Hard Cash, Hard Facts from the last municipal election…
The November 2009 Longmont City Council elections will go down in the history books as the most unscrupulous campaign in recent memory. (See Boulder Weekly, 4/29/10 “Best Example of Dirty Politics”.)
Compare those who spent the most and who had the most spent on their behalf with those who won the office, and the connection between money and politics becomes vividly apparent.
| Cash | In-Kind | ||
| Bill Van Dusen | City Council-At-Large | $3,051 | $605 |
| Kaye Fissinger | City Council-At-Large | $4,242 | $503 |
| Karen Benker | City Council Ward 2 | $7,533 | $474 |
| Roger Lange | Mayor | $4,838 | |
| Independent Expenditure from Deb Gardner | $208 | ||
| Cash | In-Kind | ||
| Gabe Santos | City Council-At-Large | $14,620 | $605 |
| Alex Sammoury | City Council-At-Large | $13,718 | $503 |
| Katie Witt | City Council Ward 2 | $16,557 | $474 |
| Bryan Baum | Mayor | $4,246 | $9,137 |
| Longmont Leadership (Western Tradition Partnership) |
$12,800 |
| Citizens to Elect the Baum | $775 |
| Longmont Citizens for a Brighter Future (Coloradans for Economic Growth) |
$6,700 |
| Longmont Watch | $792 |
Those who won the election and their supporters spent $82,519
Those that lost the election spent $21,454
~ 4 : 1
Almost all of the money spent by the above-identified PACs on the winning candidates was funneled to them through tax-exempt, non-profit 501c4 organizations who can, and do, keep the names of their contributors secret.
It wasn’t the first time that huge amounts were contributed to the winning candidate. The Longmont Realtor PAC gave Councilmember Santos $5,000 for the special election in January 2008.
Whether it’s called quid pro quo or “pay to play,” something very interesting happened when the well-funded, and secretly-funded, candidates claimed their majority. The bank account of the City of Longmont was opened wide. Three lawsuits brought with the intent of providing a false platform for the new majority candidates were settled:
| Western Tradition Partnership, Longmont Leadership Committee, Longmont Area Realtors Association, et al | $68,500 |
| Times-Call, Dean Lehman | $13,500 |
| LifeBridge Church aka Town of Firestone | $100,000 |
| $182,000 |
[...] Operatives and their money came from D.C./Virginia, Montana, and from the Tom DeLay organization, Coalition for a Conservative Majority, who made no secret of its focus and targeting. [...]
[...] began in the 2009 election when the corrupt Western Tradition Partnership bought the council seats for The Baum Squad (Mayor Bryan Baum, Council Members Gabe Santos, Alex Sammoury [...]
[...] Money bought the 2009 elections and it will be used again to attempt to buy the 2011 elections. And they are counting on Longmont voters to be paying attention to anything or everything else and to rely on negative mailers to make their decisions about who should establish policies for their city. You will know which candidates they support by who is negatively targeted. By cui bono. Who benefits? [...]
Everyone belonging to or has close ties to the corrupt western tradition partnership should be tried for treason and other crimes against the people of this country.