Montco Commissioners Fundraising

The Montgomery County commissioners race is starting to heat up. Margaret Gibbons has written two very illuminating articles for PhillyBurbs on the campaigns' fundraising efforts.

"Commissioner campaign coffers filling up," (5/11/2011) focuses on the Republican side of the ticket, in particular Lower Merion Township Commissioner Jenny Brown, who has received $80,000 from charter school advocate Vahan Gureghian.

"Democratic pair financially outpace GOP duo," (6/20/2011) focuses on the Democratic side. In the most recent one month reporting period Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards brought in over $130,000, primarily from new contributions and not transfers from campaign funds from previous elections.

The Inky's Jeremy Roebuck noted in "Montco Republican donors have opened their pockets - to Democrats," (5/31/2011) that in a previous reporting period 12% of Shapiro / Richards donations came from "high profile Republican sources."

Montco doesn't seem to post campaign finance reports so we are dependent on our reporter friends for information. I encourage voters to read up on who is funding the campaigns and to follow the story through the election season.