The laws that govern how money flows from donors to candidates may be arcane and confusing to lay people. But anyone who leads a major state political party or heads a leading campaign for statewide office is obliged to master them.

That's likely why the state's Campaign Finance Board did not go easy on the DFL Party and the gubernatorial campaign of Margaret Anderson Kelliher in its Wednesday ruling that they sidestepped limits on campaign contributions last year. The campaign and DFL officials said they made an honest mistake. It looked otherwise to the board, for whom ignorance of the law by political pros is not an excuse for violations. "The evidence supports a conclusion that avoidance of these (state statutory) provisions was the underlying purpose" for asking donors to give money to the DFL Party with an understanding that it would benefit Kelliher's campaign, the board found.

The amount of money raised under this less-than-legal rubric was small -- $7,500. It's notable that the fines assessed against the DFL ($15,000) and Kelliher's campaign ($9,000) are larger, reflecting the finance board's lack of tolerance for errors of this sort. Vastly larger still is damage done to Kelliher's campaign and the party leaders' reputations by sustained news coverage of their bungling -- and by a less-than-conspicuous housecleaning within the two offices in response.

Kelliher said after the ruling Wednesday that she had taken steps within her campaign to make sure such errors are not repeated. If those steps fall short of a change in personnel, they are bound to be perceived by many Minnesotans as unduly mild.