Friday, April 16, 2010

Mitchell smacks Barletta

I got this earlier today.


Statement by Ed Mitchell, spokesman, Pennsylvanians for Kanjorski

Like he does when discussing Hazleton city finances, Mayor Lou Barletta cooked the books all week on how much money his congressional campaign raised this quarter. In press releases, Barletta said he took in about $300,000 since he began his race. He actually took in $286,013. He says he has $202,000 cash on hand, but when you subtract the $136,000 debt he has, the amount is actually closer to $67,000 cash on hand.

Barletta fails to inspire people. People don’t donate to him like other Republican candidates for congress in the state. He’s a spin meister. He’s actually spinning his wheels.

And despite telling potential donors that he was raising money to pay off his debt to himself, Barletta has paid nothing back yet. He misled donors to get them to encourage him to run and he might pay himself off at any moment thus further weakening his cash situation.

Another sorry fundraising quarter for Barletta who’s lost twice now to Congressman Kanjorski and looks to be on his way to “Strike Three and You’re Out.”


I love red meat in politics and this is it. What is interesting is that the Kanjo camp is ignorring primary opponent Corey O'Brien.

I'll be reading the FEC campaign finance over the weekend and will give you a report .

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Old School R is back;

Barletta raised 300K since he began .. That is what he said. That is what happened. Barletta did not say it happened before March ended. Kanjorski should'nt talk about other peoples finances after he stole 9 million dollars from taxpayers and gave it to his family so they could pay it to themselves at Cornerstone Technologies. Remember that Ed ? The company with no sales. Paul Kanjorski should be in jail.
If you really want your eyes opened about fundraising, take a look at the source of Kanjorski's donations. Wall Street and other out of town'ers that depend on the financial services committee. Kanjorski sells himself like a cheap whore. Just read the list. Mitchell has always been a nasty person. His venom is legendary. Word around Wilkes Barre is that his world may blow up soon. I keep hearing that his Democratic "Luzerne County Hack" sources of income (for he and his kept boyfriend) will soon come out of the closet.

McGruff said...

Just to add to that excellent post. Barletta doesn't have to subtract his debt, Ed. The full $202,000 is available but then again you come from Kanjorski's school of finance.

His ability to raise that kind of money against an incumbent who claims such high senority is not a spin. Ed, you are the KING OF SPIN. Of course then again you do it with a Twist.

Ed, you want to talk about Barletta so much why don't we get back to that secret vote against Carney. Gort likes red meat and this saga is Kanjorski's Chili Con Carney.

Anonymous said...

McGruff,
the people that live and have to put up with Barletta"s bullshit dont give a damn about his vote concerning Carney.
more concerned about the pot holes, the pending lawsuits, the lack of police, his administrations decision to let MinSec in town, the money he took from dredge developers, money he improperly took from a police pension fund that now he cant steal from there he had to raise taxes 70% to pay for....... the streets are flithy, garbage in every gutter........ and selling a City asset for 4 million when it has been assessed at 8+ million. is that how he will sell the Water Authoirty..He is the worst Mayor this town ever saw!!!!!

all you do is TRY to take peoples eyes off the ball and devert them to other issues we dont give a shit about.....

First and foremost he is the MAYOR of this CITY like it or not, start doing the part!!!!!!

He acts and uses his time more as a candidate than a Mayor...... sick of this .........

Anonymous said...

McGruff displays his usual command of high finance! Whenever you're evaluating a business, you calculate net debt - nobody cares about "gross" for the same reason that nobody thinks you are rich when you have $1MM in the bank, but owe $30MM. In short, you must subtract Barletta's debt from his cash on hand, leaving you with a negative number. The quirk here is that only about $91k of Barletta's debt is owed to third parties, so he could argue that his real cash on hand is @$111k. In that sense, McGruff is correct, but it does beg the following question: why doesn't Barletta just write-off his debts to himself? If, as McGruff claims, he doesn't plan to collect, why report these debts? I bet Barletta won't write-off these debts because he intends to collect, which means that his campaign really is flat broke. We'll see, but don't be surprised if Barletta ends this campaign with cash on hand...cash he'll use to payoff these debts.

