Today's one-liner: “In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance.” T Jefferson
Lehigh County Sheriff Joe Hanna, who was very close to Danny McNeill, was wearing something familiar to Jeanne McNeill at her State Representative announcement on Wednesday. It was one of Danny's ties.
Jeanne explained that she gave about 40 of them away, and they were all still tied as Danny did not like pulling a tie apart after spending the time to get it just right.
Jeanne McNeill, widow of State Rep.Daniel McNeill, has been named as the Democratic Party nominee in a special election to succeed her late husband in Harrisburg. This will be held on December 5, 2017.
I got to know Jeanne McNeill when she ran for Lehigh County commissioner in 2009. She came out on the wrong end in an unexpectedly contentious fight. I helped make it that way with several blog posts that were critical of then Executive Don Cunningham's attempt to buy the seat. But she remained very classy to me, and even called me after she lost. She was an impressive candidate who did her homework.
She'd be an outstanding State Rep.
The 133rd Legislative District consists of Coplay, Catasauqua, Bethlehem (Lehigh County) Fountain Hill, Hanover Township (Lehigh County) portions of Salisbury Township and most of Whitehall Township.
On Wednesday, 5 pm, she will formally accept the Democratic nod at her Westgate campaign HQs.
I do not know whether Dave Molony is running again. He's run for this office a few times.
Incidentally, he was among those who paid his respects at Dan McNeill's viewing.
It's getting ugly in the Lehigh County District 1 Comm'r race between Jeanne McNeill and Tom Creighton. McNeill has allowed the Executive to finance most of her campaign. Her husband is actually employed by the County. And now, in a flyer paid for indirectly by Executive Don Cunningham via the Pa. State Dems, she's accusing Creighton of his own conflict of interest. What's worse, her facts are skewed.
She claims Creightom, a Lynn Township Supervisor, received a $500 contribution from an engineer on the very day his firm made a pitch for business there. It turns out that the contribution came several months after this firm had already made its presentation. Moreover, according to Ken Petrini, the person who originally broke this story, "[T]hey used and abused a story I did to misrepresent facts. I looked into the Tom Creighton contribution from Roy Stewart. I talked to Tom and to Roy. I know them both personally. There was no fire. There was barely smoke. We ran the story and basically let the voters realize for themselves that two very innocent-minded people had been involved in an honest act of friendship and as many people make contributions, Roy Stewart had made one to Creighton."
Andy Roman is an at-large Lehigh County Commissioner, but is nothing like most politicians. Instead of being gregarious, he's a bit on the shy and retiring side. Reserved. He expresses strong opinions that often make sense, as he did in support of webcasting public meetings, and I've never witnessed him launch a personal attack against anyone.
That's why I have to question whether the "Andy Roman" who commented on Ken Petrini's blog yesterday is the Lehigh County Comm'r or someone else. If this is actually Andy Roman the Commish, he needs to move and run for Northampton County Council, where mean-spirited and childish remarks are expected. Get a lot of this unnecessary swipe.
"Daniel McNeil who was thrown out of office as a Whitehall Township Executive in 2006 because of an ethical cloud surrounding his appointment in violation of the Whitehall Home Rule charter is now hoping to have his wife Jeanne do his bidding for him at the County level and have Don pay for it.
"Daniel McNeil, who was subsequently appointed to a cushy County position is now hoping to bring his brand of "political hack" politics to the County level through his wife, who has no government experience and has never attended a Commissioner meeting.
"By the way,isn't it a bit unsavory to have hubby calling the shots while being on the County pay-roll? Conflict of interest maybe??
"If Daniel McNeil wants to be a political player at the County level, why doesn't he run himself instead of making his poor wife do his bidding?"
Tacky. Maybe Andy should try blogging. Speaking of unsavory, is it appropriate for a Lehigh County elected official to speak this way about a County employee?
Well, that didn't take long. Yesterday morning, Ken Petrini and I both told you that Lehigh County Commissioner candidates Hillary Kwiatek (running in District 5 against incumbent Glenn Eckhart) and Jeanne McNeill (running in District 1 against Tom Creighton) had both filed their pre-election campaign finance reports (see them here). That's a good thing. But in those reports, they fail to note $72,000 that Executive Don Cunningham had set aside so they could do three mailers each. That's a bad thing.
