Quincy Mayor Koch campaign spending par for the Koch

Duly embattled incumbent frowning
An old Facebook photo

– News about Quincy MA from Quincy Quarry News

Quincy’s embattled incumbent Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s campaign spending looks to be running par for the Koch.

Quincy Quarry has undertaken another nuanced review of embattled Quincy incumbent Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s campaign fund reports filings with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (“OCPF”) and has so has uncovered a number of concerns.

In particular, within the so-called Koch Committee’s most recent 2015 filings to the OCPF.

Key motivations for this review include the Quarry finding it most curious that embattled Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch clearly appears to be on track to spend somewhere north – and probably far north of – $400.000.00 this election season so as to attempt to save his problematic as well as now clearly problems-laden political career.

Protesting for jobs for local workers
A Facebook photo

$400,000.00 – and probably a whole lot more – to run for mayor of Quincy.

Whoddathunk that he had that many friends left and who were also still willing to cough up such big bucks?!?

Then again, as words on the street and otherwise suggest that he is in trouble to merely survive the primary in September, much less November’s General Election, perhaps $400,000.00 –  or more – is woefully insufficient even if it works out to spending an unprecedented $40.00 – or more – per hoped to be successfully solicited vote given previous election voter turnouts.

Whether – or not – he can fool local voters yet again remains to be seen.

In the meanwhile, following are troubling as well as specific findings.

One is that the Koch Committee has filed seven revisions (so far, ed.) of its most recent full year report (Calendar Year 2014) to OCPF so as to attempt– mostly unsuccessfully – to fully correct errata in its previous filings, including its original year end filing.

Campaign Finance
A wemu.org image

Apparently, eight times must be the charm.

In turn, these seven 2014 report amendment filing do-overs break the Koch’s Committee’s previous record of submitting five amended filings for both its original Pre-Election (and but seven weeks long) 2011 report filing as well as its final two months of 2011 Post-Election report.

While report amendment OCPF report filings are not new to the Koch Committee – it has averaged exactly three filings per each of its 9 reports filed through February of 2015 given audit reviews by the OCPF and perhaps unilateral filed filings by the Koch Committee – the Koch Committee’s number of mulligans can only cause one pause.

Special interests
A Wyatt Hagen jam from bgsu.edu

Quincy Quarry has reached out to OCPF for comment on where the Koch Committee ranks with other OCPF filers when it comes to mulligan amendment filings; however, OCPF was tight-lipped as regards offering comment.

At the same time, however, OCPF did follow up otherwise by asking for more particulars on a variety of shortcomings experienced by Quincy Quarry when it endeavored to specifically search contributors’ contributions to him and others within the official OCPF databases.

Further troubling,  the Koch Committee’s very first OCPF report filing continues to not financially line up with its second report lo these many years and multiple OCPF reviews of Koch Committee report filings later.

Whether – or not – OCPF operates under some manner of statute of limitations constraints could not be confirmed in time to meet Quincy Quarry publication deadlines.

Well-ploughed as usual City Hall VIP parking
A Quincy Quarry News file file

Additionally, while the various 2015 Koch Committee campaign fund bank account reports submitted through July 30 2015 do note a total of $301,752.55 in contributions shaken down and $210,345.85 in spending, nowhere do any Koch OCPF campaign fund filings specifically as well as obviously note any payment(s) for timely – if not also special – snow plowing.

For example, to pay for the special plowing that was done to help facilitate a decent rate of return on a $6,890.30 food and beverage expense incurred for a fundraising event held last winter at a certain neighborhood club in Quincy Center.

Another President Raygun, Han Solo – whatever
A Pinterest image

Then again, the Koch Committee has in the past both long carried unpaid over years as well as also lost for at time along the way a $10,000 bill due and payable to former political advisor Raygun Prevarications.

Similarly, the Quincy Quarry has yet to be able to determine why the locally-resident President of Raygun Prevarications apparently no longer has anything to do with Mayor Koch, at least not on an officially paid basis.  After all, Raygun is widely considered to be the top fast shooting – and often from below the belt – flack-firing hired gun PR flack in Massachusetts.

Given the need to cover embattled incumbent Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s considerable backside, one can only assume that the apparent loss of the best hired gun in town presents heightened security problems for the embattled incumbent.

