Wednesday, March 06, 2019

The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 8: Our towing and recovery companies offer their tithes to Dear Leader.


Previously: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 7: Jacobi, Toombs & Lanz, or the anatomy of $33,225 "Big Daddy Dollars" since 2011.

Some people are into BDSM, but during the coming weeks we'll be plucking highlights from eight years of the Committee to Elect Gahan's CFA-4 campaign finance reports. Strap in, folks -- and don't forget those air(head) sickness bags.

It isn't nuclear physics. One of the natural consequences of a car-centric society is the need to remove vehicles from the scene when they fail, or when their drivers crash and abuse them. Quite often the removal is precipitated by drivers parking their cars where they shouldn't, which lands them in the impound lot.

Hence the perfectly legitimate business of towing. According to the laws of capitalism, where there is a demand or need, someone will come along to fill it.

(As an aside, have you ever noticed how fast tow truck operators drive? They're constantly far in excess of the speed limit in built-up areas, and apparently enjoy impunity. It's almost as if they fancy themselves to be ambulance drivers carrying injured humans to the emergency room rather than industrial facilitators conveying inanimate hunks of plastic and metal to the junkyard or repair shop.)

It would be needless stereotyping to suggest that chicanery and towing go hand in hand. However, you are invited to Google "tow truck scandals" and view the results. The search results make clear that the formula "illegal parking + citation + towing + impound lot" is tailor-made for finagling.

But I digress.

One of the fascinating sidebars of Jeff Gahan's Money Machine 2011-2018 is the presence of two local towing companies.

             Bennett’s                   Wheeler’s
2018
2017      2,000
2016      2,500
2015                                         2,000
2014      2,500                           3,000
2013
2012
2011                                          2,000

Total:    $7,000                         $7,000

Two companies, five years and six separate donations, and yet the grand total is the same for each. However, of the two towing and recovery companies, Bennett's offers an added twist because of where the company's property is located, adjacent to the former Riverside Recycling, which is set to become Gahan's next quality-of-life parks extravaganza. We'll pick up this story in the next installment.

#FireGahan2019

Rebuttals are welcome and will be published unaltered -- so don't forget spellcheck. If you have supplementary information to offer about any of this, please let us know and we'll update the page. The preceding was gleaned entirely from public records, with the addresses of "individuals" removed.

Next: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 9: These west end properties and their ultimate redevelopment surely comprise a rich, albeit tangled, source of campaign finance extractions for our Genius of the Flood Plain.

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