Grogan Graffam Attorney Ronald J. Brown Donates to Friends of Tim Mahoney

Posted: Friday, April 15, 2016 by Pezzonovante in Labels: , ,
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Page 10 of The Friends of Tim Mahoney Cycle 2 2016 campaign finance report shows that Attorney Ronald J. Brown of Grogan Graffam, P.C. -- who represented Republican co-objectors Robin Lynn (Guerriere) Amend and Thomas R. Murray II in the nominating petition challenges of State Rep. Tim Mahoney's then-Republican challengers in the 2012 primary, Uniontown businessmen Gary Gearing and Michael Cavanagh -- donated $500.00 to The Friends of Tim Mahoney campaign committee on 04/01/2016.

 Readers will recall that the Friends of Tim Mahoney failed to submit multiple vouchers (i.e., receipted bills that detail the particulars of campaign expenditures).

 Grogan Graffam, P.C. received a $5,000.00 payment on 02/22/2012 from the Friends of Tim Mahoney campaign committee.  This was on the very same day that Brown finalized both nominating petition challenges against Cavanagh and Gearing.

 In multiple challenges, Brown represented the Friends of Tim Mahoney in its tooth-and-nail fight to keep the particulars of the vouchers secret.

 Readers will recall the Voucher Request statute from the PA Election Code:

25 P.S. § 3246 (c):  Vouchers or copies of vouchers for all sums expended amounting to more than twenty-five dollars ($25) shall be retained by the candidate or the committee treasurer and shall be available for public inspection and copying as herein provided. Any person may inspect or copy such vouchers or copies thereof by filing a written request with the appropriate supervisory office which shall notify the candidate or political committee of such request. The candidate or political committee shall have the option of either forwarding such vouchers or copy of the same to the supervisor for such purpose or making the vouchers or copy of the same available to the requesting person. If a candidate or a treasurer of a political committee shall fail to make said vouchers or copies thereof available for inspection and copying when requested by the appropriate supervisory officer, such officer shall direct the candidate or political committee to promptly deliver the vouchers or copies thereof to the supervisory office for purposes of inspection and copying. Costs of copying and costs of delivery by the candidate or treasurer of the requested vouchers or copies thereof shall be borne by the person requesting same.

There are seven instances of "shall" in the statute, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that "shall" has a mandatory, not discretionary meaning under the Election Code.


Yet, Senior Judge Keith B. Quigley -- who himself acknowledged the Pennsylvania Supreme Court case precedent on the meaning of "shall" in one former ruling (2357 CD 2009), and the stringency by which the Election Code must be followed in another order -- ruled (contra the law) that the Legislature did not provide the Secretary of the Commonwealth with the power to make sufficiency determinations regarding voucher submissions under the statute.

See the Fayette Searchlight blog article with the link to Judge Oler's putrid affirmation of the errant opinions in 215 MD 2013 and in 359 MD 2014 reached by Judge Quigley here:


Read carefully this section of above statute:  "If a candidate or a treasurer of a political committee shall fail to make said vouchers or copies thereof available for inspection and copying when requested by the appropriate supervisory officer, such officer shall direct the candidate or political committee to promptly deliver the vouchers or copies thereof to the supervisory office for purposes of inspection and copying."

Basic logic dictates that if the statute tasks the PA-DOS-BCEL with making failure determinations regarding committee voucher submissions, it first must make sufficiency determinations [i.e., one cannot make a failure determination without first making a sufficiency determination as to whether an actual voucher (i.e., a receipted bill for the expenditure showing the particulars of the expenditure)] has been submitted.

Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney's (D-51) Friends of Tim Mahoney campaign committee fought tooth-and-nail not to release its vouchers.

By the willful disregard of the PA Election Code by The Friends of Tim Mahoney and by its nefarious maneuvering -- along with the pernicious decision of a judge who contradicted PA Supreme Court case precedent (In re: Canvass of Absentee Ballots of 2003) and his own former ruling (2357 CD 2009) that cited it -- the Voucher Request statute was utterly destroyed.  With that destruction came the obliteration of the right of requesters (which right the PA General Assembly intended to provide) to see the particulars of campaign finance expenditures that influence the outcome of elections in this commonwealth.

 Thus, State Rep. Tim Mahoney's signature accomplishment during his tenure in the PA House is the destruction of any person's right to see the particulars of campaign finance expenditures which influence the outcome of elections in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

 It's a truly disgusting legacy.

 Where are the state representatives and state senators working to rectify this injustice and this travesty?






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