Campaign statement from Sam Locke, Democrat candidate for Indiana State Auditor:
Locke calls on Berry to file transparent campaign finance reports
(July 21, 2010) – Auditor of State Tim Berry’s recent campaign finance report reveals much about his campaign. Despite listing dozens of campaign stops on his campaign website and Facebook page, he lists no travel expenses on his quarterly financial report.
This exclusion means that Auditor of State Tim Berry has either (1) filed an incorrect financial statement with the Secretary of State or (2) used resources available to him as a public official (car, mileage reimbursement, etc.) to make campaign stops.
Our campaign immediately calls upon Auditor Berry to either file an amended financial report with the Secretary of State or to reimburse Hoosier taxpayers for the public resources used for campaign appearances.
One can learn a lot from financial statements. Whether they are the State’s financial statements, as we examined earlier in the week in our opinion-editorial piece, or the quarterly financial reports political candidates are required to file with the Secretary of State, numbers tell the story of priorities, successes, and failures.
Our second quarter campaign finance report reveals some critical facts about our campaign as well:
- We nearly tripled the contributions of our opponent
- Our donations came largely from private citizens, in most cases in amounts of $30 or less
- We are committed to taking our message of innovation and transparency across the state, our second largest expense item was statewide travel
The primary goal of the State Auditor’s office, under Sam Locke’s leadership, will be to provide unprecedented access to transparent information about the State’s finances. How can we trust Tim Berry to provide the same level of transparency when his campaign finance reports illustrates such carelessness?
For more information on the campaign, please visit www.lockeforauditor.com.
I need to know about every elephant ear purchased by Locke – I attend these fairs, I wonder how many unions have provided in-kind donations (pork sandwiches, corn dogs, etc) to Mr. Locke – they MUST add up to over $100. If this sounds silly, well, so does Mr. Locke’s comment above….