In, Out and Around

Radio Free Collingwood points out the first public signs that the Cons may have replicated their 2006 campaign finance manipulations in 2008:

While anxiously awaiting the posting of Helena Guergis’ campaign expenses (just to see if the cost of her four-page newsletter is definitely there), Radio Free Collingwood has been perusing the expenses of other Conservative candidates.

And what are we finding? More of those $15,000 transfers to the Conservative Fund of Canada. While not all of the candidates are posted, thus far there are about 20 Conservative campaigns that made the transfer; for the most part, the expense is listed as a ‘election survey’, though some did list it as ‘miscellaneous’.

As RFC notes, there doesn't seem to be an obvious accompanying transfer from the Cons' central fund to the same candidates in question as there was in 2006. But it'll be worth following up to see if the Cons merely added a couple of diversionary steps to make their actions more difficult to track.

On a quick look at the returns mentioned by RFC, each of the candidate returns does seem to show multiple sizable transfers from the riding associations to the candidates. And if the Cons simply modified their 2006 scheme to remove the obvious number matches and to add transfers to the riding associations into the process, then they may soon find themselves dealing with the fallout from two campaigns worth of charges.