> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.newbostonpost.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# GOP AG Candidate Michael Walsh Says Joe Bronske Owes His Campaign $15,000
- URL: https://www.newbostonpost.com/gop-ag-candidate-michael-walsh-says-joe-bronske-owes-his-campaign-15-000/
- Published: 2026-08-03T21:34:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-03T21:34:11.000Z
- Description: Republican attorney general candidate Michael Walsh says signature gatherer Joe Bronske owes his campaign $15,000 after failing to deliver the number of nomination signatures the campaign paid for.
- Author: State House News Service
- Tags: News, Politics, Massachusetts, #lead, #morning-bell, morning-bell, #4

Katie Castellani  
State House News Service

After surviving a ballot access challenge, Republican candidate for attorney general Michael Walsh is ready to move past allegations that he submitted fraudulent nomination signatures, and realistic about the uphill battle he faces winning over voters while running against a Democratic incumbent.

"The answer to this is, in my book, is it's a great big question mark and I don't like the fact it's going to cloud my political career. And it's going to probably haunt over my law career for all the rest of my days," Walsh said of the allegations that disrupted his campaign. "But we didn't do anything wrong and we did get thousands of people who supported us and so we're hoping to focus on a positive message and move on."

Walsh, a 38-year-old attorney from Lynnfield, often refers to himself as "some kid from Lynnfield" and has dubbed himself a "political no one" as he's set to face Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell in November.

This is Walsh's first statewide campaign. In 2022, he ran for the 5th District Governor's Council seat where he lost to Democrat Eileen Duff. He said he campaigned for Lynnfield's Select Board, before losing to Richard Dalton in 2016\. And, according to Walsh's LinkedIn, he was a board member of the Lynnfield Housing Authority from 2012 to 2020.

According to his campaign website, Walsh earned his bachelor's degree from Suffolk University at 17, making him the school's youngest graduate. Since 2011, Walsh has worked for his family's law firm, Walsh & Walsh LLP, as a general practice attorney, according to his LinkedIn. He has built a practice around election and public corruption cases filed by fellow Republicans. Walsh represented former MassGOP Chair Jim Lyons and several others in an unsuccessful challenge to mail-in voting and he defended former Sen. Dean Tran against federal corruption charges.

Walsh has also gotten involved the dispute over the implementation of a 2024 voter law allowing the state auditor to audit the Legislature as well as cases surrounding electronic signatures and the MBTA Communities Act. Now, he's campaigning to "insist that constitutional disputes be decided in court, not by executive fiat," according to his campaign website.

“I’m mad as hell that we don’t have an audit and I think you are too,” Walsh said during a speech at this [year's GOP convention](https://www.statehousenews.com/news/politics/elections/republicans-rally-in-worcester-hoping-to-expand-the-tents/article%5Fe92a8927-90a5-42ee-9a56-a6d4d1df1f4c.html?ref=newbostonpost.com). “I will be a people's lawyer. We will wage a ruthless war on fraud and waste and abuse, starting with that audit.”

Walsh said recent comments on his social media pages have been positive and as the election draws closer, the candidate is focused on showing voters he is running a "substantive campaign with real ideas." 

"It seems like we've reached out to a lot of Republicans and a lot of them, at least as underdogs in the state, appear to appreciate the will to fight," Walsh told the News Service. "In terms of reaching the great mass of voters in the middle and potentially even across the aisle, we got a lot of work to do still."

On July 13, after a weeks-long appeals process, a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court judge upheld a lower court's ruling to reinstate Walsh onto the ballot, overturning the State Ballot Law Commission's decision to scrub his name from the ballot.

The saga began in June, when Democratic Party Executive Director Adam Roof filed a complaint with the commission alleging Walsh had submitted fraudulent nomination signatures and did not secure the necessary 10,000 certified signatures to get on the ballot. Roof filed a similar complaint against GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, Anne Manning Martin. Shawn Oliver, another Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who has aligned himself with Brian Shortsleeve, also lodged a complaint over Manning Martin's signatures. 

