Assemblyman John Benoit has demanded an apology from Russ Bogh for the false charges revealed in the Desert Sun newspaper:

Senate race: A missed punch on campaign filings?

Desert Sun, Monday March 10, 2008

Everyone knows the race for Jim Battin's 37th Senate seat is going to include some jabs.

And it got ugly last week when former assemblyman Russ Bogh challenged Assemblyman John Benoit to explain "shady" campaign reports and why he didn't have Schedule G forms itemizing more than $80,000 in credit card charges.

Bogh's claims got our attention. Until we found out you don't need a Schedule G.

Bogh had questioned if the Bermuda Dunes Republican was following the law and compared him to the "scandal swirling around ultra-liberal San Francisco Democrat Carol Migden."

But the instructions for filing a form 460 - a gold mine of campaign financial information - say such "subvendor payments" can be filed on Schedule E, F or G. And sure enough, Benoit's Schedule E forms include a breakdown of those credit card charges, allowing the public to see all payments over $100 as required.

Bogh, by the way, files on Schedule G, which requires only a breakdown of payments that are more than $500. (But to his credit, he includes items that are less than that amount.)

"It's unfortunate that (Bogh is) willing to stoop to this kind of stuff," Benoit said.

Today, Benoit said, "The decent thing for Mr. Bogh to do is to swiftly and immediately retract the false charges, apologize and issue a statement admitting they were wrong so he can move beyond this misguided scandal."