|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
| Patrick Blanchette |
Correction DID DISCLOSE!
Due to an
error on my part City Councilor Patrick
Blanchetteappeared in the row above with those
who DID NOT file their
campaign
finances. Councilor Banchette did turn in his
finances on time and was listed as such below. I
take full
responsiblity
and hope that the Councilor will accept my
apologies.
Lawrence - Of the twenty-four candidates running for office in Tuesday's preliminary election only ten have turned in campaign finance reports with the Lawrence City Clerk's office or the Secretary of State's Office in Boston.
Candidates are required to publicly declare all campaign finance activity such as donations, loans to the campaign and expenditures used for campaign purposes.
Surprisingly, the majority of candidates who did not disclose campaign finances were current office holders who should surely know better having successfully run campaigns before.
Who Didn't Disclose Campaign Finances
Not filing (as required by law) were:
Incumbent City Councilors Marcos Devers, Nunzio DiMarca, (both at large) Nilka Alvarez Rodriquez (District "C"), Marie Gosselin (District "F"), Gilbert Frechette (District "E"), School Committee incumbents Noah Shannon (District "A"), Amy McGovern (District "E"), and George Gonzales (District "C").
Challengers who did not file were: Franklin Fernandez (District "D"), Jim Stokes and Danny Valcourt (District "F"), School Committee Candidates Jim Vittorioso (District "A") and Laura Vanderveer (District "D").
Who did disclose and what did they raise/spend
Of those who did disclose their campaign activity, planning board member Israel Reyes raised the most with $18,820.00 which is more than three times the amount usually raised by City Council candidates.
Councilor At-Large candidate Joe Parolisi had the second highest fund raising activity with $10,473.00
District "F council candidate Michael Fielding who is only representing one sixth of the city, by proportion raised the most money with $ 9,386.25 and sepnt $7825.25
Lawrence City Councilors get paid $5,000.00 a year from the city.
Israel Reyes out raised and out spent all the other candidates spending over $17,165.00 before the primary election.
Though he is a member of the planning board and deals with developers and realtors as part of his city position, Reyes accepted donations from realtors, developers, carpenters unions, bankers, and consultants.
Nearly half of the donations made to the Reyes campaign by these developers, realtors etc., ($8,125.00) came from out of town or out of state donors.
Donating the maximum amount allowed by law ($500.00) were:
realtors Lisa and Frank D'Orlando (donating $500 each) of Lynnfield, Socrates De La Cruz of Lawrence, developer John Feneros of Lowell, John Hehrisch (construction) of Gilford NH, consultant Alan Hope of North Andover, Developer Robert Houde of Tyngsborough, consultant Maureen McGregor of Manchester, NH, Jose Neves of Lynn and consultant Paula Sechelaru of Manchester, NH.
Finance records also reveal Reyes hired a campaign consultant William Murray of Malden for $1,000.00.
Reyes claims to have spent $3,927.00 on campaign signs at Simard Printing in Woburn and made out of state campaign purchases totaling $2,417.49 on the following expenses:
-$219.98 at Best Buy in Salem NH, for computer equipment
-$1,835.00 at Call Center Solutions in Newton Connecticut for campaign calls
-$99.99 at Microseconds in Salem NH
-$184.04 at Nextel Communications in Carol Stream, Illinois (phones)
-$78.48 at Nextel Communications in Carol Stream, Illinois (phones)
Massachusetts state law requires that candidates pay sales taxes to the Commonwealth on all out of state purchases. Reyes, however had no expenditure listed for Massachusetts state taxes for these expenses.
Of the $17,165.00 spent by the Reyes campaign (between
March 1, 2003 and September 5, 2003), only $2,088.46 of that money was spent in the City of
Lawrence (which equals about 8%).