by Dan Rylance, Special For Commentary
September 8, 2001
Two challengers, Frank Tower and Shirley Brabender Mattox, outspent two incumbents Jon Dell'Antonia and Mark Harris for the Oshkosh Common Council election which was held on Tuesday, April 3, 2001. Three other candidates, Eric Barlow, Terry Knutson, and William Castle were exempt from filing the same reports because their total contributions amounted to less than $1,000 and they received no individual contributions over $100.
If the above paragraph sounds familiar, it should. I wrote it for this web site when the first filing of the campaign financial reports were due with the Oshkosh City Clerk's office soon after the election.
With final reports due in July of this year, the same introductory paragraph sums up the earlier report. No change! Tower and Brabender Mattox continued to outspend the two incumbents Dell'Antonia and Harris while Barlow, Knutson and Castle stayed under the minimum requirements to comply with the law.
Frank Tower raised the largest amount of money for the April election. His total was only $88 more than the $3,310 that he reported in his first report. Brabender Mattox added $365 to add to her earlier total of $2,480.
The final report will probably surprise some local political observers especially UWO Political Science professor Jim Simmons. In post-election analysis on Commentary, Simmons made light of my first report, stating boldly that the final figures would show that the incumbents outspent the challengers.
Simmons was flat wrong. Dell'Antonia added only $195 to his first report of $1,455. Harris added $1,000 to his earlier report of $1,500.
Few surprise contributors emerged from the second report, either. Tower reported none. Brabender Mattox reported several which included Terry Laib ($100), Candis and Mark Wegner and Dan and Billie Jo Rylance each $50 -- all from Oshkosh. Dell'Antonia reported a $100 contribution from neighbors Judith and Kurt Koeppler and a $50 contribution from Fintan and Carol Flanigan, also of Oshkosh. Harris received $50 from relatives in Michigan, and $50 contributions from Judith Koeppler and Kathleen Kline both from Oshkosh and a $25 contribution from retired UWO Chancellor John Kerrigan and his wife Pat.
Other information from the final reports only confirmed the earlier ones as well. The only significant PAC remained the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce with final figures of $2,395. The Oshkosh Northwestern made the most of any media for the election--again no surprise.
Dan Rylance lives on 602 E. Parkway Ave. in Oshkosh, 54901. He can be reached via phone at (920) 231-7597.