Collins: What Conflict?

Eric Kleefeld at Election Central has followed up on the Bangor Daily News conflict-of-interest story, and he adds new details:

Senator Collins' press secretary, Jen Burita, tells us us that a 2008 loss by Collins wouldn't actually affect Bridget Woodward's employment as a district caseworker for the Senator. "Bridget is going to be retiring in September," Burita said. Thus, there is no direct financial conflict of interest on the part of the Woodward couple.

And interestingly, Burita brought it to our attention that family connections run both ways at the Bangor Daily News. In fact, Congressman Allen's cousin Tim is the news editor there. Given the nature of small-state politics, Burita explained, there are bound to be people at any major newspaper who have personal connections to both camps.

Interesting.

Also worth noting is that, like Collins Watch, Kleefeld has been unable to get a comment from Bangor Daily News Executive Editor Mark Woodward himself.

It's worth noting because the issue here isn't, of course, the campaign's behavior. (Though Burita's response is pretty lame.) It's the newspaper's failure to make the kinds of disclosures that readers deserve.

So the fact that Congressman Allen has a cousin who works at the paper doesn't even things out. It just underscores the absence of transparency.

(Though, obviously, a candidate's cousin working as a section editor is very different from a former staffer working as editor-in-chief.)

The fact that Woodward is apparently unwilling even to discuss the subject suggests, at best, that he doesn't understand the seriousness of the issue. And it risks leaving the impression that he's got something to hide.