Essex County Superior Court Associate Justice Jeffrey Karp determined that the commission's findings of signature fraud were backed by "substantial evidence." Karp also found the court was "constrained" to rule in favor of restoring Walsh's ballot access because Roof did not meet certain mailing requirements when submitting his objection.

The allegations of fraud against the candidates stemmed from signatures Joe Bronske collected for the two campaigns. Anne Brensley, the GOP-endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor, did not make the ballot. She said Bronske collected signatures she thought were fraudulent, causing her to fall short of the required 10,000 certified signatures.

Bronske, former chairman of the Weymouth Republican Town Committee who also runs a genealogy website, has been quiet since allegations of fraud came out against him in May. During a deposition, Bronske invoked his Fifth Amendment right in response to all questions surrounding whether he forged signatures.

Bronske has not responded to the News Service's requests for comment. 

Walsh said he had met Bronske passively through Republican circles. But it was at a GOP St. Patrick's Day Brunch in Scituate this year when Bronske introduced himself to the candidate and offered signature gathering services. 

"He's this great guy, he's got a ton of stories. He talks a little fast. He was very personable, outgoing, incredibly gregarious. Nothing that really smelled like a used car salesman or a slimy snake oil salesman," Walsh said.

Walsh said he later found himself running short of the 10,000 required signatures and began assessing his options for paid signature gatherers. Bronske seemed like the obvious choice: he had come well recommended and offered more for a lower price, Walsh said.

"And for all this trouble, two months later, I got to tell you, I wish I'd gone with another vendor," Walsh said. "Whether he did it or not, I just don't need the trouble, the headaches, the political questions, and all the question marks over me. I wish I'd gone with a different vendor."

Issues with signatures Bronske had collected went public in May, when Brensley announced she didn't have enough signatures to make the ballot and blamed Bronske for the issue. Multiple town clerks contacted the Secretary of State's Elections Division with concerns surrounding signatures they received, according to Deb O'Malley, a spokesperson for Secretary of State William Galvin's office.

Walsh said his campaign wasn't sure which towns Bronske had been operating in until the issue unfolded. He said the Elections Division told his campaign on May 5 that a local town clerk had flagged signatures. 

As other concerns were raised over signatures, Walsh said his campaign assessed them and they appeared to be "completely legitimate" signatures. Also, Walsh said his campaign held back "a number" of signatures because they were concerned about the alleged fraud. 

It seemed Bronske was collecting signatures differently for his campaign than others he worked on like Manning Martin and Brensley's, Walsh said. And Bronske indicated there weren't any issues with the signatures.

"We didn't know what to think," Walsh said.

Walsh said Bronske stopped answering the phone around early May and they haven't spoken since. 

Walsh hired Bronske to collect 6,000 certified signatures. The candidate said his campaign staff estimated Bronske collected between 1,500 and 1,700 signatures. Based on those figures, Walsh said Bronske owes him $15,000 of the $20,000 he paid.

"Definitely well less than we contracted for, well less than we paid him for, and if it weren't for the fact that he's in an awful lot of trouble, I suspect that that money is going to be uncollectible, and we're never going to get it back," Walsh said. 

Multiple district attorney's offices are investigating the allegations of fraudulent signatures, according to Boston Globe reporting.

"It's hard to be the party for election integrity when…this mischief is going on. I promise we didn't do anything wrong and we didn't know anything wrong was being done. And it's more or less luck or a fluke that we're not in the same boat as Ms. Brensley and Ms. Manning Martin," Walsh said. 

Asked about his chances against Campbell, Walsh said Massachusetts is "as blue as it can get" and his chances are "a little quixotic." Still, he remained optimistic. 

OCPF filings show Walsh has raised about $55,842 since launching his campaign in February, including $45,725 of his own funds. Walsh's donors include Shortsleeve, who contributed $1,000 and previously gave money to Campbell's campaign, and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Kennealy who donated $480.30\. Campbell has raised around $597,000 in the same period.

"I mean, I can't imagine that a political no one from nowhere is going to unseat a sitting attorney general," he said. "But I got to tell you, the impossible always happens and in the movies, the public and the press and the voters alwa