Thanks to NorCo's elections office, campaign finance reports are now available online. Here's my analysis of the pre-election campaign finance reports filed in the Controller's race for the period between 6/6/23 and 10/23/23.
Democrat Tara Zrinski raised $17,000 during her primary race against Nadeem Qayyum. This included $1,000 from Executive Lamont McClure and County Council candidates Ken Kraft and Kelly Keegan. These are the very people she's supposed to hold accountable should she be elected.
She spent nearly all this money in the primary, but was able to raise $27,649 for the general. Once again, she accepted another $1,000 contribution from Executive Lamont McClure, She also took in considerable sums from the trade unions (Insulators - $1,000; IBEW - $6,000; Operating Engineers - $2,500). The rest of her money comes from environmentalists and landfill foes like Greg Zebrowski.
Zrinski's report fails to reflect the cost of an incredibly bizarre robocall paid for by McClure's campaign. That will likely be shown in her next report. It starts out by screaming "Danger!" and ends with "You've been warned!" It was so goofy it probably swayed a few undecideds into Cusick's camp.
Republican John Cusick, in contrast to just about every other politician, declined to form a separate political committee. He self-funded his campaign with $32,000. His finance report indicates he spent $20,000 for two direct mailers. They must be targeted to Republicans because neither I nor my Democratic friends have received anything from him.
Cusick has campaign signs plastered all over the place. His are the first I've noticed, and they are everywhere. His finance report fails to reflect this expense, but I suspect he is waiting for the bill. I could believe he spent most of his remaining $12,000 on signs and palm cards.
These finance reports for the independent office of Controller show that Cusick would be independent while Zrinski would be in McClure's pocket, just as she is on County Council.
Updated 9:30 am: The expense John Cusick's campaign signs was reported in his post-primary report.
33 comments:
Of course, Zirinski is a stooge for McClure. Word is if elected she will come in to pick up her check and Barron will be the real Controller. The question is how she gets so much money from the trade unions for her constant runs for office. She is not known for ever putting forward any legislation benefiting local labor much less the unions, yet they write her big checks. It must be McClure putting the screws to them since she has no record of being prolabor in anything but words.
Sadly Bernie, she will probably be elected.
That's no surprise! She can't reconcile her own checkbook. She is incompetent just McClueless and his band of clowns. She has been doing his dirty deeds all along.
Cusick voted to sell Gracedale. I’ll never vote for him.
John Cusick has been lying about Gracedale for 20 years because he wants it to fail. Vote no on Cusick.
I think John Cusick’s recent campaigning with Jen Sletvold might help her win her election.
Those two reports tell me that Zrinski has A LOT of support and Cusick has none. So either Cusick has no one who believes in him, or he is flat out stupid for not fund raising. Maybe he is super rich, but I don't think so.
And by your one sided view of the reports you are showing us what we already know about you. You hate Zrinski and you find nothing wrong with the lop sided view of personal financing, which means only people with discretionary money can run for office ruling out single moms trying to make ends meet.
If this were the other way around you would be touting how NO ONE supports Zrinski and blah, blah, blah.
Bernie you are so transparent it is pathetic.
Truth is Zrinski is the candidate that everyone seems to support because they know she is the best one for that job. No one works harder than Tara. Cusick is just a cash cow looking for a second pension sucking off the teat of the tax payers.
Yeah, why would John Cusack be seen with Judge Sletvold campaigning ? They are both terribly unpopular.
Well during Community Days celebration in Forks Township, I saw Tara Z. spend lots of time in front of the Democratic Party booth cultivating the votes of two young Forks Township police. Perhaps she had them all agog over her recitation of the times table to show her acumen with analyzing Northampton County fiscal issues. Yes, a someone snarky remark in the eyes of some but certainly not untrue.
Cuesack. Just another retired Jersey teacher looking to feed at the taxpayer trough.
Say what you want about John Cusick, but his ability to get Lori Vargo Heffner to prevent the Federation of Pennsylvania Democratic Women from endorsing Zrinski was crucial. Lori cut Zrinski off from vital money and people power at a crucial moment. John and the Republicans owe Lori Big Time !
Lori Heffner is right to betray the Democrats on this one. They’ve got a bad candidate.
Cusick and Bernie are thirsty to be right about selling Gracedale. That’ll never change.
I will be crossing parties and voting for Cusick in the controller's race. He is eminently qualified, Zrinski is not, it's that simple. All other Dems in all other races will get my vote as they are all qualified for the positions they are running for and they generally share my political values. I'm still pondering how I will vote on term limits at the county level.
