Doherty spent $60 per vote in mayoral primary
Published: June 25, 2009
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Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty
Winning the Democratic and Republican nominations for a third term as mayor cost Mayor Chris Doherty almost $60 a vote, or almost five times the amount spent by his chief challenger, former City Councilman Gary DiBileo.
All told, the mayor raised $608,077 and spent $569,430.91 compared to $100,325.19 raised and $100,195.99 spent by Mr. DiBileo.
Mr. Doherty, who raised more than $501,000 in the first four months of this year, added another $106,269 in the one-month period between May 5 and June 8. Having started the year with $42,523.50, he had a cash balance of $81,169.59 at the end of the period.
Mr. Doherty received 8,707 Democratic votes. His Republican write-in votes totaled 1,225, counting most variations of his name, elections director Maryann Spellman Young said. That's a total of 9,932 votes. Based on his spending, the votes cost $57.33 each.
Mr. DiBileo, who raised more than $67,000 in the first four months, added $33,284.39 in the latest period. He started the year with $111.10 and finished with $240.30. He received 7,758 Democratic votes and 519 Republican votes for a total of 8,277. With his spending, the votes cost him $12.11 each.
Jeff Brauer, a Keystone College political science professor, said all the spending clearly gave the mayor an advantage and proved to be worth it because he won both nominations and avoided a tough fall campaign.
"I think he made much better use of his money (than in 2005)," Mr. Brauer said. "I think his message was more focused."
Mr. Doherty had to spend big to overcome Mr. DiBileo's endorsement by the city Democratic Party.
"He's a bit of an outsider in his own party," Mr. Brauer said.
Mr. Doherty agreed he had to spend to overcome Mr. DiBileo's endorsement.
"Obviously, we had a great challenge in the first place. We weren't endorsed, and we had to get our message out," the mayor said. "I'm running against the party, and they had a lot of advantages."
Efforts to reach Mr. DiBileo were unsuccessful.
Republican businessman Bob Bolus, who was on the ballot but lost to Mr. Doherty's write-in votes, spent $3,750 of his own money in the latest period.
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com
Finance details
Here is a summary of candidates' campaign finance reports from major local election races that will be contested this fall. (Activity between Jan. 1 and June 8).
Lackawanna County judge
n Frank Castellano: started with zero; raised $152,764.32; spent $147,306.80.
n Margaret Bisignani Moyle: started with zero; raised $122,781.67; spent $121,385.59. Includes $900 of her own money spent separately from campaign committee.
n John Pesota: started with zero; raised $115,235; spent $109,124.14. His totals include $5,350 of his own money spent separately from his campaign committee.
n Jim Tierney: started with zero, raised $241,760; spent $235,893.71.
Scranton City Council
n Councilwoman Janet Evans: started with $2,634.06; raised $13,695.93; spent $16,228.72.
n Councilwoman Sherry Nealon Fanucci: started with zero; raised and spent $10,226.
n Councilwoman Judy Gatelli: started with $501.95; raised $11,039; spent $10,805.15.
n Frank Joyce: started with zero; raised $6,621.65; spent $6,575.22. Includes $3,291.77 of his own money spent separately from his committee.
n Patrick Rogan: started with zero; raised $9,685.70; spent $10,006.54. Includes $4,936.70 of his own money spent separately from his committee.
n Tom Charles and Doug Miller filed no reports.
16 posted comments
Lets think about this for a second: Janet Evans voted down every KOZ so far. She also wants to get rid of NCC who collects back taxes from violaters who havent paid taxes in years. Her only way of creating revenue is by cutting a few Upper Management jobs within the administration which will put even more work on Dept heads that will have to absorb their work which then will fall back on the "union" employees. Oh no, not the union workers!!!Now, Chris Phillips and Janet Evans big idea is to start taxing every property owned by the U of S, Marywood, LJC. If this would happen, these institutions would just turn around and increase tuition and put the burden on the Student and in turn, probably shy away students who would otherwise think of coming to these colleges or Universities. These kids pump Millions and Millions of Dollars into our economy every year. So is Chris Phillips and Janet Evans are as good as everyone thinks? Thats for you to decide folks! Tell your friends to read my comment.
It was a message of lies that once again the sheep of Scranton bought. The Pied Piper of Greenridge fooled Scranton again. Because of all the free advertising given by this rag of a paper King Chris has no opposition and has purchased the position of Mayor of Scranton once again.