Middletown City Council Campaign Finance Reports

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I do my best not use information from the Journal, which is kinda easy because I dont read it. But someone pointed this out to today and I thought it was very interesting so I wanted to post here. 

Article from the journal 

By  Ed Richter,

  Staff Writer

        Updated 8:20 AM Friday, October 23, 2009  

		   MIDDLETOWN — So far, the city’s
youngest candidate for Middletown City Council is also the leading
fundraiser and spender in the 2009 ward races.
According to
campaign finance reports that were due by 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, 2nd
Ward candidate A.J. Smith has raised $4,597 and has spent $4,029 in his
race against fellow candidate John Soppanish for the open council seat.
State
law requires a campaign finance report to be filed with the Butler
County Board of Elections if $1,000 was raised or spent prior to
Thursday’s deadline.
Top contributors include Roger Steven
Dillman, $500; Steven Hightower, $300; Michael Scorti, $200; Tyrone
Thomas, $100; Adriane Scherrer, $350; Avalon Consulting Group, $240;
Ruth Ann Tracy, $100; Dan Tracy, $100; Joe Wittman, $250; Change Butler
County PAC, $333; Butler County Progressive PAC, $500; Todd Jermaine
Martin, $100; Anthony Klimek, $100.
He also had three unnamed donors who contributed a total of $268.
Smith
also used his Web site to solicit campaign donations from out of state,
with the largest, $467, from an Indianapolis dental firm. Other online
donations totalled nearly $113.
His largest in-kind donations was
from the 2005 Group/Richard Isroff for $900 in office rental; ACF
Mortgage Co. of Cincinnati for $336 for mailers; Haines Consulting of
Canton for $1,000 for political consulting; Creative Designs for $700
in campaign literature design; and $480 to the 2005 Group/Richard
Isroff.
Smith’s expenses include $480 to the 2005 Group/Richard
Isroff for office utilities; $1,078 in advertising; $292 to Shelly’s
Signs & Graphics of Fairfield for office window signage; $224 to
Signrocket of Minnesota for advertising; $250 to Bob Goughenour for
advertising design; and $361 to Digital Visuals for signs.
Incumbent
1st Ward Councilman Jim Armbruster was the next highest on the campaign
money list. Armbruster is seeking re-election to his second term on
council.
Armbruster reported receiving $3,920 in contributions and spending only $852.
Top
contributors to Armbruster’s campaign were Kenneth Cohen, $500; T.A.
Dobrozsi, $100; Harry A. Finkelman Inc., $250; Rachel Lewitt, $250;
Thomas Hazelbaker, $100; Alan McCoy, $500; Robinson Realtors, $100;
John Sawyer, $100; Michael Scorti, $200; Richard Slagle, $100; Robert
Breitenbach, $100; David Horn of Cincinnati, $250; Heath Valentine,
$100; James Wainscott, $500; and a loan from Armbruster for $100.
His largest expense is ABS Publishing for $810 for printed  letters, postage, and envelopes.
Incumbent
3rd Ward Councilman Tony Marconi, also seeking a second term on
council, reported raising $3,525 in contributions and spending $2,506
in his campaign.
Marconi also reported a $2,209 loaned to his committee for signs.
Many
of Marconi’s top contributors mirrored Armbruster’s top contributors.
Among those were Michael Scorti, $200; John Sawyer, $100; Richard
Slagle, $100; Alan McCoy, an AK Steel Corp. vice president, $500;
Thomas Hazelbaker, $100; T.A. Dobrozsi, $100; Kenneth Cohen, $500;
James Wainscott, AK Steel Corp.’s president, chairman and CEO, $500;
David Horn of Cincinnati, $250; and James Akers, CEO of Akers Packaging
Services, $750.
In addition to the signs, Marconi’s largest expense was to Strategic Advantage Consulting of Hamilton for $2,500.
Daniel Picard, a 4th Ward candidate, reported raising $2,645 and spending $1,289 on his campaign.
His
largest contributor was Douglas W. McNeill, president of Atrium Medical
Center, who gave $1,200. Other top contributors were Alan McCoy, $500;
Andrew Singer, $150; Stephen O’Neil, $100; Robinson Inc. Realtors,
$100; and Picard himself, $300.
Picard’s largest expense was $1,137 to ABS Publishing for signs, envelopes, labels and accessories.
Joshua Laubach, who is challenging Marconi for the 3rd Ward seat, reported raising $1,410 and spending $1,275 on his campaign.
Laubach,
who was 22 minutes late filing his report Thursday with the elections
board, also reported in-kind contributions of $95 and a $847 loan from
his committee.
His top contributors included Chris Langhorne,
$100; Keith and Debbie Clements, $100; Lois Laubach, $100; Kevin
Puckett, $100; Larry Wood, $200; and Lois Wood, $200.
Laubach’s largest expense was for signs to Digital Visuals for at total of $740.
Candidates Paul Nagy, Gary Barge and John Soppanish did not file campaign finance reports.