Recent campaign finance fun

Last week’s semi-annual campaign finance statements were recently posted online, so here’s a quick overview. Brief warning, it’s mostly a snoozefest so far. With the elections in November, things probably won’t heat up in Lodi for another few months when it gets closer to candidate-nomination time in July.

-Chartered financial analyst, former local scribe and past City Council candiate John Johnson still has a campaign account open despite not running since 2006. He’s got $918.35 – and people asking him to run for City Council, particularly after he raised his profile in his weekly column, in which he often scrutinized city finances and management.

I spoke to Johnson last week, who said he still hasn’t decided yet whether to run this year and that he likely wouldn’t make up his mind for a while.

-An interesting question is what Councilwoman Susan Hitchcock is going to do with all that money in her campaign fund now that she’s announced she’s not running again after her term expires at the end of the year. She’s got $1,810.22 saved up, according to her filing. Will she back a new candidate? Will she pull a Brett Favre and decide not to retire from city politics after all?

-If you want to look at the most recent campaign filings yourself, click here, then click on “ELECTIONS” on the left-hand side, click “CAMPAIGN FILINGS,” then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Last ->>” to see the most recent. Start at filing No. 956.