How Sharon spent her campaign funds. Click to enlarge.
Between May 9 and May 13, Assemblyman Jerry Green loaned Sharon Robinson-Briggs $20,000.
Why?
Because Robinson-Briggs' campaign was bankrupt!
Plainfield's first woman mayor, touted as having a $150,000 war chest was broke.
What happened?
In a word, Sharon literally ate her way through the most money any Plainfield mayor has ever had at their fingertips.
I owe Olddoc a big tip 'o the hat for putting me on the trail. When he mentioned the dollar amount in his Sunday post (see here), something clicked. If Sharon is spending $150,000 on the mayoral primary, why doesn't it feel like it?
Why the cheesy signs? Why the skimpy mailings? Why no barrage of 30-second spots on Comcast? Why indeed!
I went looking...and to my surprise found out the lady is broke. Here is a quick breakout of her expenses as gathered from her Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) reports from after she was elected in 2005 up to last week's most current report.
| CATEGORY | AMOUNT |
| Food/Entertainment | $88,687.53 |
| Campaign Consultant | 28,100.00 |
| Tickets | 9,533.00 |
| Reimburse Sharon | 5,330.57 |
| Other | 23,716.70 |
Anyone who knows Jerry can just imagine the pain and anger with which he wrote out that check. They can imagine Sharon having to almost pry it from his clenched fist.
The rest of us can now know for a fact that Sharon has managed her own campaign funds just the way she has managed Plainfield for the last three and a half years -- wastefully, irresponsibly and without thought of the future.
One more reason she has to go.
Amazing sidebar: It is allowable to use campaign funds for both campaign expenses and the 'usual costs' of holding public office. Interesting to find that Mayor Sharon thought to pay a New York City TRAFFIC TICKET on August 22, 2007 (with check #1125). Was it a campaign expense? Or one of the 'usual costs' of holding public office?
-- Dan Damon
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2 comments:
Great blogging Dan! . . . since this mayoral primary, I can't get through a day without reading your blog. But . . . no news on Sunday's mayoral forum?
10:50 --
Sorry this slipped thru the cracks and I'm posting it on 6/12 -- 11 days late!!!
I was not able to make the forum, hence no post, but I was told by some attendees that the [small] was jam-packed and that attendance at this Sharon-friendly group (she was prez for many years) was mainly New Dems.
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