Anonymous said...

umm old school R, then why did so many big name republicans in the wyoming valley contribute to Kanjo over the years, even after cornerstone came out?????????? including one of the primary repbulicans in the last race in the 10th???

Anonymous said...

Does anyone remember when Barletta was traveling around the country taking bows for fighting the Latino problem while at the same time he was ignoring the city he is mayor of and creating debt and potential law suit debt that will bankrupt Hazleton. Now Barletta wants to walk away from the problem he created and move on to Washington? Will you supporters of this jerk take the time to think about the real Lou Barletta? The guy is a phony, typical high spending Republican who is not concerned about what he did to Hazleton. Shame on all of you.

McGruff said...

Anon must have been smoking weed before the post..very inventive but highly Harrisburgest...

Lack of police...39 officers vs a low of 24 that's an increase not a lack..

Pot holes...every city in the spring is faced with the same situation...ice enters the hole and pops the macadam...what a genius u r to point that out

Pending lawsuits...which ones...u try to use business as an example...everyone in business knows that every client can be a potential lawsuit Einstein...

Steal!!! that's why you r Anon... prove that comment...or remove it...the money went into the City no one stole a gosh darn thing...but then again what the heck would you know about stealing unless it was a per diem to pay for a home....

His administrations led to MinSec...no one in his adminstration had a thing to do with MinSec...its the Zoning Board which is not part of any administration that made that determination based on misleading information submitted in the application...

Dredge developers...oh you would be referring to the company that took a friggin stripping pit with PCBs and chemicals and decided to invest enough money to turn it into a viable enterprise...actually they didn't develop the dredge...it developed all on its own...the U.S. Army removed it from the river and wanted it transported from their holding site. Are you against the U.S. Army???

Sell a City Asset worth $4 million that was assesed at $8 million..genious...no County official ever ASSESSED that ground at $8 million...you would be talking about a stripping pit filled with PCBs and chemicals discharging acid mine drainage into the Jeddo Tunnel that WOULD be worth $8 million...yea okayy...keep smokin that weed..

SELL the Water Authority..He was the one who proposed to bring in Attorney Michael Kline to find a way to bring non water revenue from the HCA to the City so that a sale wouldn't be necessary...then again what would you know about facts..

Take the eye off the ball...that would be what you would do when you want people to forget about per diems...state cars...a 50% pension increase grab...midnight pay raises,a base salary of $78,314 plus $163 per day to represent the district in Harrisburg...Congressional raises while senior citizens get a ZERO COLA raise, not for one year but two, money raised by Charlie Rangel that is refused to be returned...and you are worried about a pothole...imagine how many potholes could be filled if we weren't paying for the exhorbitant perks..

McGruff said...

High finance..Barletta is paying off his debts on his own...You know that campaigns aren't businesses...In Pennsylvania it is the wild wild west regarding campaign finance, no limits, and very few restrictions...He doesn't have to do what you mandate...It is a prerogative to forgo paying off the debt and you know it or should know it. Even federally there is latitude..

Start doing the part...if he didn't do the pension move you would be paying more taxes...if he didn't sell the timber at the airport you would be paying more taxes...if he didn't do the dredge deal there wouldn't be the police without more taxes...if he didn't create Smalltowndefenders.com the lawsuit would be a City burden but not one cent of City money has been spent on that effort..you are the one who is disingenuos about that fact..

High Spending Republican...Barack Obama has single handedly raised tripled the federal deficit...Here's one link to a graph on the federal deficit..Obama is a Democrat,right?? http://zfacts.com/p/318.html Here's another link about Bush deficits vs Obama deficits.. http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/

You discredit Barletta..so explain why his margins of victory have been so high in the City elections.. explain why his City Council candidates last year came in Number 1 and 2 in the election...Aren't the people he represents an indication of his performance?

The National Debt is #12.1 trillion..http://www.federalbudget.com/ and you want us to believe what???

k. dougherty said...

