Hardy top spending in race for commissioner
In what likely was the costliest primary election for Fayette County commissioner in history, five Democratic and six Republican candidates accrued $707,594 in cash expenditures, in-kind campaign services, and unpaid debts and obligations. Forty-two percent of that total, however, was traced to winning GOP candidate Joe Hardy, whose campaign racked up $303,705 in expenses and debt, compared to just $34,774 for the rest of the Republican field.
With 4,846 votes to show for that effort, it cost the Hardy campaign $62.67 per vote, by far the highest number in the 11-candidate field. Hardy’s total included $131,175 in unpaid debts and obligations, a huge number by any modern local election standard and comfortably more than the cost of any other candidate’s entire campaign.
According to pre- and post-election expense reports filed with the Fayette County Election Bureau, three Democrats topped $100,000 when the largest category of cash expenditures was combined with the two smaller categories of in-kind services, and unpaid debts and obligations.
Incumbent Vincent A. Vicites led the Democratic pack with a $114,179 campaign that amounted to spending $8.24 for each of his election-leading 13,847 votes. Vicites’ spending amounted to 16.1 percent of the field’s overall total.
Incumbent Sean M. Cavanagh was just behind Vicites in campaign spending, at $113,723, or $13.45 for each of the 8,452 votes he received. Cavanagh, who failed to win the Democrats’ other nomination, spent 16 percent of the field’s total.
Former state Sen. J. William Lincoln, who secured the Democrats’ second nomination in a successful political comeback, fielded a $108,337 campaign that amounted to spending $11.51 for each of his 9,406 votes.
Lincoln’s campaign registered 15.3 percent of the field’s total spending.
Lincoln was the only candidate to show a negative cash balance on his post-election campaign report, at $20,002. He also reported unpaid debts and obligations of $25,000, but Thomas R. Durbin, who prepared Lincoln’s report, would not say if the cash balance of $20,002 was carried as part of the $25,000 listed as unpaid debts and obligations.
“The only way I’d do it is if I’d sit down (in person) with you and Bill,” said Durbin. “I don’t do business over the phone.”
Lincoln, reached by cell phone en route to a meeting in Washington, D.C., had referred questions about his expense report to Durbin.
Calculating Lincoln’s numbers in the three categories in the same manner as every other candidate’s resulted in the $108,337 figure for his primary election campaign.
In total, the five Democrats spent $369,115, and the six Republicans spent $338,479. While Hardy, Vicites, Cavanagh and Lincoln were the heavy hitters, the other seven candidates ran their campaigns on comparative shoestring budgets.
Republican Angela M. Zimmerlink, who won the other GOP nomination, spent just $6,067 in a campaign funded only by herself and her immediate family. Zimmerlink spent $2.90 for each of the 2,085 votes she received, and her campaign represented less than 1 percent of the field’s total spending.
The rest of the Republican field shaped up this way:
– The John Evans campaign spent $13,390, or 1.8 percent of the field’s total, and got 751 votes at a cost of $17.82 per vote.
– The Dave Lohr campaign spent $5,655, or less than 1 percent of the field’s total, and got 1,713 votes at a cost of $3.30 per vote.
– The Donald M. Miller II campaign spent $7,797, or 1 percent of the field’s total, and got 1,641 votes at a cost of $4.75 per vote.
– The Ken Firestone campaign spent a miniscule $1,865, far less than 1 percent of the field’s total, and got 1,040 votes at a cost of $1.79 per vote.
On the Democratic side:
– The Vincent Zapotosky campaign spent $16,431, or 2.3 percent of the field’s total, and got 7,961 votes at a cost of $2.06 per vote.
– The campaign of incumbent Ronald M. Nehls spent $16,445, or 2.3 percent of the field’s total, and got 4,949 votes at a cost of $3.32 per vote.
The job of county commissioner pays approximately $42,000 per year.