Saturday, January 21, 2006

Money...it's a hit

The first campaign finance reports for this year were due last week to the state board of elections. Because campaign finance isn't really my cup of tea, I'll leave it up to two other bloggers to pick up the slack. David Wissing at the Hedgehog Report has a run down of all the local candidates, while (the original) Howard County Blog has detailed analyses of the contributions for the two executive candidates who reported this time (Harry Dunbar didn't raise enough money to warrant a report).

Howard County Blog seems to be implying something nefarious in his analysis of Ulman's report--drawing attention to the fact a considerable amount of Ulman's money was raised in the last two months. While I agree with him that the Sun's coverage of these reports may not have been entirely fair to both candidates, I don't think there's anything strange or underhanded about Ulman's recent surge in fundraising. He didn't announce his candidacy for county executive--a much more expensive race than the council, to be sure--until November (well, technically, he still hasn't announced it). Upon declaring his intentions to run, one would expect Ulman to pick up the pace, which he did.

But see for yourself. If you're really interested, you can visit the board of elections' website to see the reports with your own unbiased eyes.

2 comments:

hocoblog said...

Hayduke,

"Howard County Blog seems to be implying something nefarious in his analysis of Ulman's report--drawing attention to the fact a considerable amount of Ulman's money was raised in the last two months."

Didn't mean to imply something nefarious about Ulman's fundraising. I was just a little miffed at Larry Carson's story. Ulman did what was expected of him. Raise money. I only reported on Dec/Jan because that is when the real activiy picked up. You have my email address. If you want clarification on my intent just ask.

For the record, and I hope a demonstration of my attempt at being fair, I dispelled David Wissing's speculation that Watson raised most of her money in the summer on speculation that she might run for County Exec. Watson raised 56% of her funds in Nov/Dec too - shortly after decarling for District One.

Hayduke said...

You're probably right...I was reading too much into your statements, which are fairly benign but present a good counterpoint to Carson's less than comprehensive coverage.

However, such is the problem with detecting the intentions of a writer, especially in open forums like blogs. I worry that readers misinterpret what I'm trying to say, especially since I have been known to rely on sarcasm to make a point.

Thanks for keeping me honest...and for the extensive coverage of an issue--campaign finance--I'd rather avoid.