By: Daniel Friedman

Every time Bruce Levine files another campaign finance report, more questions are raised about the ethics and legality of many of his contributions. In his first filing, it was revealed that Bruce Levine accepted a $6,000 check from Bob Rhodes, the Chairman of the Preserve Ramapo organization. This time, Bruce accepted two checks for $6,000 apiece. Both checks were given on the same day- one from Jennifer Kropf, and one from Matthew Kropf. They share the same address, and the checks were written one after another- one was check number 2017, and the next was 2018.
 
However, the real odd thing about these contributions- the largest of Bruce's entire campaign- is that not only are the Kropfs not from Ramapo, they are not from New York. This clearly begs the question: Why would two people who don't live in Ramapo be so interested in the outcome of a town race hundreds of miles from their hometown of Newton, Massachusetts?
 
Levine has never addressed why the contributions were given to him, but knowing that nobody would give $12,000 for nothing makes it obvious that a sinister special interest- outside of Ramapo- has taken over the Levine campaign. The laws of campaign finance don't require a candidate to answer why they received certain contributions that stand out, but the laws of ethics and good government ought to. When a candidate for local office doubles his campaign war chest because of contributions from people who have nothing to do with Ramapo, we the taxpayers need to ask what exactly was promised to the Kropfs, and what they want from the residents and government of the town of Ramapo.
 
While these contributions pose the greatest questions threatening the legitimacy and legality of the Levine campaign (as it seems the contributions may have exceeded the legal amount allowed), more questions have been raised about Bruce's finances. On August 28th, he received a contribution from a real estate firm. On June 19th, he also received a contribution from a real estate firm, and then on July 2nd, he received yet another.
 
The question needed to be asked is why would a candidate who is publicly attacking the real estate companies receive several contributions from different real estate firms if he were actually going to keep his promise and stop developers and real estate professionals from expanding Ramapo? Could it be that the real estate companies who have now put serious money on Bruce Levine's campaign know something that we don't about Mr. Levine's true intentions?
 
That brings us to Hawkins, Delafield, and Wood, a law firm dedicated to "municipal projects." They dropped a nice chunk of change on Mr. Levine's campaign, which once again raises the question of why they would do that. The town certainly has its contracts with different companies and organizations- contracts obtained at the lowest rates to save taxpayers money. Might it be that in a Levine administration, those contracts would be abandoned in favor of special interest contracts formulated by the same people who financed Bruce Levine's campaign?

These contributions raise a lot of difficult questions for Bruce Levine and his Preserve Ramapo cohorts- questions that Levine will surely never answer. But it’s only fair that they be asked. After all, isn’t it always Preserve Ramapo that says, "Follow The Money?"