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— Quincy Massachusetts News by Quincy Quarry News – News, Opinion and Commentary
Checking out the holes in the data
A 2000 election Free Republic image
In advance of the mandatory monthly campaign spending report filings with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (“OCPF”) of campaign spending this week for the month of October and so before the traditional go to polling places to vote Election Day next week, Quincy Quarry took a close look at the spending by each of Quincy’s two mayoral candidates’ overall spending through last month.
Challenger at Large City Councillor Anne Mahoney’s campaign spending was a quick and easy read.
Her spending in 2023 thru September per OCPF is a bit less than $40,000 while raising just short of $75,000 so far, a showing of financial prudence consistent with her long practice as an elected official even if a bit on the light side for mayoral candidates running for election in most any other Massachusetts city the size of Quincy at this point.
Given additional fund raising in the final weeks fo the campaign season to help underwrite campaign expenses, Councillor Mahoney is on track to likely spend no more than a bit over $100,000 on bid to unseat long to overly long incumbent Mayor Thomas P. Koch, formerly known as Tom Koch.
Mayor Koch’s spending, on the other hand, was eyeopening to a point well-past merely gobsmacking.
Cash and carry, the real Quincy Way!
Image via PACEDm.com
Per OCPF data, Koch has spent $587,649.24 this year through September on his latest reelection bid while only raising $463,782.41, also through September.
Fortunately, his penchant for deficit spending has been covered given his fat war chest bank balance at the start of the year.
So far anyway.
Granted, Quincy Quarry understands how the OCPF counts things as well as also how Quincy Votes counts things per their protocols which only follow the money donated and spend during 2023.
In the case of Mayor Koch’s campaign spending, however, such a time-limited count does not include clearly noted as campaign spending made by the Koch campaign fund since the last mayoral election in 2019.
Quincy Quarry News always follows the money!
Image via oxycom.com
Accordingly, Quincy Quarry so found $233,285.10 in payments made by the Koch campaign fund for services rendered just three consulting companies — DAPA Research Inc, Dewey Square Group, and Yellow House Consulting — after the last election through the end of 2022 and thus surely campaign spending for this election.
The Quarry also found other short money outlays unarguably tied to Mayor Koch’s reelection bid this year that were made during 2020, 2021 and 2022.
However, as most of these outlays were a number of mostly two to low-three figure outlays for meals during working campaign meetings per their listings, Quincy Quarry let these likely tens of thousands of dollars slide as the Quarry has bigger fish to that deserve to be fried.
Money to burn, burn rate – whatever
Image via cheatsheet.com
Short count notwithstanding, Mayor Koch has spent at least $820,934.34 to date on his reelection bid and so already breaking his two previous record campaign spendings of north of $700,000.
Given final weeks of campaign spending not yet reported, one can only reasonably assume that Koch will likely spend in excess of a million dollars to buy his reelection to another term in office.
In turn, such spending would be more than three times the next biggest spender in a Massachusetts mayoral election in recent years. In 20019 Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo $329.583 per OCPF data.
The resemblance is uncanny.
An Easy Money Associates/Orion Pictures
Even more troubling, most of Mayor Koch’s war chest is care of out of town donators who also tend to donate at the maximum $1,000 annual limit.
Further troubling is the considerable money taken in by Koch from developers who have in turn often enjoyed favorable to stupendously favorable consideration and incentives from the Koch Machine. Upwards of arguably tens of millions of incentives for just two development companies alone in just Quincy Center, even after the principals of one company were whacked by OCPF for making illegal straw campaign donations.
In short, so much for dissing Revere over its colorful history of shady characters and their curious dealings.
By anyone living in Quincy anyway.
I wonder how many other people are just tossing his junk mail into the recycle bin. I don’t even bring it into the house.
And just imagine all the good Koch could do with the kind of money he’s squandering on promoting his crap/reelection. Quincy needs and deserves better than what he offers — much better.
I wonder how many donuts he had to eat to get all this money