The Choice I'll Never Have to Make

Wow, that was fast! I know I'm facing off against a well-funded opponent in the race for Upper Macungie Twp. Supervisor (after all it is being financed by the Doug Reichley campaign committee) but I really am impressed by the speed with which they react.

My wife Deb and I spent a romantic Saturday night driving around the township putting up some campaign signs.  (It's one of the things you do when you're financing your own campaign; it really helps to have a supportive spouse!) 

We tried our best to be respectful of things like private property, right of way at intersections and not to block other candidates campaign signs, including my opponent's.

By 7:00 Sunday night the signs that Deb and I put out were buried within a sea of Reichley-Rader-Osborne-and whatever else they had in the trunk campaign signs.  Whoever the Reichley team is paying to put their signs out is doing a great job.  I understand that this is part of the game and I'm not complaining about any of these campaign tactics.  But I do think this is a good example of a very important point. 

I mentioned earlier that Mrs. Rader's campaign is being funded by the Reichley campaign.  The sole donation to her campaign committee in the spring primary was $1,000 from the "Friends of Reichley".  This is the same "Friends of Reichley" for which Mrs. Rader is the campaign treasurer.  So as treasurer of the Reichley campaign she wrote herself a check for her campaign. 

There's nothing wrong or illegal about that I guess, but it does make you wonder if her priorities are really with the citizens of Upper Macungie Twp or with the guy who's financing her campaign. 

I attended a meeting recently between a local developer who contributes a lot of money to political candidates.  Representative Reichley attended that meeting and pushed township officials to support the request for a zoning change that would benefit the developer. 

This wasn't a meeting where any kind of vote would be taken, but if it were would Mrs. Rader really vote against her sponsor?  Or would she feel compelled to support the guy who was contributing money to both of the campaigns with which she's affiliated?  That's one of the reasons I decided to self-finance my campaign and not accept donations.  When people give you money they expect that favor to be returned. 

As a candidate you can tell yourself that those donations won't factor into your decision making process.  I guess you never really know until the time comes if that's true.  As Township Supervisor I know that's one dilemma I'll never have to face.

Time to go put together some more signs.  If you'd like one for your yard let me know and I'll be right over!