In what appears to be a fundraising record for County Executive races in Northampton and Lehigh County, Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan has raised over a half million dollars in his bid to become Northampton County's Executive. In a campaign finance report filed late Friday afternoon, Callahan disclosed contributions of $161,983 between the primary and October 21. This brings his total to $513,456 from nearly 600 individual contributors.
Callahan's Republican opponent, Bangor Mayor John Brown, raised $11,000 over the same time period.
Going into the final days of the campaign, Callahan has a 17 to 1 cash advantage over Brown. Callahan has $118,540 cash on hand compared to Brown’s $6,817.
Callahan campaign manager Eric Nagy, however, is concentrating on grassroots appeal, claiming 25,000 voter contacts since July. "John has been knocking doors and feels very encouraged by the positive response from voters," noted Nagy.
The Brown campaign is also relying on grassroots appeal, with Brown focused on direct voter contact.
Brown has also received a little help from the state republican party, which spent $10,882.49 for campaign literature and postage on his behalf.
Winning the money race is no guarantee of victory. Just four years ago, when Northampton County Executive John Stoffa sought re-election, he refused to take money from anyone.
I'll have more to say about these reports next week.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
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Friday, October 25, 2013
28 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
And no one ran against him. So his wonderful act was not that wonderful.
ReplyDeleteAnn McHale ran against him.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that he raised all that money to bank for his senate run..which according to insiders will be announced in 2014. Why else would he be raising all that $$$? and yet,besides a few mailers,we've haven't really seen any big money spent.
ReplyDeleteYou are mistaken. Let me explain. To run for the U.S. Senate or Congress, Callahan would need to form a federal committee. There are strict limits on raising funds and how much can be transferred from a state committee. It would make no sense to raise this money locally, he would have to send it back and ask for new contributions.
ReplyDeleteSo his Governor's run is still doable with the money he is now raising.
ReplyDeleteYou just said he was running for the Senate. Now it's Governor. Maybe he's running for county exec.
ReplyDeleteJohnny Casino will have a tough time as county executive. Word on the street is the Republicans for county council are leading in the polls. Hayden Phillips will lead another sweep of all five seats.
ReplyDeleteJonny boy will find they won't go for his spending ways or hack picks for cabinet positions.
I see. He'll keep us safe from the UN
ReplyDeleteHard to imagine a poll was done by the Republicans. There has been talk that Callahan and his advisors are writing off the Dem's running for council.
ReplyDeleteCould just be a rumor.
Word on the street is the Republicans for county council are leading in the polls.
ReplyDeletePlease provide a link to these polls. I'd like to know what organization conducted it, how many people were polled, and the percentage of the lead.
Other than Peg Fararro leading word on the street is that you are full of shit, or live on a street with teabaggers who wrongly believe the government shutdown was appreciated by voters.
Sounds like JC will be moving on to bigger and better positions. Nice war chest.
ReplyDelete"Other than Peg Fararro leading word on the street is that you are full of shit,"
ReplyDeletethat made me smile
The Rs have run a poll, during the time period for this report, but the cost of this expense is listed nowhere.
ReplyDelete"Word on the street is Republicans for County Council are leading in the polls."
ReplyDeleteAnd what polls might those be? No candidate has conducted a poll in this race except Brown and Callahan. There is no rumor, there is no speculations, outside your head, that the Republicans are going to have a good day on November 5.
Calling it right here: Democrats worst Council result is 7-2. The potential for 8-1 exists.
The poll I took asked nothing about County Council races. It asked about the County Exec race, and was looking for favorables/unfavorables. I assumed was State Party determining if they wanted to dump any more money in the race.
ReplyDeleteBernie, Brown has to be getting in-kind contributions from someone, or the State Party. Why are they not reported on his forms?
Johnny Casino and Booby D are responsible for the incarceration of James Gregory, no amount of fundraising will change that.
ReplyDeleteCuckoo
ReplyDeleteThat's alot favors
ReplyDeletePay2play
ReplyDelete1:20, if that is truly the case, they deserve a medal. He should win a seat just for doing us a service by getting that bum help. Can you imagine the poor people on Gregory's caseload? I bet they were abused and overlooked.
ReplyDeleteThe person responsible for Gregory's incarceration is Gregory. He certainly got an assist from Tricia Mezzaacappa, but he did it to himself.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness I could make an argument that I have a 12 inch love pipe.
ReplyDeleteThe facts don't support that argument.
Just as the facts show Greggy-boy is incarcerated because he is a dumb ass who violated a PFA Order not once, but multiple times in multiple ways, including on public radio. He was given a warning with a brief county stint, but still refused to obey the Order after his release. He and his trick pony, Mezzacappa, had a free-for-all harassing his ex-girlfriend and he ended up behind bars again.
There is nothing political about why he is in prison.
Several anonymous slurs from Tricia Mezzacappa have been deleted.
ReplyDelete"Anonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteJohnny Casino and Booby D are responsible for the incarceration of James Gregory, no amount of fundraising will change that.
1:20 PM"
If true, that singular achievement would be almost enough to make me rethink my position on Johnny Cover-up.
Almost...
-Clem
An obscene amount of money under any circumstances. Why he won`t get my vote. Northammpton County is for sale again.
ReplyDeleteBernie I read th4e council candidates answers in the Easton Express. Hayden Phillips sounds the best at cutting costs. He will cut parks and other non-essential services. The county needs to cut most of these things.
ReplyDeleteIf he is successful we may be able to forgo any future tax increases. The others sounded dumb. Phillips will stop Callahan from his heavy spending ways.
Hayden Phillips will cut costs like, Gracedale, the prison, the courts, human services, and all other non-essential stuff. Once in he will cut off water and oxygen to the northern tier.
ReplyDeleteIf you like Scott Ott, you 'll love Hayden Phillips.
ReplyDelete