Last To The Ethics Commission Contest: Finalists

by dave | Fri, 02/06/2009 - 9:40am

Saturday was the deadline for candidates in the March 3rd primary to file their committees (or file an Exemption Statement) with MEC. Previous story on forming committee v. filing committee here.

Remaining contestants in the Last To The Ethics Commission Contest are mayoral candidate Robert Cunningham (L) and 3rd ward candidate Maxine Johnson (G).

Mayoral candidate Don DeVivo (G) filed an Exemption Statement, postmarked last Saturday.

 3rd Ward alderman candidate Shantel Woods (D) filed an Exemption postmarked Tuesday.

Committee to Elect Antonio French (D) was postmarked Friday. That French did not electronically file seems odd, given that he's a blogger, his campaign Twitters, and his ward PAC files electronically. The 21st Ward alderman candidate is using the same treasurer and address, his address, for his campaign committee as his ward PAC, The Myrtle L French 21st Ward Democratic Organization, for which he was treasurer from May 11, 2001 to June 12, 2008.

According to MEC's ruling on March 13, 2007 against former 24th Ward Alderman Tom Bauer, it is a violation of Section 130.011(10) for a candidate to form, control or direct a PAC.

Comments

by little bird | Fri, 02/06/2009 - 11:31am

i don't find it strange that Antonio filed on paper, it takes the ethics commission up a month to six weeks to get somebody their electronic filing info. Perhaps he was waiting for them to do that so he could file and ended up having to file late because of it?

by Howard | Mon, 02/09/2009 - 6:16pm

Sorry, little bird, the facts are not on your side.

French filed for 21st Ward Alderman at 4:05 p.m. Jan. 2nd. Travis Reems filed for 25th Ward Alderman at 4:57 p.m. Jan. 2nd, same day as French, who did Reems' website.
 
MEC received Reems' committee organization paperwork on Jan. 2nd, same day he filed. MEC received French's committee organization on Feb. 3rd, the day before the deadline.
 
Reems was able to file his 40 days report on Jan. 22nd using the internets. French did not have to file a 40 days report because the closing date for that report was Jan. 17th and French had not yet acknowledged to the commission that his committee existed.

As Dave pointed out, French's ward committee has an account with MEC to file electronically, so he is familiar with the process.

French didn't file his committee earlier because he wanted to avoid fundraising disclosure until the 8 days out report due Feb. 23rd.  It's not an uncommon strategy, but the candidate and his supporters ought to own it, not try to blame the MEC.

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