{"id":3465,"date":"2026-06-24T11:03:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T11:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3465"},"modified":"2026-06-24T11:03:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T11:03:30","slug":"after-ballot-question-setbacks-at-the-high-court-attorney-general-andrea-campbell-goes-on-the-defensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3465","title":{"rendered":"After ballot question setbacks at the high court, Attorney General Andrea Campbell goes on the defensive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Attorney General Andrea Campbell acknowledged Tuesday her office got a series of ballot questions \u201cwrong,\u201d leading to two being struck down by the state\u2019s highest court, but argued that \u201cno one should expect us to get a perfect result.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more How Americans are feeling about the country\u2019s 250th anniversary, according to new polls<\/a><\/p>\n

The court rulings drastically altered the landscape of this year\u2019s election, where advocates and opponents were gearing up for what were expected to be costly fights over a proposal to slash the state\u2019s income tax and another to create one of the strictest rent control policies in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rulings put a spotlight on Campbell\u2019s office\u2019s handling of the ballot questions through their earliest stages. All such initiatives must first go through the attorney general for legal review, including whether they adhere to an obscure part of the state Constitution known as Article 48 that governs the ballot question process. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That provision of the state Constitution also requires the attorney general to write a \u201cfair, concise\u201d summary for voters for ballot questions. <\/span><\/p>\n

In both the rent control and state income tax cases, the Supreme Judicial Court found Campbell\u2019s office made mistakes. Last Thursday, the court said the income tax proposal couldn\u2019t go before voters because Campbell\u2019s office used flawed and unclear language in the summary. Then on Tuesday, the SJC ruled the question shouldn\u2019t have been certified for the ballot because it included an exemption for religious institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

On yet a third proposed ballot question, the high court earlier this year also suggested Campbell wrongly certified language aimed at limiting the stipends paid to legislative leaders, which ultimately helped knock the measure off the ballot, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had six challenges, we got three wrong. I think that\u2019s a great record,\u201d Campbell, a first-term Democrat, told reporters Tuesday. \u201cThat just tells me we have more to do to be better. Any institution, whether it\u2019s media outlets or any industry, if they can get 100 percent right every time \u2014 wow. That doesn\u2019t happen. We own these mistakes.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The attorney general\u2019s office received a deluge of submissions for the November election, and ultimately certified a record 44 proposals. Of those, 11 ballot questions, plus a referendum to repeal a gun law, were on track to make the November ballot before a series of legal challenges thinned the field.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four of the ballot questions drew legal challenges from opponents. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that two questions \u2014 one that would repeal legalization of recreational marijuana and another that would scrap the state\u2019s party primary elections \u2014 could move forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in its ruling on the income tax ballot question, the high court said the constitutionally required summary written by Campbell\u2019s office was \u201csignificantly misleading\u201d because it inaccurately described one of its major impacts. <\/span><\/p>\n

The summaries are critical aspects of the ballot question process. They are meant to provide a brief, accurate summary of the proposal to voters and not sway people in either direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an 18-page decision, Justice Serge Georges Jr. ruled Campbell\u2019s summary was not \u201cfair\u201d because it erroneously told voters the question would not lower the tax rate on long-term capital gains when, in fact, it did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more A Kennedy scion loses in a crowded, pricey New York City congressional primary<\/a><\/p>\n

The summary came together in a string of emails last August between Grace Gohlke, an assistant attorney general in Campbell\u2019s constitutional and administrative law division, and Kevin Martin, a lawyer at Goodwin Procter who represented the ballot question\u2019s proponents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell did not say Tuesday whether she personally signed off on the summary, only telling reporters that she reviews \u201cthem all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to mention my private team,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cMy team works really hard. You want to name me, name me. But to make it personal for the lawyers who are doing the best they can, and who make mistakes \u2014 anyone makes mistakes. You guys, as you write articles, will make mistakes.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But, she added: \u201cThe buck stops with me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement last week, a spokesperson for Campbell said lawyers in her office found it \u201cdifficult to summarize succinctly\u201d a large portion of state taxes that includes wages and salaries. In her appearance on GBH\u2019s \u201cBoston Public Radio,\u201d host Jim Braude questioned that response.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe statement from your office, I have to say, was hard to take for me,\u201d Braude said to Campbell. \u201c… Your job is to summarize succinctly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell pushed back, telling Braude that neither the proponents nor the opponents of the income tax question challenged the summary her office drafted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll the attorneys and the staff who worked on these issues take their job seriously, and anytime they get a result that\u2019s opposite of their analysis, they review it closely and always look for ways in which we can do better,\u201d Campbell said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the rent control decision, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled the attorney general\u2019s office should not have certified that the measure passed constitutional muster because certain matters, including its exemption for religious institutions, cannot be subject to an initiative petition. <\/span><\/p>\n

The ballot question proposed a limit on annual rent increases, but exempted several categories, including facilities operated \u201csolely\u201d for religious purposes. <\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell again defended her office\u2019s decision to certify the question by pointing to other exemptions included in the ballot question, including those for nonprofit housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTheir exemption for religious uses was a minor one within the broader petition,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThe court disagreed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Inside the \u2018simple job\u2019 in government that Graham Platner held before challenging Susan Collins<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Andrea Campbell acknowledged her office got a series of ballot questions \u201cwrong,\u201d leading to two being struck down by the state\u2019s highest court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nAfter ballot question setbacks at the high court, Attorney General Andrea Campbell goes on the defensive - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3465\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After ballot question setbacks at the high court, Attorney General Andrea Campbell goes on the defensive - 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