Republican John Deaton’s bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is becoming increasingly tangled up with the cryptocurrency industry.
Two giants in the space who are also known for their ties to Facebook, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, donated $1 million worth of Bitcoin this week to a super PAC backing Deaton — who moved to Massachusetts this year from Rhode Island — dubbed the Commonwealth Unity Fund.
Tyler Winklevoss said Warren is “one of the single greatest threats to American prosperity.”
“When it comes to crypto, she is public enemy number one. She’s the chief architect and driver of the Biden administration’s war on crypto. She wages this unlawful war by weaponizing government agencies to attack our industry through a combination of de-banking, bad faith enforcement actions, and other abuses of power,” he said on social media.
Cameron Winklevoss said Deaton is pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business.
“And he will put an end to Elizabeth Warren’s war on crypto,” he said on social media.
Super PACs are barred by federal law from coordinating directly with candidates and a Deaton campaign advisor declined to comment on the two donations.
Deaton has previously said he does not plan to make cryptocurrency a primary issue in his campaign even though he has provided legal representation to people who own cryptocurrency and has since drawn support from people and companies in the industry.
In a fundraising email Saturday morning, Warren said the Commonwealth Unity Fund has raised more than $2 million from three donations, including the two from the Winklevoss twins and another from a crypto firm.
That is over half a million more than Warren’s campaign raised in the most recent fundraising quarter, she said.
“Ever since I began speaking out about how the crypto industry should follow the same basic rules as banks and all other financial institutions, the crypto lobby has been upset with me. And now they are pouring money into this race. Crypto-financed special interests think they can buy this Senate seat and hand the Senate majority to the Republicans,” she said.
The floodgates finally opened on Beacon Hill this past week.
Bills that had been backed up for months in private conversations between top Democratic lawmakers finally broke free of their logjam with less than two weeks before the Legislature largely calls it quits for the year.
A well-overdue $58 billion state budget, gun reform that would bar those under 21 from owning semiautomatic rifles or shotguns, wage transparency legislation, and a $1.2 billion information technology borrowing bill are all either on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk or will make it there next week.
Such was the case Wednesday, when two top budget writers reached a deal on the annual state budget.
Only hours before an accord was announced, Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues said legislators were putting the “finishing touches” on the proposal but declined to outline any points of contention.
“Confidentiality is important,” the Westport Democrat said.
His counterpart in the House, Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, said much of the same earlier in the day when asked to describe the sticking points between the House and Senate.
“I think those have been pretty highlighted over the last couple of months here, but we’re getting there,” the North End Democrat said.
For months, Rep. Michael Day, a Stoneham Democrat who co-led talks on the gun reform bill, would offer only short, generic updates.
The “conference continues,” he told the Herald in late June after he was seen huddling just inside the House Chamber with other gun reform negotiators.
“To quote a wise man, it’s not done till it’s done, and it’s not done,” he said earlier that same month.
As the days tick down to July 31 — the official end of formal lawmaking for the 2023-2024 session — keep a close eye out for other major proposals that might emerge.
Clean energy and climate legislation managed to make its way into House-Senate negotiations this past week and the two chambers diverge on just how expansive of a bill they want to push forward.
Competing bills that attempt to address the crisis at Steward Health Care are also likely heading for closed door talks after the Senate passed its own version Thursday.
A proposal that would inject millions into the life sciences and climate tech sectors is also set for a first negotiating session this coming week and bills touching on housing, veterans services, and the state’s ability to chase federal grants are still tied up in talks.
If the last seven days felt hectic, get ready for the next ten.
District attorneys across Massachusetts were likely glued to a little-watched section of the state’s $58 billion budget that cleared the Legislature Friday.
Tucked in one of the hundreds of pages of the spending plan is a single sentence that gives the eleven elected district attorneys a more than $32,000 raise — from $191,000 to $223,442 a year. It was proposed by the House and cleared final negotiations.