John Cusick is a great politician and as a math teacher he knows exactly how many dimes and pennies he’s about to steal from taxpayers.
I wouldn’t read too much into John being seen with Sletvold. They’re both Rs.
I wish Zrinski would go away- she's the R's version of John Brownpants.
Our household is mixed R and D and we haven't received any mailers from Cusick. I did get that robocall which must have been written by some deranged individual who needs professional help.
McClure, Kraft, and Keegan should not be donating to a County Controller's campaign. All three are unfit to serve anyway.
Anyone (Dem./Rep./Gr./Lib./whatever) who takes money from unions is unfit to serve as well. Unions long outlived their usefulness to benefit all and are only out to better themselves. They are greedy, mostly corrupt, and contribute nothing of value to society anymore.
In a mostly blue county, McClure's unethical contributions to his potential watchdog's campaign are perfectly fine. They're also on brand for a lawyer. We didn't elect an honest or ethical guy. We elected a lawyer. If elected, he can steal every dime in the county in front of that woke birdbrain, and waltz away, laughing.
Tara tries to schmooze everyone she meets for votes but she uses different tactics with different people (apologies for past behaviors with Republicans and continued kissing up with Democrats ). It’s very clear that some Gracedale employees are on this blog too noted by their “never vote” for Cusick remarks because he wanted to sell Gracedale at one time. It wasn’t doing well (probably still isn’t- who knows what to believe) and only stayed afloat by bringing in outside management. A math teacher knows numbers (money). My vote goes to John.
@816
Vote NO to term limits at the local level.
"In a mostly blue county, McClure's unethical contributions to his potential watchdog's campaign are perfectly fine. "
Completely legal, but I agree completely that no controller candidate should accept money from any of the people he or she is called upon to audit. That alone tells me Zrinski would be terrible. Unfortunately, this blog has chronicled many more deficiencies. She is a female Mark Pinsley, a rank opportunist who would use the springboard to run for something else. I voted for Cusick.
Now do Lehigh County Controller candidates please.
I'd like to know what Pinsley's expenses really are, rather than all the "bank charges" he lists on his expenses. Barclay x5, Chase x3 and Capital One x3 - those look like credit card bills so he doesn't have to identify what the money was spent on, and whether it was a legitimate campaign expense. For someone who blathers on about transparency, his campaign sure is opaque.
And the $50,000 donation from a lawyer in Media, PA- what is that buying?
The Smith and Rivera father/daughter combo running also gives me pause, if both are elected Smith as controller will have financial oversight over the Board on which his daughter sits.
@ Big Nick,9:01am
You sound like a jealous old man who either was in a union and got kicked out (lousy employee, or entitled know it all) or never joined a union and now has nothing to show for all his years working to make others rich, is now a bitter old man who finds it easy to blame the unions for his lack of pension etc as he watches his shitty 401k disappear every time he goes on his bar tour every day crying about how he should have stayed in the UNION and he would have a nice pension now.
Sorry Big Nick, you're still a loser
Anonymous 12:13:
You make my point. Unions are only out to benefit themselves, not society in general; unlike from the late 19th century until WWII when their strides benefited everyone. Alas, those days are long gone.
So if you are for Cusick you hate Zrinski. Please stop. She’s not qualified for the job. Period. It shouldn’t even be an elected position IMO.
It's important to make a distinction between public sector unions and actual unions. Public sector unions are just trained monkeys who trade their votes for a job. Private trades unions are diminishing and unable to deliver the same voting power as they once did. Gummint unions ain't yer daddy's unions.
"No one works harder than Tara."
At what?? She is ineffective and only capable of reading a script given to her. She has accomplished nothing in office except self-promotion. Her angry team Tara members don't even know what a controller does. The Controller does not have a vote on Gracedale. She needs a steady job that requires little brains or effort, so this is it.
I look to this blog for information. Unfortunately over this past year the comment section has become even more vile
"Say what you want about John Cusick, but his ability to get Lori Vargo Heffner to prevent the Federation of Pennsylvania Democratic Women from endorsing Zrinski was crucial. Lori cut Zrinski off from vital money and people power at a crucial moment. John and the Republicans owe Lori Big Time !"
This anonymous comment is false. LVH has endorsed no one locally. The Federation of Pennsylvania Democratic Women makes no primary endorsements. It does support the party nominee in state and federal elections, but local candidates are supported on the local level.
You must be on drugs. 🤪
Sell that old white elephant and put the real estate back on the tax rolls.
What makes you so sure it’s false. Did they endorse any candidate for the election?
Not only accountable, but a real mathematician with 16 years of County budget experience…Vote Cusick
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