Five months late and $3,200 short

Blogger Julie Toye has published an interesting and newsworthy take on Fayette County Commission Chairman Vincent Zapotosky's continued and apparent failure to file his last required campaign election expense report.

http://www.julietoye.com/zapotoskyexpensereports.html

According to Toye, Zapotosky has accumulated around $3,200 in fines for failing to file the report, which is due to the fact that his campaign is "broke."

And, according to Toye, the state campaign finance reporting law makes no exceptions for those candidates who claim to be "broke."

What amazes us here in the patch is why Toye has done a better job of trying to hold Zapotosky accountable than has HeraldStandard.com

We don't recall former county beat reporter Amy Revak asking Zapotosky for any updates on why he hadn't filed a report that was due in December, 30 days after the November election. (Some might see a correlation between that deriliction of duty and the fact that Revak ended up taking a job as the county's chief clerk, as Zapotosky's favored candidate.)

Does anyone doubt for one minute that if it were Republican Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink who had filed to file her report in a timely fashion, that Revak and HeraldStandard.com woud have been all over that issue? We're guessing there would have been at least a half-dozen stories by now, and perhaps that many damning editorials, raking Zimmerlink over the coals.

Instead, the public has no idea who might have contributed to Zapotosky's campaign in the weeks leading up to last November's election. They have no idea how much money might have flowed into the coffers of a campaign that is now reportedly "broke." The longer this is allowed to go on without Zapotosky making these disclosures, the more we wonder if there is something that someone is trying to hide.

Where is HeraldStandard.com editor Mark O'Keefe in all of this? He had the power to order Revak to do her job. He has the power to order her replacement, whomever that may be, to walk across the street to the Fayette County Election Bureau, corroborate or dispute what Toye is saying, and bring this same information to his readers.

Again, we ask you: If it were Zimmerlink who was five months late in filing a report mandated by state law, had accumulated a $20-per-day fine for not meeting the deadline, and was still tap-dancing around the issue, do you think the newspaper would make no mention of this? We suspect they might have dispatched a platoon of reporters and editors to the election bureau by now.

Since O'Keefe, in the ultimate act of professional lameness, has publicly appealed for someone to let him know what's going on the community, news-wise, here's our step-by-step instructions, so he has no excuses:

1. Send a reporter to the Election Bureau. (Use Mapquest if you don't know the location.)

2. Have this reporter ask Larry Bosser, the bureau director, "Can I see Vince Zapotosky's December expense report?"

3. If Blosser produces it, have the reporter write down who conributed money to Zapotosky's campaign, and how much. (Pay particular attention to any large amounts, or contributions from important or influential people -- just as was done for all other candidates.)

4. If Blosser says the report has yet to be filed, have the reporter ask him, "Does Zapotosky owe any fines for failing to meet the deadline?" And if Blosser says, "Yes," have the reporter ask, "How much in fines?"

5. Inform the public, by having the reporter sit down at a desk, log onto a computer and write a story on his or her findings. (This step would include a phone call to Zapotosky, to get his explanation, and to ask when he intends to file the report and pay the full amount of fines.)

O'Keefe can make this happen today, if he chooses. If he doesn't, he is continuing to provide Zapotosky with a favoritism that no one else has gotten.