Figures filed by the Re-Elect Kuhn Solicitor campaign committee show that of the $36,250 the committee has raised, only $950 of that amount was contributed by only four donors. Kuhn himself has either contributed or loaned his campaign committee $35,300. In other words, Kuhn is providing 97% of the money his campaign committee has raised up to this point.
The four donors listed are John R. Stevenson, of West Portsmouth; Kenneth R. Rase, who does not live in Portsmouth; Phyllis Van Quill of Portsmouth; and Julie A. Conley, of Wheelersburg. So only one of the four donors is from Portsmouth. Ken Rase is the appraiser whose name will forever be linked to the Marting swindle. It is fitting that Kuhn's campaign would be connected to Marting's, since Kuhn helped make the swindle possible.
Among the expenditures the Kuhn campaign committee had made up to Oct. 25, when the filing was made, $10,072 went to the Portsmouth Daily Times and the Community Common, which are now owned by the same company. Thousands more will be paid to those newspapers by election day.
Why is Kuhn spending so much money to get himself elected to a job that pays around $50,000? The answer may be that Kuhn is not really spending that much money. When the final financial report is made by his campaign committee, after the election, the names of other donors will likely appear. Kuhn will probably have more than four donors and the amount those yet to be named donors will contribute will be more, maybe far more than $950. The loans he is making to his campaign will be paid back to him. Paid back by whom? That's what he doesn't want the voters to know until after the election.
Why will more money flow into his campaign committee? Because in order for the SOGP circle of friends to continue to maintain their stranglehold on city government and on the economic life of Portsmouth, Kuhn must be the City Solicitor. He is the Enabler. By doing nothing and screwing up the little that he does do, he serves the interest of those who know how to buy elections through the news media and how to make a mockery of the democratic process.
City Solicitor Sitting on His Ass as Usual.
