Where's your report, Chuck?

Oops.

Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman says she will ask District Attorney Ken Magidson to look into the fact that former District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal apparently hasn't filed his semi-annual campaign finance report. The deadline was July 15.

Rosenthal resigned as district attorney and is not on this year's ballot. But, with $198,204 in contributions in his campaign account as of Dec. 31, he is required to make a public accounting of his finances at least every half-year, officials said.

Late filers may be subject to a $500 fine under state law, Kaufman said. She said she does not police the filing of reports but does make prosecutors aware of violations when they are brought to her attention. Our phone call to ask about the missing report is what made her aware of this instance.

I'm sure Rosenthal has been busy lately, and this must have slipped his mind. If he's lucky, interim DA Ken Magidson will take this sort of complaint as lightly as Rosenthal himself did, back when it was his job to conduct such investigations. I rather suspect he won't be so lucky. Not that he's at any real risk - it's a $500 fine, for goodness' sake - but there's a nontrivial amount of irony here. It's just fitting, somehow.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on July 23, 2008 to Local politics