By late yesterday afternoon, both McNeill and Kwiatek had amended their reports to note Cunningham's generous assistance. Kwiatek and McNeill both tell me they never received the necessary invoices until Friday, the deadline for filing. McNeill's report had already been filed two days earlier, and Kwiatek's was already finished when she got the news.
Kwiatek has already stated she "would never intentionally deceive or mis-report information on these reports." For her part, McNeill tells me "I have always worked hard to maintain openness and honesty. I received the info on Friday and my report had been finished and turned in by Wednesday. I did not realise that I could amend it to reflect the change. I thought I had to wait until the next report to do so. Thanks to your column, I was made aware of this. I was unable to add it to my first report because I did not have the figures in hand and did not want to guess at something so important. If you ask anyone that knows me, they will tell you that I am an upstanding decent person who always does what is right. I apologize to anyone that felt it was not handled in the correct way."
I believe them both. If they were interested in playing games, they would have simply waited until the next filing period.
Their reports, as amended, reveal that Executive Don Cunningham is their chief benefactor. Some of you may feel this makes them rubber stamps incapable of independent oversight. Others may think that all this means is that Cunningham recognizes two good people who understand and will help his agenda over the next four years.
What's important, from my perspective, is that you know the county exec is financing these candidates. You can draw your own conclusions.
Not very long ago, a candidate would never dream of asking an elected official or other candidate to dig into his own campaign fund for money. In these different times, office seekers felt they had an obligation to those financing their campaigns to restrict those funds only for their own political quests. In recent years, all that has changed, and it's now rather routine for candidates to give each other this monopoly money. Most of the time, it's pretty innocent. But when an elected official uses donated money to solidify and expand his power base, it's time to pay attention.
Campaign finance reports filed Friday reveal that Lehigh County Exec Don Cunningham is using his healthy, $700 thousand, campaign warchest to build his powerbase, stacking the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners. It's a political power play, although I'm sure he'd justify it as an attempt to make government more efficient. The downside is that, instead of an independent legislative body that asks questions and provides oversight, you end up with rubber stamps.
This year's rubber stamps are candidates Hillary Kwiatek, running against incumbent Glenn Eckhart in District 5; and Jeanne McNeill, running against Tom Creighton in District 1. They've been so excited to take Cunningham's money and help that they can't be bothered to follow election disclosure laws. Instead of informing the public, their filed campaign reports actually mislead them. Let me explain what happened.
This month, Kwiatek and McNeill sent out four, professionally prepared, 8 x 11 mailers each. One of Kwiatek's missives is a hit job against incumbent Glenn Eckhart, complete with grainy black and white photo. Take a gander. Hillary Kwiatek Campaign Flyer
Sure, Kwitek's slam is inaccurate. Rather than being against police, Eckhart actually voted to increase the size of Salisbury's force 40% when he was a township supervisor. But hey, I admire the quality of the work.
Now two of these mailers for each candidate arrived before the Monday, October 19th cutoff for reporting campaign expenses. The third must have been in the mail because those pieces arrived on the 20th. The cost of all three mailers was obviously incurred before the cutoff date.
Where did Kwiatek and McNeill get the money? Campaign finance reports filed Friday, which covers the period between June 8 and October 19th, not only fail to answer that question, but are downright misleading.
McNeill reports receiving $8,900 and spending just $2,900, leaving her with approximately $6,000. Kwiatek is a mirror image. She pulled in $6,800 and spent only $3,000. They both report only one $250 donation from the Cunningham camp. (Their reports can be downloaded here). The cost of these mailers is reflected nowhere.
So who paid for these mailers? Cunningham. Let me tell you how I know.
Cunningham's campaign committee made two contributions to the Pennsylvania Democratic party on October 5 ($22,000) and October 9 ($50,000), totalling $72,000.00. The state party took that money and spent it for the following:
* Postage for Kwiatek mailing (10/16/09) $1,170.70. * Postage for MacNeill mailing (10/16/09) $1,179.54. * Payment to Gumbinner & Davies for Design, Print, Mail House for unspecified "Lehigh County Candidates" (10/16/09) $52,447.49. * Postage-mailing for Don Conningham (10/15/09) $4,670.51. * Postage-mailing for unspecified "Lehigh County Candidates" (10/13/09) $5,074.75. * Postage-mailing for unspecified "Lehigh County Candidates" (10/6/09) $4,767.52 By October 19th, Cunningham had paid nearly $70,000 to promote Kwiatek and MacNeill.
