It is extremely difficult to raise even a slight mist of sweat over the
Strib's having to wait while county staff compile and organize the
reports. Endorsing conventions are end of March, a primary if any early
in September, the election early in November. Strib get a life.
>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]
Jack Ferman
Minneapolis, MN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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