There has been a lot of coverage in the local media recently of the apparent shenanigans in the effort to recall Elmwood supervisor Deri Smith. It appears that two or perhaps three different committees were organized, each with a different name but all listing the same Elmwood street address as their home. Each filed for a waiver excusing the committee from reporting on its finances because it expected to spend less than $1000. Such an arrangement (now being investigated by state election officials) would enable the organizers of the recall campaign to hide the sources of their funding.

Now one of the groups, Elmwood Citizens for Honest Officials (ECHO) has apparently said that since it spent more than $1000, it is planning to amend its filing to include a list of its contributors.

That's not good enough. Such an arrangement, if allowed, would continue to hide the contributors behind the other committees. For example, the public would learn nothing about one of the other committees operating from the same Bayview Court address, the Elmwood Township Alliance. This committee is listed as having paid for the last two mailings sent by the recall group. We're willing to bet it was financed by some of Elmwood's biggest developers.

If, as seems certain, the different committees are just different names for the same organization, then that organization needs to file a report that includes all its expenditures and contributions, not just those made under the name of Elmwood Citizens for Honest Officials. Otherwise the recall organizers will have succeeded in what seems a transparent attempt to evade the law and the public's right to know who bankrolls a campaign like this one.