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TL: Lisa Baker easily won the Republican primary election for the 20th District seat of retiring state Sen. Charles Lemmond, and the amount spent on her campaign might explain her success.
Baker’s campaign cost more than those of her four opponents combined, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.
Baker, who captured 46 percent of the 23,751 votes cast in the May 16 election, reported her campaign spent almost $410,000 from Jan. 1 to June 5.
Dallas chiropractor David Madeira, the runner-up with 21 percent of the vote, reported $86,094 in campaign expenses.
Kingston Mayor Jim Haggerty, the third-place candidate with 18 percent, reported $212,088 in campaign expenditures.
Dallas School Board member Russ Bigus received 13 percent, and his campaign reported almost $23,000 in expenses. Carl Sutton, a Dallas Township resident and psychotherapist, ran a campaign that cost about $1,000. He finished in last place with 2 percent of the vote.
Baker spent more than $240,000 on TV ads. Haggerty spent more than $150,000 on radio and TV ads.
5 comments:
SO, Gort, are you going to get a copy of her finance reports and let us know where all of her money came from? That usually tells quite a bit.
I'd be shocked if Haggerty's donor list and Baker's didn't have an overwhleming number who donated to both camps. Especially all those lawyers.
I was actually pleased to see that Haggerty's big ambitions were dealt a blow.
Yeah. I wasn't too pleased that Haggerty, the only person who has actually done something worthwhile in public service, lost to a puppet. Then again, it wouldn't be NEPA any other way... ;)
I'm looking through the online version and all I see is Sordoni, Sordoni, Sordoni. I don't have the time to research that connection. But it's a very familiar name. Maybe Norbert will come back and look it up. The only thing that jumped out at me was that our family vet threw some money at her.
Hopefully the party won't take away my elephant trunk for saying this but "Empty Suit Republican" is the first term that comes to mind when I think of Lisa Baker. Compare BCNEPA's Blue Ribbon Foundation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The latter gives away millions of dollars of wealth that Bill Gates created by doing for the personal computer what Henry Ford did for the automobile. The former gives away hard-earned money from working people and employers who can barely keep up with Blue Cross' requests for higher premiums. (Also, don't forget those golf club memberships.) Giving away money that one has had no hand in earning is hardly the kind of experience that qualifies someone to, for example, fix Pennsylvania's health care crisis.
Baker's Web page, in fact, supports the totally irresponsible agenda of capping malpractice damage awards, i.e. absolving the medical system for killing and maiming people because of deficient quality management systems that are more dangerous than a car with worn-out brakes and bald tires. There is an off-the-shelf solution to this problem, as recommended by the Automotive Industry Action Group and American Society for Quality: the internationally-recognized ISO 9000 quality system standard. The hospitals and doctors' associations, though, don't seem to be interested.
It also must be remembered that someone ran an anonymous slur campaign against Rep. Phyllis Mundy last year. These unknown persons-- the fact that they refused to sign their names to their accusations says plenty about their ethics and character-- contended that Mundy planned to run for Charles Lemmond's Senate seat-- the one for which Baker is now competing-- and that this was her REAL motive for opposing Blue Cross' rate increases and also drawing attention to the Blues' surpluses. It turned out that Mundy did not even try for this position in the primary but it would be very instructive to revisit that anonymous smear campaign and speculate on who was behind it.
It's easy to see why the possibility of a Mundy candidacy would have terrified Baker. Mundy is one of the few legislators who is actually proposing genuine solutions to the health care crisis-- quality management systems that would prevent 80-85% of all malpractice while eventually reducing costs 30 to 60 percent-- although others now seem to be getting on board with her. This is the kind of leadership we need to fix the state's health care system, and I will indeed vote for Democrats who provide this leadership while RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) peddle snake oil like malpractice damage caps.
Lisa had to win - first, she had to protect her husband, Gary, and his big state job. Secondly, she is a complete puppet to Blue Cross and other get all the state favor big money people - as well as a puppet of Pat Solano, Pennsylvania's godfather of state government
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