By Mark Scheer Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Mon Oct 31, 2011, 01:02 AM EDT
NIAGARA FALLS — Where’s the money coming from?
That’s the question the head of the Niagara Falls Democratic Party has asked the state attorney general to consider in a written complaint alleging violations of campaign finance law by an incumbent Niagara County lawmaker.
City Democratic Chairman David Houghton filed the complaint with the attorney general’s Public Integrity Bureau in New York City. Houghton is asking the bureau to take a closer look at Fifth District legislative candidate Brittany Catchpole’s campaign, charging that it has failed to meet financial disclosure deadlines for political candidates involved in primary and general elections.
“As of this date, the above candidate has yet to file as a campaign with the New York state Board of Elections,” Houghton wrote in his Oct. 12 complaint. “She has also failed to report any financial disclosures despite conducting a fundraiser as well as having political lawn signs, campaign literature and mailers. I am requesting a response to why there has not been one disclosure to New York state, which violate(s) state election law.”
Catchpole said her campaign committee did not file disclosure information for previous reporting cycles because it did not have sufficient funds in its account to warrant disclosure. She said her campaign committee did forward financial information to the state board of elections following a recent fundraiser and would do so in the future where appropriate.
“I did file, I just filed late,” Catchpole said.
State election law requires candidates to file financial disclosure information on Jan. 15 and July 15 each year. Candidates involved in primaries also are required to submit information about their campaign accounts 32 days and 11 days before the primary election. Similar deadlines are in place before and after general elections. Under elections law, any candidate that spends more than $1,000 must file a list of expenditures and contributions. The law allows for civil penalties in cases where the board of elections determines a violation has been occurred.
Catchpole, a registered Democrat, was appointed by the Legislature to fill out the term of former Sixth District Legislator Dan Sklarski, D-Niagara, who stepped down in April. She lost a Democratic primary in the race for the downsized legislature’s Fifth District seat to Niagara Falls firefighter Jason Zona. Catchpole, an 18-year-old freshman at Niagara University who is involved in her first-ever election campaign, will appear on the Republican line in the November general election.
Zona, the endorsed Democrat in the race, believes the Catchpole campaign spent considerably more than $1,000 on the primary and general elections so far and he said the evidence can be found in the form of campaign signs on lawns and campaign mailers in voters’ mailboxes.
“I filed all my paperwork and followed all the state election laws,” Zona said. “I would have expected my opponent to do the same.”
Michelle Duffy, a spokesperson with the attorney general’s office, said typically complaints of this nature are not handled by the attorney general and the public integrity bureau would likely pass the information on to the state and county boards of election for review.
Houghton said he and other local Democrats have raised similar concerns to the county and state board of elections in the past, but the matters have not been addressed. He said he took his concerns to the attorney general’s Public Integrity Bureau in hopes of generating a more satisfactory response.
"At some point, people need to follow election law," Houghton said. "If they are going to have these laws, they should be enforcing them. We're trying to bring something to light here."
Democratic Minority Leader Dennis Virtuoso, D-Niagara Falls, said Friday he plans to file a similar complaint with the attorney general’s office because he too is frustrated with the response from county and state elections officials. Virtuoso defeated Third District Legislator Kari Ann Bullman, who is also a Democrat, in a primary for the new-look legislature’s Sixth District seat. He has previously accused Bullman’s campaign of failing to disclose campaign contributions and expenditures on items like signs and mailers. Virtuoso also holds the Bullman campaign responsible for a series of robo calls and automated telephone calls that attacked him on various issues, including his alleged use of county funded health insurance, a claim that was false.
"She got an enormous amount of money and has not disclosed any of it and that's against the law," Virtuoso said. "All this secret money is coming into these campaigns and nobody's showing anything."
Bullman insisted her campaign has been all self-funded. She said she used her own money to purchase some signs and palm cards during the primary election, but said she did not believe the amount spent did not exceed the state’s $1,000 threshold for disclosure. Bullman said she would review her campaign finances to make sure she hasn’t been lax in meeting any requirements. She also denied having any ties to the robo calls and automated recordings placed during the run-up to the primary election.
“Whoever sent them out had nothing to do with me,” she said.
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