Angle campaign amending finance reports to fix software glitches, misfiled debt figures

Sharron Angle's U.S. Senate campaign sent a letter to federal regulators, saying it is amending her campaign finance reports to fix some problems.

The Federal Election Commission had asked for more information in April after the numbers didn't all add up in Angle's 2009 year-end campaign filing.

In a May 9 response letter to federal authorities, Angle's campaign treasurer, Alan Mills, blamed computer software problems for some missing information. He said some financial data was put into an FEC file database program, but didn't automatically transfer into the final 2009 report.

As an example, he said a $73,417.88 cash-on-hand figure reported as of Sept. 30 should have automatically transferred to the start of the next quarter report, but it didn't.

The FEC also asked about eight debts, ranging from nearly $770 to more than $30,000, that were listed on the fall 2009 report but disappeared from the final year-end report.

Mills said he simply reported the outstanding debt figures on the wrong line, so they didn't show up as paid or still outstanding at the end of 2009.

"We're not trying to hide anything," Mills said in an interview. "It's a steep learning curve for me dealing with these federal campaign reports."

Mills said the campaign would likely need to file several amended reports, fixing the initial problems with the fall 2009 report and then updating all following reports to reflect those changes.

In the letter, Mills said the campaign was trying to correct everything in time to file an accurate financial report due May 27, more than a week before the June 8 primary.

Angle's campaign also said it is moving to fulfill an FEC request to get more information about some donors giving more than $200 to her Republican primary campaign.

Angle, a former Reno assemblywoman, is battling former state Sen. Sue Lowden and Las Vegas businessman Danny Tarkanian for the GOP nomination for the chance to face the Democratic incumbent, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, in the fall. The three Republicans are in a tight contest, running far ahead of the rest of the dozen-strong GOP pack, according to the latest polls.