The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission apparently double-counted contributions from six employers, "most notably the city of Seattle," according to the commission's web page . (The technical explanation, basically, is that some employers were listed twice in slightly different form—"City of Seattle” and “city of seattle,” for example—and were counted as two different employers.)

The revelation substantially diminishes a major talking point of mayoral candidate Mike McGinn, who has made a campaign issue of the contributions Mayor Greg Nickels has received from city employees. Accounting for the double counting reduces Nickels' city employee contributions to just over $60,000—still plenty, but not the approximately $127,000 the commission previously listed as coming from city employees.