In his quest for one of three seats on Easton City Council, retired educator (and New Jersey transplant) Ken Greene has proven one thing - he's all about the green. You can see his Pre-Primary finance report below for your yourself. According to his disclosure, filed on Friday, he's raised a whopping $57,032. He contributed $10,000 to himself, but there are numerous other very large contributions from obviously wealthy people who are almost certainly out of touch with a city comprised of mostly low or middle income people. I am particularly worried that he, as a Planning Commissioner, would accept $1,000 from J.B. Reilly. As most know, Reilly has a project in Easton and has been before the planning commission.
The amount of money Greene has raised is nearly three times as much as all other candidates combined.
Ken Browne started with $5,866.17 and raised an additional $6,725, giving him a total of $12,591.17 to spend.
Frank Pintabone raised $9,615, and spent $6,145.44 going into the final week. He still has $4,000 to spend because he started with $570.
Crystal Rose raised $4,696 and spent $2,951.16
David O'Connell raised $1,965 and spent $1631.65, leaving him with $333.75 going into the final week.
Lance Wheeler filed an affidavit indicating he would keep his spending under $250.
Kurt Carlson formed no committee and filed a report indicating he has $52.50
Ken Greene Campaign Finance Report by BernieOHare on Scribd
14 comments:
Thank you for posting. Greene’s fundraising is out of touch and frankly I’m disgusted.
Greene’s wife was on an advisory committee for the Pine Street garage development, a JB Reilly project. It’s an obvious conflict of interest and obvious that they care more about boosting their real estate portfolio value than for the citizens of Easton.
After reviewing many of Greene’s videos and local endorsements, I’ve found many of them to be from Republicans (Clay Mitman, Ron the Owner of Gentleman’s Barbershop, and some of his own committee members). All coming from someone who proclaims to be a “Democrat” on his signs. I’m curious if he has a Democrat voting record. I wouldn’t be surprised if he jumped parties. I hope the citizens of Easton will see through this guy for what he truly is — a bored old man who wants to rule the city from his castle in Centre Square. Hard pass.
Easton's leadership hates its unsightly natives. All eyes are on the shiny happy people who visit Easton to spend money. Gentrification is like that. Many attempts at removing the native riff-raff have been made. The current plan of cordoning problems in the Wild West Ward that which can't be plowed all the way west of 15th Street into Wilson, is mostly working for downtown. Rich people don't like unsightly things. Easton is desperately trying to eliminate its unsightly things, including people.
This is disturbing! I hope everyone in Easton sees this. He only cares about his beloved downtown. Another elitist trying to buy his way in
I lived downtown for a long time. Jersey transplants like this want to change our community and make it a gentrified destination. Focusing on other neighborhoods and the needs of the residents helps all of us. We’re a better city when every neighborhood is thriving in their own way.
Lots of other council choices. I think Greene and Carlson need to clock in more residential years before they’re considered for a council spot. This is not a hobby or belt notch. This is our life and community.
have you ever talked to him before? can he really be "all about the green" if... you didn't interview him?
I wonder what the other candidates think of this
11:57, Finance reports tell their own story. There is no need for an interview bc it is obvious that Greene is attempting to buy a slot on city council. He also apparently has no qualms about taking $ from a developer that presents before a board of which he is a member. This is soft corruption.
Anonymous 11:43am - I agree with you about the importance of Easton's neighborhood's thriving. This fundraising from Greene illustrates that he just doesn't get it and honestly, is just gross to me.
But I disagree about Carlson and that anyone should have to live here for a certain amount of time before wanting to give back to the city in this type of a role. If anything, I think Carlson's outside perspective is refreshing in the current pool of candidates. And for Brown and O'Connell specifically - who have been here forever and have been on council for almost as long - I question why things they've been repeating in campaign cycle after campaign cycle haven't changed when they've been in the position to change them for years now. Having the mindset that only people born and raised in Easton can care about the city isn't helpful.
I don’t need four years of Carlson’s lecturing. He’s exhausting and full of himself. He has little to offer other than some affordable housing buzz phrases he picked up from his short stint on a housing committee. Another hard pass.
I wasn’t necessarily saying that Carlson was the best candidate. I was saying that this mentality of people from Easton that only they can do anything for the city is harmful. I’m a transplant to Easton and frankly find a lot of “born and bred” people from Easton to be full of themselves and exhausting too. But thinking that only people who have been here for a long time are qualified to serve the city is going to be damaging for the city’s future. You clearly don’t like Carlson. Ok. But the fact that he could bring an outside perspective to a city administration that has largely been under the control of the same few people for decades is more helpful than harmful in my opinion. And I don’t think he’s any less arrogant than Frank Pintabone or Sal Panto are. But I’m guessing you worship the ground they walk on like the rest of Easton.
As a candidate for re-election who is running on a modest budget, I’m concerned. I hope this election will not turn on how much money someone raises, but on how much someone has done for the good of the city and how much more he can offer in the future.
David, In a place like Easton, I do not think money matters nearly as much as getting out and meeting people. I wish you the best!
I got an ALL CAPS letter that had a bunch of spelling errors in my mailbox that linked to this article… there was no signature on it, or paid for by so it seemed really sketchy and weird.
I rejected a comment that tried to blame a specific candidate. I will permit most of these anonymous slurs, but what you allege is a crime. At the very least, you should sign your name and separately email me so I can check back with you, and only then will I publish it. That way you can make your accusation and the candidate knows who to sue for defamation. zIf you allege criminal behavior, you better be sure.
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