County Commissioner Primary Costs: $31,141.23 Expended among Six Candidates

LOCK HAVEN – Spring campaign finance reports filed with the county show that unsuccessful Clinton County Commissioner candidate Michele Whitney spent considerably more than the five other candidates in the primary field. In all, the six candidates expended $31,141.23.

The filings for the May primary are public record at Clinton County’s Piper Building. They show Whitney expended $13,988.92 in seeking one of the two Republican nominations for commissioner. She finished third in a 4-way race, incumbent Jeff Snyder on top and former commissioner Miles Kessinger securing the second of the two nominations. Mitch Christensen finished in fourth place in the GOP field.

There were two Democrats running for that party’s two nominations, incumbent commissioner Paul Conklin and political newcomer Angela Harding. Uncontested in the May 5 primary, they spent the least amount of money.

The other five candidates combined totaled $17,157.31 in their expenditures.

Tabulations from the pre-and-post primary filings show these amounts expended:

Michele Whitney (R), $13,983.92

Friends of Jeff Snyder (R), $7,297.11

Friends of Mitch Christensen/Mitch Christensen (R), $5,996.65

Miles Kessinger (R), $2,614.42

Committee for Paul Conklin (D), $1,249.13

Angela Harding (D), $0

The reports showed all the candidates were in the black financially at the end of the reporting periods, other than Whitney whose filing with the county showed a deficit of $11,393.92 as of her June post-election filing report.

Registered voters in November will choose among the four finalists to select three commissioners to take office in 2020.