A troubling failure

What Steve Bertagna did isn’t up to current congressional levels of chicanery, but it’s troubling nonetheless. Bertagna, who expects to raise $70,000 in his campaign for District 3 county supervisor, failed to submit the campaign disclosure statement that was due March 22.

As a result, voters have no way of knowing who’s giving him money—he says he’s already raised $19,000—and won’t know until May 25, the next reporting date, which is just 12 days before the election. Asked at a recent candidates’ forum about his failure to file on time, Bertagna appeared to slough it off, as if it weren’t important.

Note to Steve: Following the law is important. So is letting voters know who’s funding your campaign. How can we have confidence that you will follow the law once in office if you don’t follow it while campaigning?

Editor’s note: CN&R criticized District 3 supervisorial candidate Steve Bertagna for allegedly failing to submit a campaign disclosure statement to the county elections office by the deadline of March 22. Bertagna’s campaign treasurer has since informed us that he wasn’t required to file the statement, as the candidate had not received any campaign donations when the filing period ended, on March 17. We apologize for the error.