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Biden labor secretary pick directed more than $1M to girlfriend's employer as mayor, filings show

by Carly Roman, Associate News Editor | 

January 15, 2021 01:25 PM

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, President-elect Joe Biden's pick to serve as secretary of labor, gave millions of dollars to girlfriend Lorrie Higgins's employer, campaign filings showed.

Walsh's mayoral campaign funneled close to $1.2 million to LB Strategies, where Higgins is employed as a fundraising consultant, according to the filings. The transactions were originally reported in March 2019.

The payments, which have increased in size to $14,650 per month, amount to more than half of the company's political business since 2013, according to Fox News, which cited campaign filings.

Megan Costello, a Walsh spokesperson, told the Boston Globe in 2019 that the small operation, including owner Laurie Bosio, is tasked with scheduling, managing, and attending his fundraisers, among other duties.

While Walsh's contributions apparently do not violate campaign finance laws, some experts said that they could be viewed as preferential treatment by the public.

“It's the kind of thing that voters are concerned about. It looks like nepotism in some form,” said Maurice Cunningham, an associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, in 2019.

The Biden transition team has come under fire for accepting donations from parties that could pose as a conflict of interest. The president-elect's inaugural committee reportedly returned a donation from former Sen. Barbara Boxer after she registered as a foreign agent of China.

A representative for Biden's transition team did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

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