Saturday, May 24, 2008
A Good Spanking
When is a spanking good? When you deserve it. I deserved it. My campaign broke the law.
Wow. It feels unspeakably awful to type that.
So here's the short version ... Washington state has very strict rules about reporting who you get your campaign contributions from. That's as it should be. It is not uncommon for people to sometimes be a bit late in reporting contributions. Being late is not right ... it just is sometimes. A campaign for public office can be overwhelming. Those of you who know me personally know just how overwhelming it was. I still wanted to represent Lakewood, and I am glad I ran. I am grateful I was elected. But in some ways, I simply fell behind on a lot of of obligations. This was one of them. The reporting software that you have to use is pretty complex, but that's no excuse.
Last fall, my campaign was 15 days late in filing a statement.
The Public Disclosure Commission decided to hold hearings on those sorts of late filings, and assess civil penalties for violation of what is basically the state civil code.
And that was me, Friday, along with several other elected officials from around the state.
Now, those of you who know my background will find this hysterical. As a newspaper reporter, I used to write all the time about elected officials who got fined by state campaign commissions.
Well ... now I am one of those elected officials. Turnabout is fair play, and proper enforcement of the law as well.
There was not much to say during the hearing. Interestingly enough ... and I never knew this as a reporter ... hardly any elected officials actually physically go to these hearings. They just send letters or maybe call in.
But I went. I wanted to be there. I deserved the experience. And the 'public,' represented by the commission, had the right to expect me to be there.
As it was, everyone was very nice. They matter-of-factly stated my offense. I was sworn in to give testimony, but I didn't really offer any statements of fact. I apologized. I did wrong. It was my responsibility to file on time. I did not.
The other elected official who attended spoke before me, and he blamed his brother-in-law, his campaign treasurer, for not filing the statement. And that was surely true in his case. But I attempted no excuses. I looked into my past, and tried to imagine what Walter the reporter would want. Walter the elected official did exactly that: he told the truth, and he apologized.
The chair of the Public Disclosure Commission, who held the hearing, assessed me a $50 fine. I will pay it, obviously. I and my campaign did wrong.
So there you go. The state really does enforce the laws about campaign contributions. And it should!
Forward this post
Wow. It feels unspeakably awful to type that.
So here's the short version ... Washington state has very strict rules about reporting who you get your campaign contributions from. That's as it should be. It is not uncommon for people to sometimes be a bit late in reporting contributions. Being late is not right ... it just is sometimes. A campaign for public office can be overwhelming. Those of you who know me personally know just how overwhelming it was. I still wanted to represent Lakewood, and I am glad I ran. I am grateful I was elected. But in some ways, I simply fell behind on a lot of of obligations. This was one of them. The reporting software that you have to use is pretty complex, but that's no excuse.
Last fall, my campaign was 15 days late in filing a statement.
The Public Disclosure Commission decided to hold hearings on those sorts of late filings, and assess civil penalties for violation of what is basically the state civil code.
And that was me, Friday, along with several other elected officials from around the state.
Now, those of you who know my background will find this hysterical. As a newspaper reporter, I used to write all the time about elected officials who got fined by state campaign commissions.
Well ... now I am one of those elected officials. Turnabout is fair play, and proper enforcement of the law as well.
There was not much to say during the hearing. Interestingly enough ... and I never knew this as a reporter ... hardly any elected officials actually physically go to these hearings. They just send letters or maybe call in.
But I went. I wanted to be there. I deserved the experience. And the 'public,' represented by the commission, had the right to expect me to be there.
As it was, everyone was very nice. They matter-of-factly stated my offense. I was sworn in to give testimony, but I didn't really offer any statements of fact. I apologized. I did wrong. It was my responsibility to file on time. I did not.
The other elected official who attended spoke before me, and he blamed his brother-in-law, his campaign treasurer, for not filing the statement. And that was surely true in his case. But I attempted no excuses. I looked into my past, and tried to imagine what Walter the reporter would want. Walter the elected official did exactly that: he told the truth, and he apologized.
The chair of the Public Disclosure Commission, who held the hearing, assessed me a $50 fine. I will pay it, obviously. I and my campaign did wrong.
So there you go. The state really does enforce the laws about campaign contributions. And it should!
