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Now we've all heard the rumors - that Tod Ridgeway has sold out to
real estate developers. Perhaps you've even seen the
Greenlight website page, detailing the campaign fund raising of the
now forgotten (and illusive) "Team Newport". But since we here at
FreeNewport! don't take anything for granted, we had to see it for
ourselves.To complicate matters, we couldn't actually turn Tod upside down and shake him until his pockets emptied (he is a lawyer you know). So we did the next best thing - we marched down to City Hall and got ourselves a copy of Tod Ridgeway's 2002 campaign statements! And what did we find??? Well, for starters, according to our calculations, real estate/construction related donors contributed almost $30,000 to Tod's campaign, comprising over half of his total contributions, both in number of donors and in total dollars. This number is similar to Greenlight's calculations. Furthermore, we'd be willing to gamble that many of these retirees and unemployed housewives have direct ties to the industry as well. One, now infamous donor, is that of Andrew Goetz. You may remember the name as this is the architect that is currently under investigation by the city for allegedly under-estimating the height of local homes. This error has cost homeowners tens of thousands of dollars. Well, it appears as though the Goetz & Associates donated $1000 to Tod's campaign back on July 8, 2003. One other footnote to this connection is that there is a rumor that their offices were once together or at least were in the same building. Is this just a series of coincidences? Lido Marina Village Connections: Perhaps most surprising to us was the amount of money that defense contractor, Marvin Engineering, contributed to Tod's campaign. Through their employees and their employees' families, they donated at least $7000 to his campaign, or approximately 12% of his total campaign revenue. Now we learn that Marvin Engineering is at least part-owner of property in Lido Marina Village. Interesting... Also noteworthy donor is that of Fritz Duda. Fritz owns the Pavillions property, next to city hall, also in the Lido Marina Village. He and his family donated $2000 to Tod's campaign. Here's where it gets interesting: as a representative of the city, Tod Ridgeway is currently under negotiations with Mr. Duda to trade him some land to accommodate a proposed new, larger city hall. In fact, on May 27th, it was Tod who made the motion to, "authorize staff to engage discussions with the adjacent property owner regarding a lot-line adjustment." It's obvious that the Duda family is covering their bets. Smart move for Fritz, but a conflict of interest for our new mayor? You decide. Now, before we review Tod's campaign contributions, let's put these numbers into perspective. Dick Nichols, the only successful candidate to oppose "Team Newport" last year, only raised $5,666 - TOTAL! Other Highlights:
Without further ado, we present to you, in it's entirety, Tod Ridgeway's 2002 campaign statements: Enjoy...
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