Following the Money: Who Funded Attack Ads Against Willie Reynolds and Hillary Kwiatek?

Pre-primary campaign finance reports were due on Friday. They are designed to tell you who is funding a candidate and what he or she is doing with the money. Northampton County's elections office, thanks to a directive from Executive Lamont McClure, makes county finance reports available to the public online. (You can view them here). Statewide PACs report with the department of state. (Those reports can be found here.) They often tell you a lot more about a candidate than you'll learn from mailers or debates. Almost all, but not all, county finance reports have been uploaded to the county site. I will report on the contested county races once they are. Today's posts will hopefully help you with some of the other races. 

Previously, I told you about negative mailers aimed at Bethlehem City Council candidate Hillary Kwiatek Bethlehem Mayor Willie Reynolds. They were paid for by Pa. Local Leaders Fund. My friend Jeff Ward, publisher of Lehigh Valley News Briefs, did a little digging and learned that this PAC was formed on April 22 by immigration lawyer Ray Lahoud. OK, but who paid for the mailers?

Thanks to the pre-primary report filed by Pa Local Leaders Fund with the Department of State, we know.  Between April 1 and May 4, this PAC received $35,400 from the following: 

Ray Lahoud - $25,000

City Councilman Bryan Callahan - $7,000 (both personally and from his campaign fund) 

John McGeehan - $400 (a former Green Beret)

Bruce Haines - $3,000 (principal of Hotel Bethlehem).

This PAC spent $12,575.00 for one mailer against Reynolds and another against Kwiatek. It still has $22,825 for more.

On Facebook, Kwiatek addressed the mailer and Callahan: "Look. I don’t know why he’s obsessed with me. I don’t know what he’s trying to accomplish by combing through my Instagram account and sharing with Democratic voters that I'm grateful for everything I have in this world, including the occasional delicious latte. (The half dozen coffee houses I can walk to in Bethlehem suggest this is not exactly an out of touch activity, btw).

Callahan responded. "For all of you that know me well ... i speak up when I see something wrong. I got this in the mail today from a PAC that supports good moderate Democratic candidates. I checked the council voting records and It's factual ....in only her first term on council, she did vote to raise your taxes , she voted to raise her own city councils salary, she voted to sell Historic Bethlehem land to a developer to build high end rental units, she voted to sell retired police officers handguns to a gun dealer rather than to the retired police officer for the same price, she first recused herself from a vote to give her employer grant money because she felt she had a conflict of interest ... then get this .... when she realized there weren't enough votes to pass the grant money to her employer.... she then reversed her recusal and was the deciding vote to give her employer the money. To top it all off , she then voted against the City of Bethlehem's July 4th fireworks which is a long standing tradition that our families and kids love to attend!!! Wrong for Bethlehem !!! If you feel like sharing SHARING to others .... please do ! Voters need to know !"