Lynn Mayoral Candidate Darren Cyr is in hot water. Not only is he trying to buy this election with donations from fat cat out of town real estate developers but he is also blatantly violating Massachusetts Campaign Finance Law.
You might remember back in May when The Item posted a story with a misleading headline, Cyr didn't "avoid" anything. He violated campaign finance law and he is given the opportunity to correct it. This stuff happens and that is why candidates are given the opportunity to rectify the situation.
Darren Cyr has only been holding public office for 16 years. I guess we have to give him some time to learn the rules.
On June 17, 2021 the Massachusetts Office of Campaign Finance sent Cyr a letter giving him 14 days to provide additional information to make these donations compliant. 18 donations totaling $17, 775 did not meet the requirements.
On July 20, 2021 a second letter was sent Massachusetts Office of Campaign Finance demanding that information requested be submitted for the remaining 9 donations that had been IGNORED.
I want to clarify one thing. These are not small donations. Most of them are for $1000 each. Surely if these folks donated $1000 to him then he must have their phone number or email or some way to contact them and get the requested information. Admittedly, I have never run for office but I went through the small list of people in my head that might donate $1000 to me. I know them either personally or professionally and I wouldn't need to contact them at all. I just know the information. Why doesn't Cyr know these things about people who donated $1000 to him? It seems like these donations are very transactional. The donors don't even know Cyr. They just know that he will give them what they want.
I know what you are thinking. "Oh he made a mistake Stop making a big deal out of nothing". I don't blame you for thinking that. I had a moment where I thought the same thing. Then I saw that he submitted two more donations on 7/31 that didn't meet the requirements. One was for $300 and the other was for $1000.
None of this was a mistake. He has held public office for 16 years. He knows this isn't allowed. He is just a dishonest man who is trying to see what he can get away with. The Item never bothered to follow up on their May story. They just trusted him to do it. I don't think they will do that again and the people of Lynn shouldn't either. When he thinks nobody is looking he will find a way to cheat.
The second letter states the following:
Your response to this letter is required by August 3, 2021. This date cannot be extended since this is the second letter OCPF has sent to request information. Failure to respond to this letter by the aforementioned date will result in referring the matter to OCPF's legal department. Your anticipated cooperation in clarifying this matter is greatly appreciated.
Note: I reached out to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance to verbally confirm that Cyr has not responded to their requests. When I hear back from them, I will confirm their response. I have no reason to believe that he has rectified this situation and complied with the law especially because he submitted two additional violations even after receiving both letters.
Attachments:
A full list of Darren Cyr's campaign donations can be found here:
https://m.ocpf.us/Filers/FilerInfo?q=15979
