Super PAC illegally coordinated with Diehl campaign in 2022 election, regulators say

State campaign finance regulators found that former Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl and a super PAC that backed his campaign illegally coordinated during the 2022 election.

Office of Campaign and Political Finance Director William Campbell said Diehl’s campaign and the super PAC, called Mass Freedom, hired the same media consultant, the advertising firm MITTCOM, of Needham. That created a presumption of coordination between the campaign and super PAC in violation of state law, according to a filing Wednesday.

“Neither MITTCOM nor Mass Freedom rebutted that presumption by producing evidence that a written firewall existed to prevent the flow of strategic, non-public information between Mass Freedom and the Diehl Committee,” Campbell said in the filing. “Nor were they able to provide evidence indicating that such strategic flow of information was actually prohibited by MITTCOM and its agents.”

Campbell said without evidence of a firewall, all expenditures made by Mass Freedom to MITTCOM for the benefit of Diehl’s campaign “are deemed coordinated or not independent.”

A super PAC has no limit on the amount of money it can raise or spend to support or oppose a candidate, so long as it does not coordinate directly with a candidate, according to Massachusetts state law and campaign finance regulations.

Antoine Nader, chair of the Mass Freedom super PAC, agreed to pay $60,000 to resolve the legal dispute with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, including $15,000 to the state and $45,000 to a charity of Nader’s choice, according to an agreement between Nader and OCPF.

The agreement did not order the Diehl campaign to pay any fines. A spokesperson for OCPF said there has not been an agreement or other public resolution related to Diehl in the matter

In a statement to WBUR, Diehl said that "the OCPF determination is related to the internal operations of a media company, and doesn't include the campaign."

"My campaign was never involved in this settlement," he said in a text message to WBUR. "Collusion is usually a two-way street but OCPF never talked to anyone from my campaign and the settlement doesn't include us."

In a response included in the agreement, Nader said he created the Mass Freedom super PAC to promote “foundational Judeo Christian family values” and to “increase the volume of faithful voices supporting those values.”

He said the campaign finance law is “complex” and that he had never before served as an official of a super PAC, or "independent expenditure political action committee."

“The IE PAC proved to be the wrong way to achieve the committee's goals, but principled approaches to issues involving parental rights and education, anti-religious restrictions and family values remain goals well worth pursuing, whether by politicians or otherwise,” he said in the agreement.

Nader and a lawyer representing MITTCOM did not immediately respond to WBUR requests for comment.

As part of the agreement, OCPF agreed not to refer Mass Freedom or the candidates and campaigns named in the agreement to state Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office for further legal action.

Campaign finance regulators said Mass Freedom made three payments totaling $155,000 to MITTCOM in 2022, when Diehl unsuccessfully ran for governor as a Republican against then-Attorney General Maura Healey.

In campaign finance reports, Mass Freedom said it spent the money on radio ads in support of Diehl and in opposition to Healey, according to the agreement.

At the same time, Diehl’s campaign also hired MITTCOM, with campaign finance reports showing one $7,000 payment to the company on Nov. 17, 2022. Diehl’s running mate, Leah Allen, also reported spending $10,000 with MITTCOM on Nov. 22, 2022, the agreement said.

During OCPF’s investigation, MITTCOM Chief Executive Bruce Mittman acknowledged that his firm “simultaneously provided consulting and media services for Mass Freedom, and the Diehl and Allen Committees in October and November 2022,” according to the agreement.

“Mittman further acknowledged that MITTCOM did not have a firewall in place to prevent the exchange of strategic, non-public information between Mass Freedom and the Diehl campaign, nor did its employees operate as though a firewall were in place,” Campbell wrote in the agreement.

Mass Freedom raised $426,000 between January 2022 and December 2024, according to campaign finance records. The super PAC spent the same amount during that period, records show.

Diehl beat businessman Chris Doughty in the 2022 Republican primary with 55% of the 275,188 votes cast, according to state data. But Healey handily beat Diehl in the general election with nearly 64% of more than 2.5 million votes cast, state records show.

Super PACs are regular fixtures in gubernatorial campaigns in Massachusetts. Three have formed this year to back each of the Republicans — Michael Minogue, Mike Kennealy, and Brian Shortsleeve — hoping to challenge Healey in next year’s election.

One no-limit super PAC backing Shortsleeve has already reported raising more than $1 million this year to oppose Healey. The no-limit spending group, dubbed Commonwealth Unity, spent over $34,000 on digital advertising.

The group has drawn criticism for multiple social media posts that Democrats have said are offensive, including one that placed Healey in a sombrero and poncho, holding a bag of money.

This is a developing story.