Hillary Kwiatek was actually an active participant in this Cunningham-financed mail campaign. On her Facebook page, in a post entitled The Impact of Mail, Kwiatek muses "A candidate pores over her mail pieces making sure everything is accurate and reflects who she is as a candidate and then hopes for the best." She is very excited by how her "first mail piece" was received, noticing it has increrased traffic n the Internet. But she's not excited enough to tell her readers that Cunningham is paying for those mailers. She's not excited enough to include its cost on her finance report, as required by our election laws. Neither McNeill nor Kwiatek bother to tell you that County Executive Don Cunningham is trying to buy their election, to the tune of nearly $70,000 so far. Both attempt to mislead you into thinking he's only given them $250 apiece. If Kwiatek and MacNeill are this deceptive as candidates, what will happen when they're elected?
Summary:
* In early Oct. Don Cunningham’s campaign transferred $72,000 to the PA Democrat Committee. * Through Oct. 24th, Kwiatek and McNeill have sent out 4 mailers each with a total combined cost of approximately $25,000. * Two of the mailers for each candidate arrived before the Monday, October 19th cutoff for reporting campaign expenses and 1 for each candidate was in the mail at that point, arriving on Oct. 20th. * Three of Kwiatek’s mailers and three of McNeill’s mailers list them as being paid for by the PA Democrat Committee. * The three Kwiatek mailers that arrived (or were in the mail) before the 19th were all paid for by the PA Democrat Committee. * The three McNeill mailers that arrived (or were in the mail) before the 19th were all paid for by the PA Democrat Committee. * Kwiatek wrote on her Facebook page on Oct. 15th about reviewing the mailers and that the first had arrived, so she knew that they had been sent. * The PA Democrat Committee reports spending $52,447.49 on Oct. 16th for “design, print and mail house” for “Lehigh County candidates” * The PA Democrat Committee reports spending $1,170.70 (enough for 10,000 to 12,000 mailers) on Oct. 16th for postage on Kwiatek. * The PA Democrat Committee reports spending $1,179.54 (enough for 10,000 to 12,000 mailers) on Oct. 16th for postage on McNeill. * Neither Kwiatek nor McNeill reported any direct expenses or in-kind contributions on their campaign finance reports that reflect the money spent (design, production and postage) for their mailers that went out before the Oct. 19th cutoff. At a bare minimum the postage needed to be reported. Kwiatek, in particular, can not claim ignorance of the fact that the mailers had gone out since she talked about them at her Facebook site.
Update: Kwiatek Amends Report! In an email, Hillary Kwiatek announces that she has amended her report to reflect the state party's in-kind contributions. She claims she received that documentation on Friday, after her report had already been prepared, and opted to amend it today rather than wait for the next reporting period "in the interest of greater transparency."
Kwiatek adds, "I want to say in the strongest terms possible that I would never intentionally deceive or mis-report information on these reports. I take the oath my signature represents on those forms very seriously, and my integrity means a great deal to me. The fact of the matter is, I simply didn't have the documentation of these contributions when my treasurer and I completed my report. As you realize, you cannot document an in-kind contribution without the necessary information. Once I received the information, the report was amended in as quick a manner as I could manage, given my treasurer's work schedule and the like."
Andy Roman is an at-large Lehigh County Commissioner, but is nothing like most politicians. Instead of being gregarious, he's a bit on the shy and retiring side. Reserved. He expresses strong opinions that often make sense, as he did in support of webcasting public meetings, and I've never witnessed him launch a personal attack against anyone.
Well, that didn't take long. Yesterday morning, Ken Petrini and I both told you that Lehigh County Commissioner candidates Hillary Kwiatek (running in District 5 against incumbent Glenn Eckhart) and Jeanne McNeill (running in District 1 against Tom Creighton) had both filed their pre-election campaign finance reports (see them here). That's a good thing. But in those reports, they fail to note $72,000 that Executive Don Cunningham had set aside so they could do three mailers each. That's a bad thing.
Not very long ago, a candidate would never dream of asking an elected official or other candidate to dig into his own campaign fund for money. In these different times, office seekers felt they had an obligation to those financing their campaigns to restrict those funds only for their own political quests. In recent years, all that has changed, and it's now rather routine for candidates to give each other this monopoly money. Most of the time, it's pretty innocent. But when an elected official uses donated money to solidify and expand his power base, it's time to pay attention.
