As recently as Monday night, John Maher was insisting he had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the smear campaign being directed at his opponent for Northampton County Council, Ron Angle. "I am running a very positive campaign. Someone else in the district has taken up the banner. It's not part of my campaign." So far, nine separate sleaze mailers have been directed at Angle, accusing him of everything, from stealing kids' Halloween candy to devil worship. I've lost count of the number of anonymous robo calls.Well, guess what? Maher has just amended his campaign finance report to report a $4,888.35 in-kind contribution from the Northampton County Democratic Committee, made on October 20. This in-kind contribution consists of design mailing and introductory phone calls.
Since the reporting cycle ended October 22, the mailers and phone calls that have followed are not included in that report. But reporting laws require contributions of $500 or more must be reported within twenty-four hours after they are made. Angle tells me that, since October 22, three mailers have gone out, blasting him. In addition to that, there have been six evenings of anonymous robo calls. The cost for each of these items is over $500. Yet, no twenty-four hour report has been filed.
Wait, it gets better. Angle tells me Maher has suddenly just remembered that he gave Bossman Long a check for $8,000 so that the local party could run its mailers and anonymous robocalls. What's more, Maher seems to remember that some other Dems kicked in for this, too! Yet for some odd reason, nothing I'm telling you appears on the latest finance report filed by the local Democratic party. That report reveals no expenditures on behalf of anyone. It fails to list Maher's contribution, or those from some other Dems. Maybe Joe Long forgot, too.
We now know what's going on. The local party is running the smear campaign so that machine pols like Maher and his pal, Tony Branco, can claim innocence, pretending they are running "positive" campaigns.
Busted!
If John and Tony were my own brothers, I would not vote for them after this crap. My mother, the most patient woman in the entire Slate Belt, is wishing she could call John Maher all night on his cell phone and hang up and is vowing to "choke" the next person who interrupts her dinner with a robocall. She is a lifelong Democrat and just can't quite fathom why "her own guys" are badgering her in this way. This will be her first time voting for Angle, by the way.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of questionable ethic in monkeying with the finance reports is the exact problem with our government. If they are this sleazy and conniving while just running for office, who knows how horrible they'd get once they actually take office. Obviously Maher and Branco owe the party big-time and would just rubber-stamp anything the Boss tells them to, ala Neiper/McClure/Dertinger.
I like John Maher and he's my neighbor, I just can't begin to tell you how utterly PISSED I am about all of this and how he'd stool this low.
Angle wins. He has the most Republican Council District. Voters accept him for the loudmouth jerk that he is.
ReplyDeleteBranco has disappointed me. He didn't need to pull this crap. Peg ran a pathetic race for exec and was beatable. He's a goner.
This slime is all a diversion to slip McClure in under the radar and keep a majority for team Dertinger.
Wow. Nice work. My faith in this blog is recharged.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the denouncements from top NorCo Democrats on this "anonymous" sleaze? I'm not holding my breath. If a party with such a substantial registration edge must consolidate its power anonymously, I imagine most all of them are thick as thieves.
Anon 7:16, The top Norco Dems have nothing to do with the party machinery. Joe Long actually hates Stoffa's guts and has done everything he can to undercut him. I know our state reps don't rely on him for anything. But I'm sure that if the press called them, you'd read they're not happy with this.
ReplyDeleteSorry Larry K, but I need to hide behind the cloud of anonymous, I know you don't favor this but..,
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Bernie, had this blog not been here and available for those of us who want to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth, politics as usual would continue, almost anonymous!
We may be dumb but we're not stupid.
I for one, do not give a shit what someone did in the past, who among us has not inhaled?, wait it's Halloween, who does not have a skeleton in the closet?
Again I am sorry that I can not come out of the cloud and I thank you for this medium.
Where are the issues?
Education | Taxes | Healthcare | Code Enforcement | Energy | Land Development | Crime | Gaming | Drugs |
Help me out...
These are local issues affecting all of us.
I have not heard of a single issue from any canditate, maybe I live under a rock, I don't think so...
I'm still waiting for Branco's explanation to the now infamous statement " "I won't compromise my ethics or beliefs for anybody," given on his short-fated departure as manager for Douglass Township Too bad you slept late that morning. Alas, I feel for you buddy. We only have two hands and hindsight is 20/20. Wonder what happened in Douglass Township and feel bad for Topton. There is a Northern Tier connection, an application some time ago in Lynn Township. Tony gets around! Notwithstanding what Browning said about your being east of Nazareth, or some such similar thing. It IS a small world this age!
ReplyDeleteNLVLogic,
ReplyDeleteThere is a Northern Tier connection, an application some time ago in Lynn Township. Tony gets around!
Tony tried to get a job there, too? Wouldn't have been such a long commute.
Yes, but would it have added or detracted from the shenangans here in Lynn? My view is that problems are inevitable where one municpality hires as an employee, an elected official from another municpality. Two different loyalties. Perhaps one, a platform for the other. Pity Topton.
ReplyDelete