TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019 The Boston Globe Metro B
Lyons declined to respond to
Cook’s e-mail, saying he’d wait
to comment until after he met
with an internal committee in-
vestigating the party’s spend-
ing. Lyons caught the attention
of committee members when
he circulated on Friday night a
five-page memo scrutinizing
hundreds of thousands in pay-
ments the party and MassVicto-
ry had made over multiple
years to Cook and others.
But, in an earlier interview,
Lyons downplayed the impact
of losing MassVictory’s fund-
raising stream, saying he feels
“comfortable” the
party is raising
enough to help can-
didates in 2020 and
that it’s exploring
other opportunities
to partner with the
national committee.
“There’s a transi-
tion taking place,”
Lyons said. “Based
on our close rela-
tionship with the
RNC, we believe in
the long term, it will
be beneficial to the
party.”
According to the
memo from Lyons’s
team, he was told by
Cook that the agree-
ment between the MassGOP
and Republican National Com-
mittee had “expired” before his
election and needed his approv-
al to be renewed.
In the months following Ly-
ons’ election, the committee
grounded to a halt, reporting
just a single, $1,000 donation
through the end of July. In 2018
alone, the committee had fun-
neled nearly $1.4 million into
the party’s federal account.
Under the complicated
agreement, portions of Mass-
Victory’s fund-raising went to
both the MassGOP and the
RNC. But the national commit-
tee would also routinely trans-
fer lump-sum payments to the
state party, which in 2018 alone
mounted to $1.6 million.
The arrangement allowed
individual donors to give up to
$45,500 to MassVictory, far
above the $5,000 cap for state-
regulated political donations to
the parties or the $1,000 annu-
al limit for donations to Baker’s
campaign committee.
MassVictory also had sur-
vived intense scrutiny. State
campaign finance regulators
determined in 2016 that the
state party’s use of money
raised under federal rules to
help Baker slipped through a
loophole in Massachusetts cam-
paign finance law. And repeat-
ed attempts by Democrats who
control the Legislature to rein
in the fund-raising structure
never gained traction.
Now sapped of MassVicto-
ry’s fund-raising stream, the
state party’s federal account has
raised roughly $470,
through the end of July, with
more than half of that — more
uGOP
Continued from Page B
than $270,000 — coming di-
rectly from its own state-level
account.
RNC officials did not return
repeated calls and e-mails
about the fund-raising agree-
ment. Jim Conroy, a senior ad-
viser to Baker, declined to com-
ment.
The developments, however,
have left others openly ques-
tioning the direction of the par-
ty. Cook, who led fund-raising
for the MassGOP before joining
MassVictory, said the party is
on pace for its “worst year of
fund-raising since 2009” and
has done little to replace the ad-
vantage that committee gave
the party.
“The Chair
didn’t coordinate
fundraising with
the Baker and Polito
teams. And the
Chair chose not to
preserve the fund-
raising structure
previously in place,”
Cook wrote in his e-
mail to committee
members. “The pro-
fessionalfinance
staff that raised $
million [over the
last four years] is no
longer employed by
the MassGOP.”
Brent J. Anders-
en, the longtime
party treasurer who unsuccess-
fully vied against Lyons for
chairman this year, said that af-
ter nearly 20 years on the state
committee, he will not seek re-
election in March. “Lyons and
his leadership team have taken
actions that will have perni-
cious effects,” Andersen said in
an e-mail to The Boston Globe.
Fissures have been forming
for months between the Lyons-
led party and Baker, its titular
head. Under the former An-
dover lawmaker, the state GOP
has adopted a pro-Trump tone
far to the right of Baker’s more
moderate brand, and Baker has
retained his own staff as he
mulls seeking a third term. The
governor had used party em-
ployees and the MassGOP
headquarters for its operations
after he first took office in 2015,
helping cover overhead costs as
Baker raised record-breaking
amounts.
Baker’s political team is also
now renting a $3,000-a-month
office on West Street, providing
a physical example of the sepa-
ration between the governor
and the party apparatus.
Then, in August, the divide
spilled directly in the public
realm when the two sides
clashed over lucrative donor
databases that temporarily
locked both out of the data by
software giant Salesforce.com.
The party staff has since re-
gained access to the database,
according to a letter its lawyer
sent Lyons roughly two weeks
after they threatened legal ac-
tion against the company.Matt Stout can be reached at
[email protected].LucrativeGOP
fund-raising
operationclosed
By Emily Sweeney
GLOBE STAFF
Seaman Norman Finch was
23 years old when he was killed
while serving aboard the US
Coast Guard Cutter Tampa dur-
ing World War I, according to
the Coast Guard.
On Monday afternoon, near-
ly 101 years after his death,
Coast Guard officials posthu-
mously presented the Purple
Heart to Finch’s family at a cer-
emony in Chatham.
The Tampa was one of six
cuttersassignedtoconvoyduty
in European waters during
World War I, according to the
Coast Guard Historian’s Office
website.
In May 1918, Finch’s home-
town newspaper, the Spring-
field Daily Republican, pub-
lished part of a letter that he
had written to his parents.
