NEW: Speaker Fox Campaign Spent Nearly $70,000 Since Oct. 1
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
House Speaker Gordon Fox won re-election by 16 points against Independent candidate Mark Binder, but it wasn’t cheap.
Fox spent $69,938.11 between Oct. 1 and Dec. 4 and $139,371.31 during the calendar year, according to a campaign finance report filed today. The Speaker now has $173,655.24 cash on hand.
Fox’s largest expenses during the campaign included $9,000 to the Hamilton Group, the consulting firm run by Peter Baptista and Nick Hemond; $7,500 to True North Communications, which is run by campaign spokesman Bill Fischer; and $5,000 to Fleming & Associates.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFox also spent $3,000 on the law firm Hamel, Waxler, Allen & Collins, which he hired after a Connecticut man originally failed to disclose that he was behind a scathing radio that ran on WPRO. Fox would go on to file multiple complaints with the Board of Elections against Binder.
Last week, Fox named Susan Pegden of Hamel, Waxler, Allen & Collins as his chief legal counsel.
In the month leading up to Election Day, the Fox/Binder battle in District 4 became the marquee General Assembly race of the year, with Binder accusing the Speaker of losing touch with his progressive values and him his connection to the 38 Studios fiasco.
Of the four precincts in District 4, Fox lost one polling location by 40 votes and won two others by 196 votes and 36 votes, respectively. The Speaker won the fourth precinct, Martin Luther King School, by 830 votes.
Dan McGowan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @danmcgowan.