Baratta, Houck each spent about $60,000 in final weeks of Norco DA primary campaign
Democrats Stephen Baratta and Terry Houck, the candidates for Northampton County district attorney, each spent about $60,000 in the final weeks of their contentious primary campaign, according to the latest campaign finance reports.
That brings the total amount spent by the candidates to more than $400,000, when factoring in primary campaign expenses and the value of in-kind contributions.
Baratta, a former county judge, defeated Houck, the incumbent seeking reelection to a second term, for the Democratic nomination with 54.5% of the vote (12,998-10,841), according to official results for the May 16 primary.
Houck, however, won the Republican primary, which had no GOP candidates on the ballot, with a successful write-in campaign (1,468 votes), leading to a rematch with Baratta in the Nov. 7 election
They ended the primary season with little money left, setting up a likely aggressive stretch of campaign fundraising. Baratta’s campaign committee had $849 left on June 5, according to the campaign committee’s finance report. Houck had $1,459.
Both men served as a first assistant district attorney under former Northampton County DA John Morganelli, now a county judge.
Houck, a former Philadelphia police officer, was chief deputy district attorney in Bucks and Lehigh counties before joining Morganelli’s DA staff. He was elected to the top position four years ago.
Baratta is a native of Northampton County, graduating from Bangor Area High School in 1974. He was first elected judge in 1997 and served 25 years on the bench before retiring at the end of 2022.
The campaign finance reports cover the period from May 2 to June 5 and were required to be filed by June 15.
Campaign finance details for Baratta
The Friends of Stephen Baratta campaign committee reported a cash balance of $25,749.60 on May 2. It raised $44,817.94 and spent $69,718.48. Baratta also loaned his campaign $23.877 in two installments in May in the days before the primary. Baratta previously loaned his campaign $37,500, bringing his loan total to $61,377.
Major donors include J.B. Reilly, an Allentown developer and president of Center City Investment Corp. ($5,000) and Joseph Topper Jr., co-founder of City Center Investment and CEO of Dunne Manning Inc. ($5,000). They also gave $5,000 each in the previous campaign finance report.
The campaign committee reported receiving in-kind contributions valued at $29,021, with nearly all of that – $28,400 – coming from Raymond Lahoud, a lawyer who lives in Upper Saucon Township. According to the campaign finance report, he paid for essential services such as polling, digital media, social media and TV ad design. He also contributed about $37,900 worth of in-kind services during the previous reporting period of Jan. 4 to May 1, bringing his total contributions to nearly $67,000.
Baratta’s campaign spent $41,528 on TV ads and $36,162 for mailers and printing costs.
Campaign finance details for Houck
The Terry Houck for District Attorney campaign committee had $11,602.57 in cash on May 2. In the next five weeks, the campaign took in $39,252 and spent $49,395.24. The committee received a total of $10,513.64 for in-kind contributions.
Major contributors included Houck’s wife, Linda, who gave $37,500 in two installments – $25,000 on May 2 and $12,500 on May 8. She also paid $6,992 for a campaign mailer, which is reflected as in-kind service in the report. She contributed $25,000 between Jan. 1 and May 1.
Thomas Severson of Pen Argyl, a former political consultant, paid $3,400 for the campaign’s phones, also listed as in-kind services.
The committee reports a total of $94,600 from Linda Houck as unpaid debts/obligations from Houck’s 2019 campaign for district attorney.