By: Daniel Friedman

Jennifer and Matthew Kropf, who each contributed $6,000 to the campaign of Preserve Ramapo’s candidate for town supervisor, Bruce Levine, have been identified. They are the daughter and son-in-law of Bob Rhodes, the Chairman of the Preserve Ramapo organization.

The contributions raise questions about powerful interests who funnel money through individuals they know or are related to in order to illegally boost campaign war chests by skirting around campaign finance laws. The law sets limits on individual contributions, but if someone were interested enough to contribute more money than those limits, they often give that money to a relative or close friend, who then contribute the money to the candidate. This makes the candidate look good, but also provides a buffer for the candidate and their contributor by not openly breaking the law. However, it is important to note that reimbursing individuals for campaign contributions is clearly illegal.

To date, Robert Rhodes and his family have given at least $18,000 to the Bruce Levine campaign. Those contributions make up more than half of the total contributions received by the Levine campaign from individual donors, and more than suggest that the special interests of those contributors will play a large role in a potential Levine administration. To date, neither Bob Rhodes nor his family have addressed speculations or answered any questions as to why they would be so interested in pumping this renegade candidate’s campaign accounts with thousands upon thousands of dollars, and what they stand to gain personally from having Bruce Levine as a town supervisor.

Bob Rhodes owns and operates Deerkill Day Camp, which sits on a multitude of prime real estate estimated to be worth in the millions of dollars.