One of the most annoying things about running for office was (and is) the paperwork. The financial filings are the worst. I have spent many hours trying to figure out what needed to be on which form. Is that a gift-in-kind? Or is that an expense? Or is it a liability that will be expensed later? Does it need a line item, or is that uncategorized? Or is it a reimbursement of a past liability? Yech. If I was elected, I’d probably try to dismantle the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

But, the data is there, and I like data. I review the filings of local candidates when they occur, like they did last week in their pre-primary filing. Unfortunately, the OCPF website doesn’t permit you to link into actual reports. They make you re-run the search every time you want to review the data, which I find inconvenient. You can check out the database yourself. For Arlington residents, I think Senator Havern’s recent report is the most interesting.

1. Check out the database.
2. Click “Candidates.”
3. Enter “Havern” for the last name.
4. Click the “09/11/2006 Pre-primary Report (ND)”

From the report you can determine that his campaign received $38,595 so far this year. If you click “Schedule A (Receipts)” you can see that $16,775 of that came from PACs, lobbyists, and unions, plus an additional $3100 from lawyers. You get to draw your own conclusions from that information.

There is also one real curiousity on that form. He lists a $100 contribution from the “Alcohol Beverage Control Commission” which, as far as I can tell, is actually a state agency. I should go for a bike ride and see what is at 90 Homer Street in Boston.