More than $20,000 in campaign contributions intended for Das Williams’ main campaign committee were misreported on the county's website as going to a controversial independent expenditure committee backing his re-election, an elections official said Monday.
The contributions include $15,000 from the county firefighter political action committee and $2,000 from developer Ed St. George, plus another $5,000 in recent donations backing Williams in his race against school board president Laura Capps
In a story about the total $1.1 million that has been raised to date in the race, Newsmakers previously reported that this money was donated to “Central Coast Residents Supporting Das Williams for Supervisor,” based on our review of online campaign reports.
The county's online record was corrected about an hour ago, with those contributions now filed under the “Das Williams for Supervisor 2020” committee.
“They were accidentally filed and have now been corrected,” an official in the Clerk, Recorder and Assessor office told us, requesting anonymity because it wasn’t her fault. “We do our best on verification, but sometimes people make mistakes.”
The county’s error was first discovered by Cory Bantilan, one of the local political consultants running the pro-Das independent expenditure committee, who then contacted the county.
With the corrections made early Monday, total receipts for the Central Coast Residents committee were $46,600 through their most recent filing, covering the period through Feb.15, with $37,136.20 cash on hand.
Since Newsmakers first reported on who the pro-Das, anti-Laura Capps independent expenditure committee, it has become a flashpoint in the increasingly contentious campaign for First District supervisor.
Informed that the mistake in filing had found its way into a published story, our elections office source said, "Sorry, we apologize." Us too.
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