Warren and Brown Not Spending With MA Women- and Minority-Owned Businesses
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
A Fraction of Total Spending
Of the 2,869 certified minority and woman-owned business enterprises, both non-profit and for-profit, listed in the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office's directory, the Warren campaign spent with just four--Cambridge Offset Printing, Cavalier Coach, Madison Park Development Corporation and Neoprint, Inc.--for a total of $31,529.81, or 0.19 percent of its $15,946,480 in disbursements through mid-August reporting with the Federal Election Commission.
When asked why she had not done more to invest in women-owned businesses through her run for office, Warren pointed to her campaign, with women in the top roles of Campaign Manager and Deputy Campaign Manager and filling out at least half of its senior staff.
"We have women working on this campaign from top to bottom, and we pull in women in every possible way that we can."
Warren also recalled her work in Washington setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Building the CFPB from the ground up, Warren and her colleagues had a lot of money to spend and a lot of contracts to award.
After the first round of contracts went out and were awarded to big businesses, Warren said she took up the task of finding out why woman- and minority-owned businesses and small businesses in general were not involved in the awarding of contracts and how to get them in the game.
"I asked my staff to reach out, ask people to apply, so that they could be on the approved list so that we could have them in the bidding for the contracts," said Warren.
"So I've been out there and walked the walk on this one."
The Brown camp, which has also made the Republican Senator's support for women a key component of his reelection effort, spent $12,997.13 of its $21,360,263 in disbursements since January 1, 2011 with the certified minority or woman-owned businesses iDwellings, the Casual Gourmet and Cambridge Offset Printing, or 0.06 percent of its total spending.
"They're either not paying attention or they don't care whether their money is where their mouth is on their messaging," said Grace Ross, a Massachusetts activist and former candidate for governor.
Ross noted that, as a tool, the state certification directory may be under-reporting the total amount spent with woman- and minority-owned businesses, but that both campaigns could be more proactive in publicizing the numbers if they are a priority.
What Certification Means for Businesses
Certification from the state's Supplier Diversity Office (SDO), formerly the State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance (SOMWBA), is a marketing tool to enhance a firm's ability to do business in public markets, and it can give companies a competitive edge when bidding on contracts with the government.
More than $240 million of the more than $4 billion the Commonwealth spends each year contracting with firms is targeted to certified minority and woman businesses.
The Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) is the largest third-party certifier of woman-owned businesses, with over 11,000 certified companies nationwide.
Jodi Baier, program manager at WBENC's New England affiliate, the Center for Women & Enterprise, said over 300 of those certified businesses call the region home, with the majority located in Massachusetts.
Applicants must go through a rigorous process to prove that their firm is at least 51 percent owned, controlled and managed by women in order to earn the WBENC certification. Baier said certified companies run the gamut from typically women-run businesses, such as staffing, marketing and promotional firms, to non-traditionally woman-owned sectors like construction firms.
"Certification is in their best interest from a marketing and public relations perspective," she said, noting that corporations with supplier diversity programs will often choose to do business with firms that WBENC certified in order to meet internal goals.
Regardless of party affiliation, Baier said that all politicians would do well to divert their dollars to woman-owned businesses, which she said are hiring more people and are providing more services for their communities.
"I think that any candidate for office should be concerned with women-owned enterprises and supporting organizations like ourselves."
Michele Sloan, owner of W.J. Hoey Tire Company, Inc. in Worcester, applied for the SDO's woman-owned business certification a few years after purchasing the company founded by her late father, William Hoey, in 2004.
Sloan received the certification, as well as its federal equivalent of disadvantaged business enterprise, in 2008, and she said both have credentials have helped grown the company's business in the years since.
A major aspect of that has been through ancillary partnerships with other businesses contracting with local, state and federal governments, where Hoey Tire will act as a supplier for another company in order to add the certified status to the bid.
“As far as the ancillary partnerships, I have some of my best customers because of it,” said Sloan. “And they're looking for me in some of those instances.”
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