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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Potentially damaging but not damning.</p><p>Those familiar with political strategy and local government believe a self-admitted blunder in under-reporting donations and expenditures to his campaign for city mayor won&#8217;t significantly hinder Tony George&#8217;s chances for reaching office.</p><p>But in their handling of the gaffe, the candidate and his campaign committee didn&#8217;t do themselves any favors.</p><p>Materials from an unknown source received by the county elections board and by the Times Leader last week allege George violated campaign finance laws by failing to properly report a $2,500 donation &#8212; the largest single donation received by the first-term councilman and former police chief.</p><p>George&#8217;s paperwork also had numerous clerical and organizational errors, including omission of donors&#8217; addresses and occupations and descriptions of several expenditures.</p><p>Amended forms filed with the county show a disparity of nearly $5,000 in contributions and spending from the prior reports and several contributors that weren&#8217;t previously listed.</p><p>While it was unclear Friday whether the amendments were enough to clear George of any wrongdoing by elections officials, King&#8217;s College political science professor David Sosar said George still has plenty of time to repair his image with voters.</p><p>Sosar, a professor at King&#8217;s since 2002, said the gaffe occurred far enough from the general election that George&#8217;s campaign was afforded ample time to correct it.</p><p>But some voters, in particular those on the fence about a candidate, might reconsider their choice based off the implications of George&#8217;s admission that the forms were complex and he shouldn&#8217;t have shouldered the work on his own, Sosar said.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re going to have a lot more paperwork that needs to be dealt with as a mayor on a regular basis,&#8221; he said. &#8220;While you will have people working for you as administrators, obviously the buck always stops with you.&#8221;</p><p>Political consultant Ed Mitchell, who since 1981 has advised dozens of local and state government candidates, believed George&#8217;s campaign handled the situation &#8220;poorly.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He should have had a press conference and said &#8216;This is what happened, this is what the truth of the matter is and do you have any questions,&#8217;&#8221; Mitchell said Friday. &#8220;And he should have answered them.&#8221;</p><p>George&#8217;s campaign sent a news release to members of the media Thursday, over a week since county elections officials confirmed receipt of the materials.</p><p>&#8220;First he made a mistake by dragging it out over a period of time,&#8221; Mitchell explained. &#8220;When you have an incident like this, you want to get it over with in a day or two.&#8221;</p><p>In delaying an explanation, Sosar agreed that George and his campaign committee faltered.</p><p>&#8220;The quicker an announcement comes the better off you are,&#8221; he said. &#8220;These are the kinds of things you&#8217;ve got to deal with.&#8221;</p><p>In the release, George claimed he &#8220;made a mistake&#8221; and confused the sources of two donations which were recorded from memory.</p><p>Initially reported as coming from &#8220;Bob Franchella&#8221; of &#8220;Fraculla Enterprises&#8221; on &#8220;5/17/1984,&#8221; George said the $2,500 donation came from Stell Enterprises owner Bob Stella.</p><p>Review of other mayoral candidates&#8217; reports show Stella also contributed separate donations of $2,500 and $500 to George Brown&#8217;s campaign committee.</p><p>George defeated Brown by 151 votes in the May 19 primary.</p><p>Multiple calls to George and members of his campaign have been unsuccessful.</p><p>Mike Butera, solicitor for the elections board, said Thursday he has yet to compare the amended forms with the originals. Once he has, Butera will make a recommendation to the five-member elections board on whether the case should be handed over to the District Attorney&#8217;s office.</p><p>If an investigation determines the violations to be willful with the intent to deceive, George could potentially be charged with criminal perjury and disqualified from office.</p><p>Butera said he expects to make a decision early next week.</p><p>In coming forward and filing amended reports, Mitchell credited George for taking &#8220;a good step in the right direction.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;But of course, you would prefer never taking the bad blow to begin with,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">George </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_George5.jpg</photo0><caption0>George </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/election-logo-20152.pdf">
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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Experts: George’s campaign finance fiasco shouldn’t hinder bid for Wilkes-Barre mayor