Northampton County Campaign Finance Snapshot

I've ordered copies of the post election campaign finance reports filed late last week by county council candidates, as well as exec hopefuls John Stoffa and Ann McHale. They will be posted here later this week so you can follow the money yourself. In the meantime, let me give you some tidbits.

Northampton County Exec John Stoffa spent just $22,375.91 in his county executive quest. Because Republican ** ********* has dropped out to pursue a career on American Idol, that's all he needs to spend. This is probably the lowest sum spent since Gene Hartzell was top dog. Stoffa accepted no contributions.

Stoffa refused to accept money from Ron Angle, so the Bulldog took out ads in both papers that ran the Monday before the election. It cost him $1,129 for a quarter page in The Morning Call, but only $540 for a half page ad in The Express Times. The ET also gave him a cup of coffee, a free newspaper and an 8" X 12" glossy of Joe Owens.

During the election cycle, gigantic Stoffa signs began popping up everywhere. There was even a mini-billboard along Route 22. It was a miracle! I've seen no independent expenditure taking responsibility for those signs, most of which appeared on property owned by Abe Atiyeh. It was probably God.

Don't tell the Joe Long Dems, but Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan gave $100 to Lehigh County Commissioner Percy Dougherty. Douigherty happens to be a Republican. Shhhh! Speaking of Callahan, all the Dems want him to take on Charlie Dent and run for Congress. But at the same time, the state Dem party opened its coffers to city council candidate Jean Belinski. She spends her free time sticking pins in Callahan voodoo dolls. Even state party boss T.J. Rooney threw her $1,000. That's sure a strange way to encourage Callahan to run for Congress.

Speaking of Congressional material, there is Shadtown's one and only Mike Fleck, who is running for Easton City Council. You're not gonna' fleckin believe this, but Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski has actually hired Fleck as his campaign manager. When Fleck was running Archie Follweiler's campaign for the state house, he soaked that campaign $21,000 over just eleven weeks. He was also paid in advance for lawn signs, but failed to produce them. God, I'd really hate to see something like that happen to King Edwin. Pawlowski, who never gives money to anyone, has kicked $300 into Fleck's Easton race. Fleck has also hired Lehigh County's Matt Crossliss to run his campaign, and has even paid him $1,000.

Anonymous commenters here constantly thank God for Charles Dertinger, but the Omnipotent One refuses to give this union guy a dime. DA John Morganelli, who is almost God, gave Dertinger $400.

You'll be pleased to know that Northampton County Dems have contributed another $1,000 to the Scissorhands Severson defense fund. They still owe him $5,586.45.

Last week, some of you were very upset when I suggested that Lorraine Pasquali is a Joe Long Dem. Well, lookee, lookee. Of the whopping $1,125 she raised, $500 comes from Long Dem Charles Dertinger. Another $500 comes from former county exec Glenn Reibman, who lost to Stoffa four years ago.

Glenn Reibman is up to his old tricks. Here's what he and Ron Heckman did. Heckman gave Reibman $5,000. Since Reibman is running for nothing himself, this lets Ron off the hook until the end of the year. Heckman filed no report. Reibman could play Kingmaker. He gave $500 to each of the five party-endorsed candidates running for county council. He gave another $500 to exec candidate Ann McHale. Incidentally, Glenn is still sitting on $75 thousand in pay to play money from all those pool parties.

I'll have more detail when the copies are provided to me later this week.