Hardy campaign borrowed money from GOP chairman
Although the Joe Hardy for commissioner campaign spent more than $300,000 and ended the post-election reporting period with a $101,000 cash balance, it needed to borrow $1,300 from Fayette County GOP Chairman Christopher Sepesy on Election Day to pay poll workers. Some other candidates in the six-way Republican field are questioning the wisdom of Sepesy’s action in what was supposed to be an open primary. They say it reflects poor judgment and can be construed as favoritism.
According to his last campaign finance report, Hardy paid $1,300 to Sepesy on June 9 for “Election Day activities.” Sepesy said that he loaned the money from his personal funds on May 20, after members of the Hardy campaign made the request while visiting him at Republican Party headquarters.
“It was a gross irony,” said Sepesy, referring to the fact that the ultra-wealthy entrepreneur of 84 Lumber Co. and Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa fame heavily bankrolled his own campaign. “I was at the (party) headquarters. The Hardy campaign asked if we had any cash to lend, because they had run out of actual cash for poll workers.
“I personally lent the Hardy campaign the cash. I would have done it for any other Republican candidate’s campaign as well. That (money) was strictly for Election Day activities.”
Sepesy said that when the request for emergency cash came in, around 5 p.m., he was the only person who had immediate access to a bank branch that was open at that time. He stressed that he did not loan the money out of party funds, but from his own bank account.
“It came out of me, specifically. It was just a loan of emergency cash. It was not a contribution,” said Sepesy. “The (other) banks were closed. I was the only one who could go to the National City (Bank). We were all kind of chuckling about that.”
Kim Ward, Hardy’s campaign manager and a veteran of Westmoreland County politics, said the Hardy camp needed the Sepesy cash because of a different method in paying poll workers in the two counties. Ward said that in Westmoreland, she usually never paid poll workers unless she first saw them working at the polls, whereas in Fayette they traditionally get paid differently.
“Poll workers (in Fayette) were lined up. But not everybody was paid by then,” said Ward of the 5 p.m. situation in the Hardy camp. “We were sitting there and said we needed it. (Chris) said, ‘I can lend it to you, but I need it right back.’ And we did (that).
“They did borrow some money from Chris Sepesy, because we needed it fast. Chris loaned it to the campaign and Joe paid him back. That’s funny, isn’t it?”
Ward estimated that the Hardy campaign had 148 poll workers lined up for Election Day activities.
Sepesy said that under the same circumstances, he would have helped out any other candidate. But his action doesn’t wash completely with Republican commission candidates Donald Miller II, Angela M. Zimmerlink and Dave Lohr.
Miller said that as a former member of the county’s Republican committee, he thinks that a full accounting of the expenditure of party funds through Election Day would be in order.
“It absolutely is not the correct way to do business. Chris should have never done that,” said Miller. “As a Republican and a past member of the Republican committee, I would have demanded a full accounting of the funds of the Republican Party, up to and including Election Day, just to ensure that nothing was intermingled.”
Miller said that Sepesy’s action will be disappointing to the five other Republican candidates in the field, who now have confirmation that Hardy was apparently the party’s “chosen candidate.” Miller said the situation should be of double concern to Zimmerlink, who finished second to Hardy to secure the other GOP nomination on the fall ballot.
“She’s still in the hunt. If I were her, I’d be worried if she would be treated on the same status as Joe Hardy,” said Miller. “Chris should have known that that would have looked bad on the records anyway, and that should not have happened. I’m surprised that it did.
“Quite frankly, that’s not the way it’s supposed to function. Of all people that needed money to pay poll workers, the Hardy campaign should have had more money available than any of the candidates, Democrat or Republican.”
Miller said that had Hardy asked him for money, “I would have told him, ‘Go to the bank. That’s where I get my money from.’ I don’t understand that (need to borrow from Sepesy) … it makes no sense to me.”
Zimmerlink said that while she won’t dispute the account given by Sepesy and Ward, people would have to draw their own conclusions regarding their explanation of why the party chairman needed to loan the well-funded Hardy campaign a small sum of cash on Election Day.
“I think that Chris’ explanation is going to raise a lot of eyebrows. It raised mine,” said Zimmerlink. “I would think that the people who were involved in this campaign – I know that they weren’t novices. Even Kim Ward as the campaign manager has experience behind her. It’s somewhat hard to believe that three hours before the polls close, no one has money to pay poll workers.
“But if that’s the explanation that Chris Sepesy is going to give, and Kim Ward is not going to counter that, the rest of us are going to have to sit back, think about it and make up our own minds,” concluded Zimmerlink.
Lohr, who finished third in the GOP primary, said that Sepesy used “poor judgment” and that his involvement in Hardy’s campaign could hurt the party’s efforts to attract viable candidates in the future.
“If everything actually happened as he and Kim have said, the appearance still raises questions of the party chairman supporting one candidate over others,” said Lohr. “The Republican Party in Fayette County can’t afford this stuff. Just the appearance of an endorsement hurts the party’s ability to put candidates in office, because it discourages them from running.”
Lohr also said that Hardy’s immense wealth might have overshadowed all conventional logic, even for Sepesy.
“Maybe Chris’ judgment was clouded, as it was with many other people, because of the money spent by one candidate,” said Lohr. “Maybe he should have thought a little bit more before he made that step. It’s not like Joe Hardy needed more poll workers.”
GOP commission candidates John Evans and Ken Firestone did not return calls seeking comment.