A compliance meltdown, a flawed computer accounting program, a comptroller who quit months before the election — none of these explanations excuses the state Democratic Party from failing to properly report $6 million in soft-money contributions.

The state Public Disclosure Commission says Democrats failed to adequately account for soft-money donations during the 2000 election in amounts exceeding all other disclosure-related cases in PDC history.

Democrats filed reports on nearly $5 million of contributions 10 to 15 months late — tardy enough to make the reports meaningless. The money mostly came from national Democratic Party committees. Other reports totaling $1 million are about two years overdue.

Party Chairman Paul Berendt acknowledges the mistakes and declares he had no intent to deceive anyone.

We may never discover if the poor reporting was intentional. But it should be investigated and punished accordingly.

"We didn't have proper procedures in place to handle wire transfers," Berendt says. "We screwed up. It's a huge error and there are consequences."

There should be.

Political parties have many tasks, everything from recruiting candidates to speaking out on the issues. But one job that must be done competently and in a timely manner is raising and properly accounting for campaign contributions. The public has a right to know who is spending what on campaigns.

The failure to properly report occurred during the contentious 2000 election in which Democrat Maria Cantwell defeated longtime incumbent Republican Slade Gorton for U.S. Senate. In such a highly politicized atmosphere, mistakes propel opponents to smell a rat.

"One reason for campaign-finance disclosure is so the public knows how much money you have and where it is coming from — and you need to know before you go to the polls," said Chris Vance, chairman of the state Republican Party. "Raising money and accounting for it is the foundation of everything we do."

Berendt takes full responsibility and has hired an outside consultant to reconstruct the 2000 books. That's a good start.

When one of state's two major parties fails to properly report an enormous sum of cash, it is an affront to the integrity and openness of the political process.

The Public Disclosure Commission should continue to fully investigate the Democrats' miserable reporting procedures; the party should be fined accordingly. Bumbling and fumbling is no substitute for accurate and timely campaign-finance reportage.

Seattle Tiimes

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2002