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After reading it, you should recognize the familiar Reed-esque pattern of back scratching with "conflict of interest" Ellison and his big shot law firm. Wow, LT learned a lot from the master politician of Harrisburg as she navigated a treacherous route from city council ingénue to mayor elect.
And while I am not too sure that LT will switch parties a la Dekok's theory, it is also important to question our mayor elect's recent "love fest" with the moneyed GOP establishment (spokesperson/consultant/guru Charlie Gerow).
Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming shenanigans folks.
Mayor-elect Linda Thompson has filed her post-election financial disclosure form--oops! She forgot to sign it! Her campaign manager James Ellison did, but the space for her signature, where she verifies that her Leadership for Harrisburg PAC did not to the best of her knowledge violate any election laws, is conspicuously blank. Just an oversight, I'm sure. Her opponent, Nevin Mindlin, did remember to sign his.
One of my neighbors was kind enough to parse all of Thompson's campaign disclosure forms this year. She spent a grand total of $101,196 on her campaign. Of that, the Harrisburg law firm of Rhodes & Sinon, where Ellison is a partner, provided $25,000, far and away more than anyone else.
And why not? Rhodes & Sinon, according to my neighbor, has billed the Harrisburg Authority more than $300,000 in legal fees in 2008 and 2009. Ellison, who is chairman of the Harrisburg Authority, owner of the incinerator mess, is said to have recused himself on some of the votes to pay those legal bills. Not that it really matters. As a Rhodes & Sinon partner, he knows what happens to law firm profits.They get distributed to partners. Is there anyone here who isn't clear what is going on?
Among other contributions of interest was a $200 donation--small, to be sure--from a John T. Durbin of 12 Emlyn Lane, Mechanicsburg. Durbin was executive director of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission for eight years under Govs. Ridge and Schweiker. He got the job as a reward for his fundraising prowess the first time Ridge ran for governor in 1994. I laud some of the reforms he brought to the Turnpike, especially EZPass, but he's a big-time Republican who lives in the suburbs. In the past few years he has donated $2,300 to John McCain, $1,550 to Rudolph Guiliani, $1,000 to Mitt Romney, and so on. Why is he interested in Linda Thompson?
This and Thompson's employment of hard right Republican Charlie Gerow (see, Swift Boating, John Kerry, 2008) as her consultant/spokesman, a slap in the face to Democrats, is just more fuel for my growing belief that she plans to turn Republican at some convenient point after she gets into office. Oh, and one other thing. The Dauphin County Republican Committee didn't lift a finger to help their own mayoral candidate, Nevin Mindlin, the strongest Republican candidate in Harrisburg in years. No contribution to Mindlin. He did get a de minimus $200 from the city Republican committee and $500 from Friends of (Sen.) Jeff Piccola, but really. These sort of things don't happen in politics just by happenstance. Something is coming.
Why would the Republicans want Thompson? Because they don't have many blacks in their party. Thompson would be an anti-abortion, Bible thumping candidate who could add the GOP base to her own know-nothing base. For governor? Senator? Heck, they'd be thrilled just to keep her as mayor of Harrisburg.
I also looked at her campaign expenditures in the most recent support, and one thing that caught my eye was more than $600 for "volunteer lunches" on election day. The story that circulated after Thompson's primary victory last May was that she used free food to entice voters from her base to come to the polls, which is illegal under state election law, not that it's ever enforced. Then I heard she was claiming the food went to "volunteers." $600 buys a lot of pizzas. Ellison received $200 for "reimbursement for youth volunteers." Considering that 27,000 registered voters stayed home that day, and Thompson got the votes of only 12 percent of all registered voters in the city, it does not appear to have been money well spent.
And finally, my favorite Thompson campaign expenditure, $15 for a "parking ticket," paid on Nov. 18, 2009, after the election. I'm sure there's a fascinating story behind that one.