I think Barletta is a putz, but I'm OK with him saying "about $300,000" when he has $286,013. Ed Mitchell might be trying a bit too hard. That might be the real story.

Anonymous said...

After Barletta loses for the THIRD time, he wont be a THREE time loser, he is just a LOSER!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

MCGRUFF TELLS US;

"Dredge developers...oh you would be referring to the company that took a friggin stripping pit with PCBs and chemicals and decided to invest enough money to turn it into a viable enterprise...actually they didn't develop the dredge...it developed all on its own...the U.S. Army removed it from the river and wanted it transported from their holding site. Are you against the U.S. Army???"

SO i see that both BARLETTA AND HIS LAPDOGS are saying it is ok to break the law!!! oh yea like Bareltta's buddy the Great Senator tells us, FBI agents come to your home or office every now and then even though you didnt do anything wrong. lmao..... NOW WHO IS SMOKING WEED??????

PoorRichard said...

Easy there 7:32, the only reason the Feds visted Musto's house was to enjoy some good pizza with Musto's home made wine. The only thing in tohse 3 black garbge bags were old pizza boxes.

Lou and Ray Ray are pizza buddies and that ain't a bad thing.

McGruff said...

Break the law....lets see..would you be talking about your Harrisburg boss that took $800 million from the MCare fund only to have Commonwealth Court tell him he has to put it back!!!

http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2010/04/16/news/doc4bc7f2819d9fc079155615.txt

No different than the pension issue you brought up isn't it?

Be careful about throwing stones..your boss isn't out of the woods yet according to our sources..

McGruff said...

If breaking the law is referring to the visit from Department of Defense investigators..the press and the rest have speculated on them being the target...maybe the target is inside the Defense Department...

The press missed some important points in this saga...Four Bids were submitted by internet on July 25, 2006...opened Aug 24, 2006, awarded and subsequently Bowen notifies them he can't get the Bond for the project. Now did anyone ask the Army at Fort Mifflin if there is any paperwork to corroborate that statement by the contract specialist at Fort Mifflin?? Better yet just because Bowen said he couldn't get a bond..did it simply end there or did they ask for proof? The Defense Department waits four years before checking on the bidding process. Obviously there were two other bidders, one for New Jersey and the other from Philadelphia. If they thought there was a bid problem they would have complained at the time of the bidding. The Defense Department didn't wait..this attack has political footprints all over it...

McGruff said...

Lets recount the errant ways and what they cost us.

Eachus and Rendell improperly take $800 million from the MCare fund and now have to put it back. They lost their THIRD round(is that the three time loser you are referring to) with the federal government over tolling I-80 that leaves a $472 million gap.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_675143.html

NOW# An almost $1.3 billion unfunded budget hole and you want to put down Barletta as the worst Mayor...You want to make the claim of taking one's eye off the ball...

Yet the Legislators are still in line for a 50% pension increase...still get $163 days per diem regardless of their actual expenses on top of $78,314.00 salary..still get a state car...full healthcare benefits plus all the perks of the lobbyists...Kanjorski still gets his COLA while seniors don't get it for not one but two years and a salary of $174,000.00 per year...

Harrisburg resorted to gambling as a means to fund their budget but I noticed prostitution is still sacred. Guess those legislators won't cannabalize their own profession.

We worked from January 1st to April 11th just to pay taxes to Pennsylvania making it the 11th most costly state for taxpayers.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/regional/s_635724.html

This state is in the worst shape in decades. You talk about Hazleton roads..read this survey
http://www.overdriveonline.com/the-good-the-bad-the-better/

about Pennsylvania Roads...comes in No. 1 as WORST ROADS...so keep throwing snowballs.

Stephen Albert said...

While I think that Lou Barletta is a closeted, opportunist racist, I also happen to think that Ed Mitchell is nothing more than an unprincipled political mercenary who would gladly manage Satan's campaign for the US House, if the price was right.

Translation: assume that all are lying to some exten.

PoorRichard said...

OK so now we are going to judge Barletta by how bad the others are and not how bad he is? I'm so confused by that logic that I'm going to withold pizza from Barletta until somebody makes sense of all of this.