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Politics & Government

County GOP Candidates Seem to Share One Thing

...and that's a history of shaky finances, says columnist Jon Geeting.

It is starting to look like the Northampton County Republican Party thinks mismanaging money is an important credential for its political candidates.

Earlier this year my colleague Bernie O'Hare exposed some  about Republican councilman Bruce Gilbert's financial history that led John Stoffa to withdraw the councilman's nomination for fiscal affairs Director. This culminated in Mr. Gilbert resigning from council's finance committee.

Then this week we learned that Matt Connolly, the race car driver running for Council in District 3, is chronically delinquent on his taxes.

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Mr. Connolly's business, Matt Connolly Motorsports, is in arrears for 2010 municipal, county and school district taxes on three properties, and still owes real estate taxes on one of these properties from 2009.  This became an issue in Mr. Connolly's failed state Senate bid against Lisa Boscola in 2010, and now it is an issue in his race against Lamont McClure.

But Steve Salvesen, the Republican candidate for Controller, seems to have perfected the brand of fiscal acumen prized by the NorCo Republicans.

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Mr. Salvesen has had multiple debts settled in bankruptcy (PA-ED 99023780), and he  recently paid off a $22,065.97 IRS lien against him  right before getting into the Controller race in 2010 (CV-2004-06378).

There is also an outstanding lien against Mr. Salvesen's business, Salvesen Enterprises, for $1,993.86 from a bad check he wrote to Jaspar Transmission for $1,603.60. Mr. Salvesen promised to make installment payments for this debt, but never did (CV-2001-01284).

The PA Department of Labor and Industry has also filed a claim against Salvesen Enterprises for $5,121.39, and it is not clear whether this claim has been satisfied. (CV-1999-08029)

While there's only so much we can infer from this about how Mr. Salvesen would manage Northampton County's finances, it is noteworthy that he has been fired from the last two government positions he has held.

If this is the sort of guy the Northampton County Republicans think would make a good Controller, I wonder if they are planning to recruit Buddy Lambert to run for County Executive in 2013.

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