Mass Priorities Looks To Shift Town Spending Through Targeted Ads; But Who Are They?

Mass Priorities is the group calling on local governments to prioritize improvements in water quality, education, and bridge infrastructure over investments in government-owned broadband networks. It is making its message known with a half-million-dollar, three-month advertising barrage, which kicked off on October 31. What is not clear, though, is where the freshly launched group got its money. The Mass Priorities website says that it is a project of the Domestic Policy Caucus, which Policy Director Christopher Thrasher confirmed. That group, however, is not in Massachusetts or even New England—it is based out of Minnesota and has numerous direct ties to the lobbying industry and hard-to-trace, out-of-state funding, also known as “dark money.”