Ronnie Bastin chooses less transparency, delaying public access to info about who’s bankrolling his campaign

Given a choice between more or less transparency, Ronnie Bastin chose less transparency in how he reports who is bankrolling his campaign for Lexington mayor.

Bastin is doing nothing illegal by hand-filing, rather than electronically filing, his campaign finance reports. With the exception of candidates for statewide office, hand-filing is acceptable under Kentucky law, although the legislature should change that, certainly for campaigns like Bastin’s that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some would say Bastin is playing smart politics by making it even a little more difficult for his opponent to gauge the financial state of his campaign and to see how he’s spending money. Rather than logging on to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance’s electronic data base to see Bastin’s reports, Linda Gorton’s campaign must obtain paper copies from the Registry. (Bastin’s campaign provided the Herald-Leader with a paper copy of the report that was due Sept. 14. Two more are due before the Nov. 6 election.)

Bastin’s decision means that state employees have to manually type in pages and pages of names, addresses and numbers, which takes days, while Gorton’s electronically-filed disclosures automatically download and become available to the public the day after they are filed.

Voters who are trying to inform themselves also are hampered by Bastin’s decision not to file electronically. Not until after the May primary election was Bastin’s final campaign finance report available online, while those of Gorton and candidate Kevin Stinnett were electronically available for voters to examine days before the election.

After the May primary we urged Bastin to file electronically from now on. The break between primary and general elections provided an opportunity to make the transition; the necessary software is inexpensive.

Last month, a spokesperson for Bastin’s campaign told us that switching to electronic filing mid-way through the campaign would create too many complications but that the campaign would release its paper reports to news media in the interest of transparency.

Sorry, that doesn’t wash. The public also should have quick access to the reports. Finding out the sources of a candidate’s money is often more informative than campaign ads and fliers.

The Registry has more staff now than before the primary but is required by law to first process reports filed by candidates for the legislature. That means that Bastin’s final disclosure, due Oct. 29, might not be available online until after the Nov. 6 election.

Candidates for statewide office have had to figure out how to manage their fund-raising while electronically filing their disclosures for years. If candidates for state treasurer and agriculture commissioner can file electronically, it’s not too much to ask of someone who wants to be Lexington’s mayor.