Further troubling is that if after well over 8 years of campaigning that the Koch Committee cannot successfully keep its books for a piddling and typically averaging but a low 6 figure periodic budget, one can only assume massive – if not exponentially greater – problems with the Koch Maladministration’s maladministration of the City of Quincy’s all-inclusive budget in excess of $320 million (off the books Water and Sewer Departments operations included, ed.).

A Quincy pothole
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

Even further troubling are valid concerns about the quality of fiduciary management by the Koch Maladministration of the many tens of millions more in off the city budget’s books.

These many tens of millions not noted in the City of Quincy’s annual budget books include state and federal funding provided for local schools, roads, and other sorts of miscellaneous pork, much less the further tens of millions it is spending on its all but invariably running late and/or over budget debt-funded capital projects.

A Yellow Rat Mole
Yes, an actual animal

As for going granular with its review of Koch Committee’s reported campaign funding and spending, Quincy Quarry duly scrutinized the official filings as best it could as – obviously – any possible second set of books has yet to be made available to the Quarry by its rat mole French Kiss or any other of the rats jumping the ship.

Troubling as well as specific findings include the following.

Per a review of the most recent (7/16 – 7/31/2015, ed.)  bank account activity report filed with the OCPF by the Koch Committee, over 67% of the campaign tithe received by the Koch Committee was noted as coming from out of town and thus likely to be fraught with special interests contributors with concurrent special expectations.

Special interests
A ThePeoplesVoice.org graphic image

Further, these out of town and thus suspected to be mostly special interests campaign fund contributors contributed on average $366.99 each and thus over 82% larger than from those cited as Quincy residents average contribution of $201.49 each.

It must also be noted that many of the local residents are current or former City of Quincy employees as well as that many other listed local contributors are known to have all manner of financial interests dependent on their various sorts of involvements and other sorts of wheeling and dealings both in the Q in general and/or within City Hall in particular.

Additionally, as well as has been variously covered, Koch OCPF report filings specifically document that special interests contributions include tens of thousands of contributions from parties tied to the no bid contractors who were paid millions by the City of Quincy to do a less than aces job of clearing snow in the Q last winter.

Other special interest contributions not only include the usual suspects, but also thousands in contributions from both reported federal grand jury suspects as well as other suspect parties with documented problematic track records and whom Quincy Quarry further understands off the record are currently facing further review by at least one other sort of government officials.

Diane Wilkerson cash contribution chest
A US Department of Justice evidence photo

Certain other contributions are otherwise suspect, including funds both provided by and/or bundled by parties hoping for a city bailout buyout of a piece of their property a la the 20 Furnace Avenue bailout of one of the mayor’s childhood friends and who was at the time facing a foreclosure auction of this property.

This latest proposed curious use of city funds for yet another suspect land deal is also arguably being enabled, if not also perhaps at least co-grifted, by Quincy’s number one ward heeler.

Quincy Quarry crack-addled team has also followed the money as to where it has (officially, ed.) been reported as having been spent.

As one can only properly suspect, the spending habits appear to both be excessive in general as expected as well as unexpectedly excessive in at least some specific instances.

Who you gonna call? ©
A Columbia Pictures image

Expected excessive spendings include retaining three campaign consultants as well as pollster.

Unexpected excess spending, on the other hand, in the latest reporting period was that 44% of the (reported, ed.) Koch Committee outlays were food and beverage related.

Granted, embattled Mayor Thomas P. Koch has long been known for his gourmand appetites, but this massive portion of his campaign spending was well beyond Quincy Quarry’s wildest snarky expectations given its long following of Koch’s profligate spending habits.

Gourmand Pu Pu Platter
A picture of food

At the same time, the massive amount of spending on food and beverage did goes a long way to explain the massive as well arguably unprecedented level of spending on Koch Committee habits.

Further interesting, if not also telling, was that it would appear that spending by the Koch Committee to raise campaign funds entailed such a high portion of its expenses that this high level of fund raising expense would all but assuredly be found suspect by the Massachusetts Attorney General if it were a charitable funds raising entity.

Then again, as buying votes with bar tabs is (technically, ed.) against the law but doing so with food isn’t, Quincy Quarry can thus only properly note that in at least this regard the Koch Committee might be abiding by the rules.

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