At certain points throughout a campaign season, finance reports are due.  These exist so that voters and journalists can examine who is supporting a candidate.  They also give insight into a candidates priorities.  There is a penalty for getting these in late: $10 per day, capped at $250.  This is peanuts for a campaign raising tens of thousands of dollars, like a race to become state representative, for example.

Why is this germane to the Daily Hag?  Well, when I went looking for one of Kevin’s reports during the election, it wasn’t available.  Why?  It wasn’t submitted on time.  Why?  Because the penalty is maxed out at $250 and any politician with something to hide has a strategic decision to make:  Is it worth or not to pay $250 to file late, so that voters can’t get a look at the inner workings of my campaign?

Haggerty made that cynical decision.

And now I know why.

Every so often, I’ll check local candidates’ finance reports just to see who donates or who didn’t pay what bill.  Haggerty recently trolled some Farina supporters by sending out letters asking them to sponsor an upcoming wine tasting he’s having, to the tune of $1,000.  It was a waste of a stamp, but vintage, vindictive Kevin.  Word got back to me, and I wondered: why have such a big dollar fundraiser?  He doesn’t really have competition in the fall.  He’s a shoe-in.  So I checked this report.  The one he filed late.

Haggerty has unpaid campaign debts going back to 2012, totaling a little over $30,000.  Let me stress that this is not normal.  If the average person didn’t bother paying a bill, you’d bet there would be penalties.  Not so for Kevin.  The oldest and largest debt goes back to 2012.  It’s for about $12,500.  Then there are simple things, like not paying his campaign’s internet bill (about $125).

Here’s why I find this so egregious: Kevin paid HIMSELF back for a loan he made to his campaign before paying his debts to others.  For the people who Kevin owes money, I’m sure it’s insulting.  For me, it’s just another item on the long list that reveals Kevin’s character (or lack thereof).

That’s why he didn’t want voters seeing his report.  That’s why he didn’t want them to be informed.

The title image is pretty ironic, and fitting.  The pennies he prioritizes are the ones he puts in his own pocket.

Further, for reasons I cannot fathom, Haggerty listed his wife’s profession on the report as self-employed (which she is), but failed to note that she’s a teacher in the Riverside School District, where I work.  Why hide that she’s a teacher?  I’m not saying this is suspicious, or wrong, I just don’t understand the reasoning.

If you want to peruse Haggerty’s reports for yourself, you can do so here.  You’ll notice that since he began running years and years ago, he hasn’t bothered paying many of his bills.  One such unpaid bill made headlines in the Times.  I wrote about it here.  But this was small potatoes compared to the rest of the checks he ran out on.  Simply put: Fiscal responsibility isn’t Kevin’s thing.  (Nor is actually showing up to Harrisburg and doing his job.)

Kevin’s temperament does not lend itself to public service.  Or much else.  Perusing his finance reports just adds on to the massive pile of reasons he needs to quit public life, lest he keep doing disservice after disservice to the people he will represent.

A 30-day post primary report was due two days ago.

We’ll see if this one is in on time, and what tidbits it’ll have for us.  Stay tuned.