The donations to Together PAC flowed from a variety of prominent Massachusetts business leaders and political figures along with organized labor, corporations, and political action committees that included major players from the health care industry as Patrick pushes an overhaul of the health care payment system.
“These resources will be critical in the days ahead as the governor continues to engage in the national debate about the future of our country and the importance of governing with the values of generational responsibility and the politics of conviction as our compass,’’ said Alex Goldstein, executive director of Together PAC.
The fund-raising activities of Patrick’s political action committee are separate from his state political committee, though the governor has indicated he will not seek a third term in 2014, which has allowed him to focus on the federal committee.
Among the individual donors who gave the maximum $5,000 contribution to Together PAC were state Representative Garrett J. Bradley; auto dealership owner Herb Chambers, Hill Holliday founder John Connors Jr.; Gary Gottlieb, Partners Health Care chief executive; Paul Guzzi, Boston Chamber of Commerce president; Victoria Kennedy; Daniel O’Connell, chief executive of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, and Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino.
Pfizer and Raytheon were among the corporate donors to Patrick’s political action committee.
NextEra Energy, a Florida-based energy company, also gave $2,500 to the committee through its own PAC, as the company was seeking to win a bid to renew its power contract with the MBTA. The transit agency opened the bidding process for a new power contract on July 5, and NextEra Energy, which held the existing contract at the time, made the donation on July 26, 2011. The MBTA board of directors ultimately awarded the contract to BP Energy on Sept. 7.
Patrick returned $6,000 in donations that Goldstein said were inadvertently accepted from donors with gambling interests in violation of its internal policy.
The committee returned a $5,000 check from John Stefanini, a lawyer at DLA Piper and registered lobbyist for Suffolk Downs, and sent back a $1,000 donation from Martin Fisher, a lobbyist with Serlin Haley who is listed as representing Boyd Gaming Corp. from Jan. 1 until Sept. 30 of last year.
The committee also gave back a $5,000 check from John Fish, the chief executive of Suffolk Construction, who is prohibited from making political contributions because of his role as a board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
