I received the following email from Rad Sallee, which was copied to James Campbell, regarding my question about the Richmond Rail Effect story:

FYI, I sent this to reader rep James Campbell to post online at his discretion:

Although I knew that Mr. Kuffner, and Christof Spieler as well, had posted similar analyses on their blogs, we did our own work and made no use of anyone else's. This is no different from doing a story on a traffic accident that someone else has reported.

Assistant City Editor Don Mason and I were discussing the story as soon as the election night results were in. When the county clerk posted the canvass report online, I got started.

I wish the story had run earlier. It was edited and essentially ready to go on Sunday, Nov. 26 (it was on the blogs before then), but Rep. Wong had not been reachable and some questions about the percentages surfaced just before the Sunday copy deadline.

Knowing that the story would be picked over by both sides, and wanting to give Rep. Wong a say (which she later declined) we acted out an abundance of caution and held it a week.

Rad