The N&R follows up last week’s Rhino report on Greensboro City Council member Danny Thompson’s campaign finances, with Thompson’s at-large opponents –including Nancy Vaughan —- stating he’s got some explaining to do. That’s cool —they’re directly competing with him for a seat on the council.

John Hammer’s article probes Thompson’s intent —- was he violating the spirit or the letter of campaign finance laws?

According to what Thompson said initially, he intended to win; and he agreed that he could not win an at-large City Council race in a city of 260,000 and spend less than $1,000. Later Thompson’s story changed and he said that he was down in the dumps when he filed and didn’t know if he wanted to continue to serve as a councilmember or not but filed anyway.

Certainly by August 24, when he filmed and paid for his television commercials, he had decided that he wanted to win but was under the mistaken impression that he was not required by law to inform the Board of Elections immediately when his intent changed.

Thompson said that his intent changed before August 30, and that he did intend to run the commercial, but he didn’t want to spend over $1,000 until after the 35-day reporting period to keep the other candidates from knowing what he was doing.

Nothing like money to get a man out of the dumps.