Missing Rakestraw expenditures surface

I received three pages of previously missing pages of campaign finance reports today showing expenditures by the Mary Rakestraw campaign in the final sprint before the 2007 general election. They were e-mailed to me by Brenda Wallace of the Guilford County Board of Elections, who received them in turn from the Rakestraw campaign.

I left a phone message for the Rakestraws about the missing information on Saturday, Sept. 12. (Husband Frank Rakestraw is wife Mary Rakestraw's campaign treasurer.) I also spoke to Wallace about the missing information on Monday.

The reason for my inquiry was that I wanted clean data for the purpose of analyzing expenditures by victorious candidates in Greensboro's 2007 municipal elections. The processed information went into this cover story. Not having the all the itemized expenditures when we went to press on Tuesday obviously threw off some of my computations with regard to sector totals and individual recipients — total amounts spent with Compulis and The Rhinoceros Times were under-reported, for instance — but I am confident the new information does not change any of my rankings or conclusions.

In any case, I'm happy to be able to share the once-missing expenditures — totaling $10,885 — here:

° $3,231 to Compulis, a company owned by Republican consultant Bill Burckley, for mail labels;
• $2,476 to the US Postal Service for unspecified expenses;
• $2,348 to Kay Rod Printing for flyers;
• $1,020 to The Rhinoceros Times for advertising;
• $600 to radio personality Dusty Dunn for advertising;
• $560 to Mailing Service for affixing labels and mailing;
• $499 to Apple Spice Junction for fundraising-related expenses; and
. $150 for entry fee for the A&T homecoming parade.

CORRECTION: Frank Rakestraw was Mary Rakestraw's campaign treasurer for the 2007 election. He has since been replaced by Phyllis Gibbs.

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