“Just a chance to write a few
lines,” Finch wrote. “I hope you
may be able to read it, the
swinging table makes it rather
inconvenient for one to use as a
writing desk. We left Gibraltar
two weeks ago for England. We
had a few days’ furlough and a
party of us boys went to the
Young Men’s Christian Associa-
tion, conducted by Americans.
Everything about the place was
O.K. We were a tired lot when
night came, so much so that I
slept through the ringing of
bells at midnight warning us of
an air raid. One of the boys
woke me up and we spent sev-
eral hours in the cellar. Nothing
doing — only regret they did
not let me sleep through.”
“Now that it’s all over I will
tell you that our boat was fired
upon, mistaking us for a sub-marine once again. Nothing do-
ing — maybe it’s luck. I am now
on bridge duty. Have had a
short stay at Pembroke, Wales.
The people I liked very much,
more so than in any port I have
seen. I have seen considerable
and the time may come when I
will look back to these days
with pleasure. At present
though, the old U.S.A. would
look so much better. In fact I
have not seen any place equal to
our states and we should be
proud to fight for so beautiful a
country. I have given my time
cheerfully and am glad to do it
but, believe me, won’t the old
Statue of Liberty look good —
you bet.”
Sadly, Finch would die over-
seas less than five months later.
On Sept. 26, 1918, Tampa
was sailing through the Bristol
Channel toward Milford Havenin Wales when she was torpe-
doed by a German submarine.
One hundred and eleven Coast
Guardsmen lost their lives,
which made it the single largest
loss of life for the Coast Guard
during the war, according to
the Coast Guard Historian’s Of-
fice.
Finch was among those who
perished.
“The sacrifices of her crew
were not forgotten,” the Coast
Guard website states, as the city
of Tampa launched a fund-rais-
ing campaign called “Remem-
ber the Tampa!” to sell war
bonds. In 1921, the Coast
Guard christened a new cutter
in her name, and in 1928, the
Coast Guard Memorial was
dedicated at Arlington National
Cemetery, honoring those who
served aboard the doomed ves-
sel.In 1999, Coast Guard Com-
mandant Admiral James Loy
authorized the posthumous
awarding of the Purple Heart to
the crew of the Cutter Tampa.
Since then, the Coast Guard has
been trying to track down de-
scendents of crew members
who have yet to receive their
ancestors’ medal.
The Purple Heart ceremony
for Finch took place at 1 p.m.,
Monday, at the Coast Guard
Station Chatham. Two of
Finch’s grandnephews were
present at the ceremony, at
least one of whom lives in
Brewster, according to the
Coast Guard.Danny McDonald of Globe staff
contributed to this report.
Emily Sweeney can be reached
at [email protected]. Follow
her on Twitter @emilysweeney.CoastGuardhonorsSpringfieldnative
WWIseaman
givenPurpleHeart
By Alyssa Lukpat
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
Prepare for a bleak winter,
because “freezing, frigid, and
frosty” weather is predicted to
slam the Northeast, the Farm-
ers’ Almanac said.
The almanac, based in
Lewiston, Maine, forecasts in
its 2020 edition that the east-
ern third of the country can ex-
pect more rain and chillier
temperatures than normal, the
Farmers’ Almanac said in a
statement released Monday.
“We expect yet another wild
ride this winter, with extreme
temperatures swings and some
hefty snowfalls,” said Peter
Geiger, the editor of the alma-
nac.
The Farmers’ Almanac has
published long-term weather
forecasts since 1818. The al-
manac says it uses tidal action,
planetary position, and other
methods to predict the weath-
er that modern scientists have
long forgotten, according to its
website.
The almanac coined this
upcoming winter a “polar
coaster,” with snow, rain, and
sleet expected to hammer the
Northeast, the statement said.
People from the Rockies to
the Appalachian Mountains
may be in for a frozen winter,
the almanac predicted. The
publication forecasts normalconditions for the West.
“The coldest outbreaks in
late January are forecast to af-
fect millions of people living in
the Northern Plains into the
Great Lakes (remember last
winter in Chicago?), with the
possibility of temperatures
dropping to -40 in the Plains,”
the statement said.
Scientists from the National
Weather Service, however, pre-
dict a warmer winter than usu-
al.
“It’s looking like the winter
months will have above aver-
age temperatures and about
normal precipitation,” said Al-
an Dunham, a meteorologist at
the NWS in Norton.
TheNWSClimatePredic-
tion Center will publish its na-
tional winter forecast Oct. 17.Alyssa Lukpat can be reached
at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter
@AlyssaLukpat.AbrutalwinterforNortheast?
Getready,saysFarmers’Almanac
NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBEJONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
The almanac coined this
upcoming winter a “polar
coaster.”‘Basedon
ourclose
relationship
withthe
RNC,we
believe...it
willbe
beneficialto
theparty.’
JIM LYONS,state
GOP party chairmanTHE BIG ONE GOT AWAY —Da Qiang Chen (left) and Shu Wu reacted to Jing Lia Wa catching a fish along the
Charles River Esplanade in Boston last week.SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF
Grandnephews Steven and Brad Finch accepted the Purple Heart and a flag for their uncle.(617) 204-