Good grief.

This means that between his 2007 campaign and this one, Mulligan has raised over $41,600 and spent over $29,000 just to be mayor ofMiddletown, Ohio.  What is it that makes that position so valuable?

Perhaps he should forget about being mayor, and shouldvolunteer to be chief fundraiser for the Dream Center or for Hope House?

Kelly wrote: Mike - If you write a letter to OEC explaining the situation and ask them to waive the penalty, they usually will. At any rate, won't hurt to try.

Thank youfor the tip, Kelly, but I’ve already put the check in the mail to the EthicsCommission.

It was myresponsibility to make certain that the forms and check were postmarked byOctober 11.  Depositing the envelope inone of those mailboxes right on the post office property on October 10 should’veaccomplished that, but “should’ve” doesn’t mean that it actually was.  I guess I’ll chalk it up to “tuition” for learningto take it inside to have it hand-canceled next time. 

It was myresponsibility, so I’ll pay the price for failing to deliver.

Well, I do have just a bit of Sympathy for Mr. Smith afterhaving just spent over four hours going through and filling out a plethora of campaignfinancial forms that are due within a day or so.

One must muddle through forms 30-A through 30-E, and 31-Athrough 31-P.  I had NO contributions orfund-raisers, so mine was much easier than the folks with all of the donors.

I did, however, finally have to report making a couple of “loans”to myself, and promptly “forgive” those loans to make all of the carried-overfigures come out correctly on some of the forms in the end.  The system just isn’t set up for a person whois reaches into his own pocket and pays his own way.  The financial reporting forms just don’t seemto allow for that. 

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to confess to youpeople, the real people, that in the process of all of this bookkeepingtonight, I discovered that I went over my limit on the spending:

It appears that my grand total will be $777.44.  I had forgotten some signs that my wife pickedup for me, and I only learned of a fine from the Ohio Ethics Commission acouple days ago!!!  The Ethics Commission must've seen that picture that TudorBrown posted and figured that I MUST be guilty of something!!!   

(I put my Financial Disclosure forms in the mail Box at theMiddletown Post Office on the afternoon of October 10, a federal holiday.  The Ethics Commission says it was postmarkedOctober 14, three days late, and fined me $10 per day!!!  I know that I deposited it on the tenth,because I stopped by the post office on my way to the “meet-and-greet” at OasisChurch.)