Local disclosure

This is an interesting item I was allotted on Tuesday night. City Council candidate Debbie Campbell sent me this press release, which read in part:

City council member Debbie Campbell, candidate for reelection for the District 2 council seat, will post her campaign finance report for the reporting period ending 2/25/09 on her website today in the “Press Room” and “Hot Topics” tabs.

“I continue to advocate for transparency in government and politics.  While campaign reports are available to the public through filing a Freedom of Information Act Request with the government, I am happy to make the reports easily accessible to the public.” says Campbell.  “I appreciate the contributions that have been made to the campaign and the support that I have received through volunteerism.  It would be my honor to serve Salisbury for a second term.”

What I noticed about the actual report is how few people have actually contributed to her cause. If you throw out a couple contributions I’m guessing were made in order to verify the PayPal system really works, there’s fewer than 30 contributors thus far with just two opting to use PayPal.

I’ll grant that Mrs. Campbell has no need to worry about votes until April because of her primary, but Debbie’s biggest expense seems to be the items she paid for herself, including $896 to a Houston firm for yard signs and car magnets. (I wonder if the Campbell’s Soup cans are among the $10 for “table decorations.”)

Perhaps I’m just used to poring over pages and pages of contributions to see just who likes candidate A or candidate B but it sure seems like very few people are currently willing to put a financial stake into that Council race (since Muir Boda reads my site sometimes I’m curious how his finances have shaped up thus far as well.)

To this point, money hasn’t really corrupted politics in that Council district. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the real fundraising drive begins now that the pre-election disclosures are pretty much out of the way.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.