Money secrets abound in 2015 races

First of two articles.

Philadelphia's May primary election was officially each party's chance to nominate candidates for mayor, City Council, row offices, and local courts.

Unofficially, it was a feeding frenzy.

With so many candidates on the ballot - 102 - who spent so much money - $27 million and counting - it was the best of times for the apparatchiks of the city's Democratic Party.

The candidates for mayor pretty much ignored the party organization and spent millions buying TV ads. But lesser-known candidates for Council seats and judgeships forked over millions just to win support at the ward level.

A review of election spending by the Next Mayor project revealed it to be the worst of times, at least when it came to obeying the law.

Here is a summary of what was found:

Untraceable spending. A wad of money - probably in excess of $750,000 - simply disappeared. There is no record of how it was raised or spent, because so many wards and political action committees ignored the state's campaign finance law and failed to file any reports. In fact, 26 of the city's 69 Democratic wards failed to file. That should be a cause of concern for U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, the Democratic Party chair. It obviously is not. The 34th Ward, which Brady leads, did not file.

Missing cash. This was money that was recorded as being given by a candidate to a ward or a PAC, but it never appeared in the recipient's filings. It remains missing in action.

Stealth PACs. A number of mystery PACs, under a melange of names and acronyms, emerged to raise and spend money, but again failed to file reports or register with the state as required by law. One was the appropriately named Enigma PAC.

Consultants Inc. Consultants have always been part of the political landscape. This year, it was hard to read through a candidate's spending report without coming across a half-dozen names labeled consultant. One large PAC hired a dozen ward leaders as "election consultants" and paid them fees ranging from $2,000 to $10,000.

Former ward leaders have served as consultants for years, mostly to act as Sherpa guides to help candidates navigate the treacherous terrain of the wards.

Former U.S. Rep. Michael "Ozzie" Myers falls into this category. Myers, who lost his House seat and went to jail in the early 1980s for his role in the Abscam scandal, has offered political guidance to clients for the last 15 years.

It was a very good year for Myers. He had eight clients, most of them judicial candidates, who paid him $124,000 in fees. Even Myers, 72, who has seen a lot in his time, is unhappy with the current state of affairs. "The whole political system gets worse and gets weaker," he lamented.

He also scoffs at the profusion of consultants.

"All you need to do these days is have one person write you a check and you call yourself a 'consultant.' "

Speaking of which, there is Ed Nesmith, Democratic leader of South Philadelphia's Second Ward, who decided to become a consultant this year. "I never charged people for advice before," he said. "But I woke up and realized that everyone else was doing it, so I decided to do it, too."

Nesmith got $35,000 in fees, with most coming from Ori Feibush, the Point Breeze developer who ran against Second District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson. Feibush spent more than $700,000 but got only 38 percent of the vote.

Nesmith also was behind one of the mystery PACs, called C.O.P.S., which stands for Citizens Organizing for Pennsylvania Securities. The PAC registered with the state in 2007 but hasn't filed a campaign finance report for years. In this election cycle, C.O.P.S. took in $96,000 - with $86,000 coming from Feibush.

(Though there are no official records about C.O.P.S., the Next Mayor obtained information on this PAC and others that failed to file by examining the 400-plus campaign finance reports filed by candidates in the primary.)

Feibush said he had an agreement that Nesmith would field 500-plus street workers on Election Day to roust out voters. Vans were to be rented to shuttle the workers, supervisors were to be hired. There was even $7,000 set aside for food.

Feibush said Nesmith failed to live up to their agreement. After Nesmith spurned his repeated requests for receipts to verify what was spent, Feibush said, he has decided to take the ward leader to court.

Nesmith said he had receipts for every dollar spent, though he was initially vague about C.O.P.S. "It is a mystery to me," he said when asked about C.O.P.S. and its filing status.

In a second conversation, he said he did know about C.O.P.S., but said it did file disclosure reports with the city and the state. In fact, it did not. Nesmith's Second Ward also failed to file.

Though C.O.P.S. took in just under $100,000 during the primary, that was small potatoes compared to larger, aboveground political action committees.

A PAC called Genesis IV spent $325,000 in the primary, and Liberty Square PAC spent $409,000, with most of it going to a coterie of wards and ward leaders. Who was behind these PACs?

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, these were committees of ward leaders, by ward leaders, and for ward leaders.

To quote a less august politician, the maxim that applied in this year's primary was first uttered 100 years ago by Tammany Hall boss George Washington Plunkitt: "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em."

Tomorrow: More on the uses and abuses of political money in the primary.

Tom Ferrick writes columns for the Next Mayor, a collaborative project hosted by Philly.com and made possible by a grant from the Wyncote Foundation.