition 2 ½. In theory, that means debt payments should not crowd out regular annual budget expenses. Longmeadow has a long history of approving (far larger) debt exclusions for school projects.

The revenue from initial service would finance town-wide buildouts. Although Longmeadow would be establishing a publicly-owned internet utility, Comcast would still be able to compete and offer its services to residents.

Longmeadow meeting as a town in 2019. (WMP&I)

Prior to the 2024 Town Meeting, Mass Priorities spent at least $8,000 to $10,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads according to the ad library Meta maintains. Mass Priorities has spent thousands more ahead this year’s spring Town Meeting. That is on top of the small fortunes it spent opposing municipal fiber in Southwick, West Springfield and Westfield.

WMP&I could not reach a Comcast representative of the company as of posting time. Comcast is an obvious beneficiary of Mass Priorities’ efforts. Yet, the company has limited itself to feel-good publicity like handing out free ice cream.

A “project” of St. Paul, Minnesota-based Domestic Policy Caucus (DPC)—sometimes Domestic Policies Caucus—Mass Priorities has popped up in several broadband efforts since 2023. DPC, originally a lobbying firm in its home state, has backed a referendum in Colorado, written testimony in Kansas and cheered on small dollar loans in Michigan. (One of DPC’s principals appears to have penned an op-ed the Boston Herald carried.)

The Enterprise, which covers Upper Cape communities like Bourne and Falmouth, smoked out details about Mass Priorities and DPC’s relationship just a few months after the former’s domain was registered. The paper also spoke with Christopher Thrasher, a one-time political candidate who appears to run Mass Priorities.

WMP&I could not reach Thrasher as of posting time and DPC did not respond to a request for comment. Mass Priorities’ website states it “[exists] to educate and engage communities on the local policy decisions that affect their lives and to advocate for smart, responsible use of taxpayer dollars by local elected officials.”

Mass Priorities has not incorporated in Massachusetts. Because it is not actively engaged in any kind of electoral campaign, it does not need to organize a committee with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign & Political Finance or with the town clerk. Technically, its activities fall under lobbying as Town Meeting, composed of town voters, is the municipal legislature, not an electorate.

In theory, Mass Priorities’ current activities could develop an electoral character if they attempt to influence a future election. That would be the local ballot question on the debt exclusion to finance the municipal broadband buildout in Longmeadow. The rules about this mostly address what public officials can do to influence the vote at the ballot box. Were Mass Priorities to breach this line, OCPF could step in and it may have already received complaint. (OCPF itself neither confirms nor denies the existence of complaints.)

Mass Priorities’ activities predate Thrasher’s 2024 race and former BAMN, but he has been the DPC’s man for Mass Priorities at least since 2023. (via New Bedford Light/candidate submission)

The Meta ad library indicates that the DPC paid for nearly all Mass Priorities ads. The DPC’s tax forms for 2024, the latest year available, show DPC paid $109,829 to Ballot Access Marketing Northeast (BAMN). Thrasher set that outfit up in February 2024 per state corporate records. BAMN provided consulting, field support and canvassing.

Campaign finance records indicate Thrasher’s outfit has not been a vendor to many campaigns that file with the state. Thrasher used BAMN as a pass-through to buy billboards for his unsuccessful campaign for State House in 2024. In 2026, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Michael Kennealy paid BAMN nearly $100,000 for “ballot access.” Kennealy was eliminated at the state GOP convention last month. Anne Manning Martin, a lieutenant governor candidate, will appear on the ballot in September. It is unclear what she paid BAMN $10,000 to do. Her campaign did not immediately reply to a request for clarification.

Mass Priorities’ DPC-paid ads go back to 2023, a few months before BAMN was formed. Not surprisingly, BAMN does not appear on DPC tax forms before 2024. However, Ainsley Shea, a St. Paul-based public relations firm that The Shoestring identified as owned and managed by DPC board members, has been a vendor since 2021. Marketing materials Mass Priorities used in its Longmeadow lobbying appear on Ainsley Shea’s website.

Since 2020, DPC itself has seen its income wax and wane since catapulting out from Minnesota lobbying. Its tax returns do not state from where it derives its income—the money appears on a line for “contributions and grants.” Yet, revenue has varied from $192,900 in 2020 to a recorded high of $2,559,318 in 2023. In leaner years, like 2020 and 2022, it paid no contractors but still gave out grants.

Without more recent tax filings, it is hard to fully nail down DPC’s activities. However, it is paying for its own ads according to the Meta ad library. Since 2025, it has mostly sponsored Facebook and Instagram ads in Midwest states about a federal drug pricing program from the 1990s.

Among the exception was an ad taking aim at a Maine bill regarding a national popular vote for president. DPC was behind a conservative group that backed Colorado’s 2020 referendum to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The Colorado Sun alluded on the rarity of a group on the right supporting such an endeavor (and suggested Democrats were actually responsible).

A Mile High connection puts the DPC in a mercenary or at least a transactional light. (via Wikipedia)

One of DPC’s 2024 vendors was a Colorado consultant, Trimpa Group, with ties to the Democratic party, which supported the 2020 question. It was a rare cross-party event for DPC. Another Colorado document lists Trimpa Group as a lobbyist for the DPC. That appears to be related to changes to consumer lending laws, at least in recent years.

DPC and Mass Priorites have spent tens of thousands of dollars to combat Longmeadow’s municipal fiber proposal since last summer. They did halt Southwick’s plan, although they were less successful in West Springfield.

Mass Priorities has been emphasizing the 6-1 thumbs down the town Finance Committee gave the project. Supporters have said the committee, which provides advice to other town organs, did not understand the proposal. The Select Board provided a response, which won the proposal another committee vote. Moreover, the Finance Committee’s statement did not dispute supporters’ arguments that the utility could defray costs to the town and taxpayers.

Another complication is securing the support 2/3 of those voting at Town Meeting Tuesday. Under the best of circumstances, it is not an easy lift.

Hemavathi, the Select Board member, acknowledged the difficulty of that threshold, especially with a torrent of dark money behind the opposition. The region is watching, though, and he believes residents will see the value of town-owned fiber.

“100 years ago, the people of Holyoke, Westfield, and Chicopee invested in creating their own energy entities. 100 years later, they paid half in energy costs this past winter compared to National Grid and Eversource communities,” he said. “One hundred years from now, I don’t want Longmeadow residents to be saying, ‘I wish they had invested in fiber in 2026.’ That’s the choice before us.”