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Screenshot of the San Diego Ethics Commission's new campaign finance-activity tracker
While working on this story about the Lincoln Club of San Diego County, I found out about two handy tools for looking up campaign-finance disclosures:
1. You can now search online for campaign-finance records filed with the county. Previously, you had to hoof it down to the Registrar of Voters office on Ruffin Road in Kearny Mesa. The long-anticipated system's been up for a few months now, but a lot of folks, me included, didn't know that. Right now, records only go back to 2008, which means you still have a reason to hang out with David Morton, the very charming guy who runs the ROV's financial disclosure desk.
2. Stacey Fulhorst, executive director for the city of San Diego's Ethics Commission, pointed me to a new tool they've created to help the public track 2012 campaign spending. You can see how much each candidate's raised, how much of that money is self-funding, who's making independent expenditures on behalf of candidates and ballot measures and other nifty tidbits.
Speaking of campaign finance, NBC political reporter Gene Cubbison had a quick-but-interesting segment on his Sunday morning show "Politically Speaking," featuring Lincoln Club Treasurer April Boling and political consultant Benjamin Katz discussing the impacts of the Citizens United court ruling.
