RT Rybak posted the following yesterday: You should be able to find out today because all candidates had to file financial reports. He's right. You should have been able to find out what candidates had raised and spent. But you can't so far, because of an unprecedented decision by the people at Hennepin County who handle campaign finance reports that the public--even reporters--can't view them for about 10 days while they are processed. Fortunately, the newspaper was able to get duplicate reports from major mayoral candidates. But there's a whole slew of candidates for other offices for which this is more problematic. Many campaign treasurers are volunteers and working at their jobs while we reporters try to track down dozens of these reports. What can you do? Call your county commissioner and complain loudly about this fettering of access. Tell your commissioner it's an unprecedented restriction, and that the county's campaign finance workers who process these reports always have been able to work around the public desire to inspect this data. This seems like something that is correctable without a lawsuit if enough people sound off. Steve Brandt Staff Writer Star Tribune (Mpls-St. Paul) 425 Portland Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55488 612-673-4438 (voice) 612-673-4359 (fax) e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
