Curt: Why Hoa? Why?

The President doesn’t read newspapers, why should you? Only nerdy intellectuals waste their time with facts and news stories. Curt is a very curt fellow. He sums up all of the political news that is going on in Orange County in just one word.

Well after forty days and nights of raining on Hoa Van Tran encouraging him to file his amended returns; the amended returns which Hoa, and his campaign thug Edgardo Reynoso claimed were not needed, have been filed.

Here is where it gets fun; EVERY SINGLE transaction that I had identified in my story was reported. A total of $21,146.68 in expenditures was reported on the amended return. The original filing disclosed only $3,884.10, a difference of $17,262.58. That’s one hell of an under-reporting of expenditures. The payments to the Registrar of Voters of $7,396.81was reported. The payment of $551.70 in staffing wages and reimbursements; $5026.14 for computer equipment; and $1,322.02 for office supplies to just name a few.

Impressive that they found all of those missing records While of all the reported expenditures appear to be accurate, there are still a few items that are glaringly missing. The salary for Edgardo Reynoso and the costs for his hotel stay in Orange County during the reporting period. Reynoso started working on the Campaign in either late March or early April.

Based upon the amount paid to the other staff, Edgaro should have received at least $1,500 in wages for his disastrous service to Hoa’s campaign during the filing period. Those two costs combined amount to at least $3,000 in unreported costs. There are no reimbursements in cash for paid for the purchases of fuel, volunteer meals, and beverages. So even though the amendment that was filed, it is not accurate by at least another $3,000,

The Tran campaign had one of the best accounts in Orange County working with them, Durkee and Associates. The campaign stated that Durkee’s services failed them because they could not reach them. Durkee and Associates is the Controller of the Democratic Party of Orange County and the party has no problem with cooperation. Sources have told TheLiberalOC.com that in fact Kinde Durkee, of Durkee and Associates, was un able to get accurate information from the campaign and that repeated calls to make the needed amendments went unanswered by Hoa’s Campaign. Specifically, those calls were directed to Reynoso who refused to return them.

At any rate, the amended returns and the forty days it took to file them represent either gross incompetence or callous disregard for campaign finance laws. The fact that more than 80% of the campaign expenditures from the initial reporting period went unreported for more two months is a flagrant violation of law. The fact that the expenditures, or accrued expenditures, for Edgardo Reynoso’s stay at the Ramada Garden Grove and his salary, demonstrate a continued disregard for California Law.

Bottom line, it took more than forty days and forty nights to flood the earth according to what some people believe. But even in that amount of time, Hoa Van Tran still cannot file a complete and accurate amendment to his campaign finance report.

So yes we are now changing the countdown clock to the filing date for the initial return; March 22, 2008. We have now been waiting 60 days for an accurate report of your campaign expenditures. We’re still waiting.

Why Hoa? Why?