Cambridge Civic Journal Forum

Cambridge City Council 2009 Campaign Finance Report Summaries (PDF) – updated Oct 19, 2009

While some people enjoy reading novels, I get my reading pleasure from things like meeting minutes and campaign finance reports. For extra fun, I’ll analyze ballot data and voter history records or maybe write a little piece on proportional representation. I hope someone other than me finds this stuff interesting.

Here are a few items from past and present that get my attention:

1. Henrietta Davis’ recent reports show three different people paid as campaign staff (though two of them were only for a few hours). This contrasts with, say, Denise Simmons whose reports show no paid campaign staff. Some new candidates have hired campaign managers while others rely entirely on friends and family. [Aug 30 Note: Lest anyone misinterpret the intent of this note, the only point is that some candidates have paid staff and others do not.]
2. Marjorie Decker’s 2006 Annual Report showed a debt of $13,808.85 to Cambridge Offset Printing left over from her 2005 campaign. It makes you wonder why a business allows such substantial debts to remain unpaid for so long, yet additional unpaid bills for $1833.75 appeared on the 2007 report for a total liability of $15,642.60. This same report showed the illegal in-kind contribution of $2500 from the John Buonomo campaign paid to Cambridge Offset Printing which apparently covered what would have been an even greater debt. [Note: This story has been somewhat covered recently by the Cambridge Chronicle.] The report was later amended to bring the unpaid debt to Cambridge Offset Printing to $17,424.08. The 2008 Annual Report continued to show a $15,642.60 debt to this vendor with no indication yet of this debt being paid. At some point it’s fair to ask whether this is an unpaid debt or a very large in-kind donation of services.
3. Craig Kelley continues to personally fund a substantial portion of his campaigns, though his periodic reports show very little activity so far this year. So far, the campaigns of new candidates Cheung, Glick, Leavitt, Marquardt, Stohlman, and vanBeuzekom are primarily or entirely self-funded, but this will likely soon change as they attract more voters and supporters.
4. David Maher pulled in $14,465 in donations last December. Other incumbent city councillors will have similar major fundraising months. This illustrates one of the primary advantages of incumbency.
5. Gregg Moree’s 2007 Report showed an entirely self-funded $22,390 campaign, yet no details whatsoever appear about his expenditures.
6. Ken Reeves’ 2005 Report shows $12,170 in liabilities but absolutely no details are provided. In that year, he maintained a headquarters for perhaps four months in a prominent Central Square storefront, yet there is no record of any expenditure for rent or any record of an in-kind donation for what is far in excess of the campaign finance legal limits. Candidates are required to report the fair market value for any such donation of space and the name(s) of those who provide the space. Reeves also maintained a headquarters on Mass. Ave. for several months in the 2007 campaign and this also never appears in any reports. His 2007 reports show an outstanding debt of $14,875.83 primarily for campaign staff but with no mention of the headquarters. A very low estimate for the unreported donation of office space would be at least $6000 – far in excess of anything Mr. Buonomo improperly contributed to Ms. Decker’s campaign.
7. Two of the biggest funders of political campaigns (primarily in 2007) were Timothy and Amy Rowe (he’s the CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square). The recipients were Galluccio ($1250), Kelley ($1000), Davis ($1000), Toomey ($1000), M. Sullivan ($500), Decker ($1000), Maher ($1000), Reeves ($1000), Simmons ($1000), Seidel ($1000), and Murphy ($1000). The other king donors are John DiGiovanni (Trinity Management, Harvard Square) and his family. Since 2007, they gave to Reeves ($1500), M. Sullivan ($1000), Murphy ($2000), Galluccio ($3000), Decker ($1000), Maher ($2000), Simmons ($2000), E. Sullivan ($500), and Toomey ($1000). Surely, all this money flows from the kindness of their very large hearts.
8. Tim Toomey continues to pay Jason Alves (his City-funded personal aide) every month out of his campaign account as staff for his state representative district office. It’s apparently legal, but it highlights the clearly political nature of these City-funded aides.
9. As of Oct 19, the campaign treasure chests in decreasing order were (to the nearest dollar):
   

   Candidate	Balance		Candidate	Balance		Candidate	Balance
   Decker, Marjorie	$29,547		Seidel, Sam	$10,402		Ward, Larry	$1,144
   Simmons, Denise	$20,073		Glick, Silvia	$9,344		Reeves, Ken	$491
   Maher, David	$18,040		Cheung, Leland	$9,212		Adkins, Lawrence	$244
   Davis, Henrietta	$13,766		Sullivan, Edward J.	$7,469		Flanagan, Mark	$100
   Kelley, Craig	$13,748		vanBeuzekom, Minka	$5,348		Moree, Gregg J.	$0
   Toomey, Tim	$13,539		Stohlman, Tom	$3,920		Podgers, Kathy	$0
   Marquardt, Charles J.	$10,826		Leavitt, Neal	$1,726		Williamson, James	$0

10. [addendum] Marjorie Decker’s campaign receipts for September 2009 are something to behold. It seems like Billy Walsh must be her chief campaign fundraiser. It’s all about the real estate.

One observation worth noting is the trend over the years toward paid campaign managers. There was a day when managing the campaign of an Independent candidate would be entirely the work of friends and family. Paid staff was typically seen only with CCA type candidates. Nowadays, many candidates (other than the usual suspects) will hire campaign staff, though not all. Some incumbents have several paid staff (in addition to the City-funded personal staff who handle all their Council business while they’re out on the campaign trail).

Anyone can search the campaign finance reports at the OCPF website. Knock yourself out. – RW