Notes from the Hustings

Just a couple of follow-ups to last week's campaign finance roundup extravaganza.

First: We received the legal go-ahead to post the entire set of recent campaign finance disclosure forms on the World-Wide Web. Stroll on over to the North Coast Journal Blogthing to check ’em out, if you like. (Print readers can type this handy-dandy shortened link into their browsers: bit.ly/8WYjcM). Meanwhile, we heartily recommend former Eureka Reporter reporter John Osborn's recent campaign finance blogging. Osborn dug even deeper into the files, and provided his readers with a rundown of campaign donations that current candidates received in calendar year 2009. Visit him at www.johncosborn.com.

Second: Harbor Commissioner Richard Marks, a supporter of Virginia Bass in the Fourth District Supervisorial race, alerted us to an error on his candidate's campaign form that changes up something we reported last week. A simple addition error -- obvious, when you look at it -- resulted in a dramatic understatement of Bass' cash balance going into April: She actually has $55,306.90 in the bank, compared to incumbent Bonnie Neely's $39,149. Marks's wife, Robin Marks, is the treasurer of the Bass campaign; he said that they've filed a corrected statement with the Elections Office.

Third: We got a phone call and a Web site comment from incumbent District Attorney Paul Gallegos' campaign manager, Natalynne DeLapp, objecting to our characterization of the DA as having "outsourced" his campaign. Though it is true that the Gallegos team has retained an outside firm -- "ML Associates" of Los Angeles -- to manage the money and file the forms, the campaign itself is managed out of an office in Old Town Eureka, DeLapp said. Fair ’nuff.

-- Hank Sims