$387,000 in "petty cash"

As you may have heard, the Lieberman camp reported spending $387,000 in petty cash in the runup to the Democratic primary. Campaign finance laws in Connecticut require any petty cash expenditures in excess of $100 to be reported individually. Lieberman says the $387,000 was comprised entirely of $50 and $100 payments. Even if all the payments were at the limit, that's 3,870 separate transactions. Sounds fishy to me, and it sounded fishy to Lamont too. His campaign is filing a complaint:

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Ned Lamont's campaign said Monday it is filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing Sen. Joe Lieberman of failing to account for $387,000 in petty cash his campaign spent days before the state's August Democratic primary.

"This massive slush fund is an affront to democracy and Connecticut," Lamont campaign manager Tom Swan said in a press release Monday. "These questions are critical for the people of Connecticut to know, and that is why these laws exist and why we're taking legal action. Only an 18-year career politician could dump almost $400,000 in cash into an election and try to call it petty cash."